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Truth or Dare Review
I always enjoy it when Archie comics brings the spotlight to one of the lesser-known reoccuring characters. In this case, it was Trula Twyst, my favorite adversary for Jughead with her mental mindgames. I can see why Robbins thought she was prime material for a psychological thriller in liu of Saw and Escape Room.
He has a great set-up too with his new backstory of Trula being a foster kid who’s been emotionally and physically abused to the point of being a cold, calculating maniac trying in her own twisted way to get attention.
Yes, the attention of Jughead Jones. By eliminating all his friends and classmates so they can be the ultimate power couple by forcing them to turn on one another.
Unfortunately, all this great set-up is carefully plotted only to be wrapped up in five pages. We have such intriguing secrets with Cheryl cheating on Toni, Trev and Betty making Kevin a third wheel, Reggie supplying Moose with steroids. . . and then we get no follow-up on how the revelation of these secrets will affect the friend-group.
Nor do we actually see the teens try to escape or what would have happened if they didn’t fess up their dark deeds. There were hints of danger, but no blood was actually shed as if Archie Comics felt constrained by their family-friendly reputation even though they’ve tackled horror in their horror line before.
I’m sorry to be bringing up this again but the problem is the page limit. Previous specials were able to do sixty pages but these one-shots seem to be constrained to just half and it leaves the endings to feel hollow and rushed. I don’t understand why they’re not longer.
I will say I did like having Ethel be the one to bring Trula down and reach out to her at the same time as she can understand the feelings of alienation and bullying. I just wish there was a little more from Jughead because he was barely present that new readers might not understand why Trula decided to latch on to him.
Finally, one last nitpick. I wish they gave Trula a different shade of red from Cheryl. Like I know the difference because Cheryl has straight hair and Trula’s more curly, but just differentiating the shades from straight red to some sort of auburn would have been helpful. I’m just used to her being darker.
My final review would have to be 3 stars. So much potential but rushed execution.
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Book of the Month: Lessons in Chemistry
Don’t let that gorgeous hair and sassy look fool you, Elizabeth Zott takes chemistry and cooking seriously. In fact, she takes everything seriously. She rarely smiles, and she has good reason to. Being a female scientist in the early 60s is just hell. No respect, constant comments from men and women, no one likes her because she won’t shut up and be pretty, and is smarter than them and that eats them up with jealousy, and has her work stolen and undermined all the time because even though she leads all the science teams, no one would actually believe she is that competent.
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Peter Vronsky Interview
Peter Vronsky is the foremost expert on serial killer history, and author of such books, Sons of Cain, American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years and more. He generously took the time to talk with me about Cottingham, the state of true crime publishing and how do you define a psychopath. Enjoy.
1. What put you on the path to criminal justice history?
Technically, I’m a historian of espionage and international relations. Espionage is an offense in the criminal code, a felony. I was generally interested in the legal aspect of espionage and prosecutions. As a background, when you do a PhD, you have to do a number of fields and one of my fields was criminal justice history, particularly how the courts work in the Anglo-American system.
As a Canadian, we’re similar to the British system, and the US was a former British colony so the core principles of justice are very similar as well, although there are unique American elements to it.
But in talking about spies, I’m not talking about James Bond kind of spies that work for the government.
I’m talking about people who are betraying their own country. Those kinds of spies are very similar to serial offenders/perpetrators and their psycology is very similar to serial killers and are motivated by the same motives, so that made it helpful to writing my history books on serial killers.
The first two I wrote while I was still a student in grad school. That helped the next two books I wrote after eight years of grad school where I had a different discipline in research.
I was a college drop-out and I didn’t return to school until my forties. I earned my PHD, I defended my thesis in 2010, 14 years ago, and I’m a very young professor in that sense.
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Thundercats (2024): Omens Review
For lovers of action, sci-fi and furries, welcome to the world of Thundera and its Thundercats!
Dynamite Comics takes this popular IP and reintroduces the world to newcomers while leaving plenty of Easter Eggs for fans of the original series. Yes, including that glorious 80s rock-star hair.
In this universe, Lion-O is the young heir to Thundera but when the planet is invaded, he and a small, loyal crew rocket out like Superman to land on the Third Earth. During this flight, Lion-O’s icy containment pod glitches and he rapidly ages into adult form. Now he has the bod of a warrior but feels just as immature and inexperienced as an adolescent. Difficulties times are definately ahead when he is thrust into the role as leader, trying to cement his authority but again, not really knowing what to do.
But Lion-O will have to learn fast as the Third Earth has plenty of troubles. Not only as a hostile, unknown territory but their mortal enemies, the Mutants of Plund-err are close on their heels. But worst of all, Mumm-Ra has awakened.
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July Books
Bloomability by Sharon Creech
I’ve always liked the cover of this book but I never actually read it. Until this month that is. It’s about a young girl, Domenica aka Dinnie who’s been kidnapped to Switzerland. Well, not really kidnapped. Her family is having lots of dysfunction that the eleven year old doesn’t comprehend so her mother leaves her with her aunt and uncle who run an international boarding school.
Man, if I knew that before I might have reead it sooner, I love travel stories and Creech does an excellent job in having Dinnie gradually develop by learning about her fellow classmates and how similar they are despite their cultural/language differences. After all, they’re in the same boat navigating a new country, homesickness, coming of age, and come to have a tight bond because of it.
Not that it is all close friendships as Dinnie hs to deal with the fellow ugly American in the form of her sort of friend, Lila who is a true annoyance despite her home life. With her, Creech is able to demonstrate the tumultuous feeling of adolescent friendships with everyone changing and Dinnie deciding what kind of person she wants to be.
It can be meandering some of the time. Since Dinnie is only eleven she is unable to comprehend the bigger events happening around her (Lila’s father’s neglect, her sister’s teen pregnancy, her brother’s delinquent tendencies), I, as an older reader wish these events could have been explored more but it wouldn’t make sense for her age.
Still it’s a thoughtful slice of life book for kids.
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Book of the Month: The Duke and I
After my friend’s sister insisted she choose this book for book club with the “It’s like a modern Jane Austen,” we finished and my friend’s expectations fell short. Very short. As she kept saying when we finished “This isn’t like Jane Austen at all. Jane Austen didn’t write about horny people. I mean, they probably were but they weren’t getting caught in the gardens. She didn’t write that. The only thing like Jane Austen is the romance and the time period.”
So maybe comparing Bridgerton to Jane Austen set the wrong expectations. She admits it’s not bad but comparing it to Austen lessened her enjoyment.
As for me, I already read it and saw the show so I think my enjoyment was mitigated by how I already knew everything that was going to happen. But on second read I appreciate the familial aspect a little more. Sibling relationships fall to the wayside in romance so it was nice to see how close the Bridgertons are and their funny banter even though Anthony’s dual against Simon was so extra.
My friend appreciated that the siblings were in alphabetical order so it was easy to remember who was the oldest and youngest. We both agreed that what Daphne did was super messed up still, it really doesn’t change how wrong it is. But Daphne got off pretty easy cuz if a man did that he would have been beaten up probably. At least it would be satisfying if he was.
So yeah, not much to expand on this time. Maybe I’ll have more for our August book, Lessons in Chemistry.
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Rose & Thorn Review
Rose and Thorn is a pretty obscure Superman villain. Well, technically Thorn is the villainous alter ego of Rose, and when I first saw her on the cover of a Superman comic, I thought she was a discount Poison Ivy. Fun fact, she actually appeared first. Obviously didn’t get as popular but still.
However, when I saw on wiki that Gail Simone wrote a mini-series for the character, and I had enjoyed her work on Birds of Prey, I decided to check it out.
She starts off strong by introducing us to Rosalyn Forrest being restrained by four guards as she threatens to kill them all.
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Creepella Von Cacklefur
So I thought I was finished with my mouse-tastic nostalgia trip but I decided eh, why not, let’s hit the Creepella books too which was going to be even more interesting since I hadn’t read three of the books in the series. I don’t think the last three ever released in the states. Thankfully, there’s the internet.
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Finding Famous Review
For the 1st of July and more importantly, the 700th post, we’re getting a first look at the opulent world of the Mashads!
*I received this free ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.*
Josie is pretty happy as she reaches her 18th birthday. All she wants is for her longtime crush, Isaac, to acknowledge her (and perhaps profess a secret, undying love) and not die from her first inadverdent sip of alcohol.
She is a bit of a worrier and awkward freak, but those concerns are nothing to the birthday bombshell. A letter from her biological father who turns out to be the late Ali Mashad aka “America’s father” and dead patriarch of the biggest reality tv family in the world.
His dying wish is for Josie to bond with his other daughters, her sisters, and be a real family. And in the Mashad family, bonding as a real family means filming a season of their reality show.
While Josie feels uncertain of meeting the ultra-rich family Ali apparently chose over supporting her and her mother, the money that would come from filming is too good to pass up. Josie is realistic that it’s unlikely that she’ll ever fit into their crazy rich Iranians lifestyle, but is surprised that she may fit into their family after all.
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June Books
Pillow Talk by Stephanie Cooke. Illustrated by Mel Valentina Vargas
You know those sexy male gaze trope of women having pillow fights in their lingerie. Well that fantasy gets upended by the Pillow Fight Championship. It’s a real thing where girls get dressed up as wreastlers to pillow fight their rivals into submission. It’s a surprising niche sport and I saw a video. Those pillows do not look like they’re softening the blows at all.
Grace aka Cinderhella has a lot of self-esteem issues but when she fights in that ring, she feels fierce and strong. Unfortunately, with the viral fame of her first bout brings trolls that threaten to oust her from the ring.
It was a cute book that reminded me a bit of Whip It with the pillow fight girls representating mentors and older sister characters to Grace, proving the sport sisterhood is the strongest bond. There’s even one who seems like a Queen B whom Grace earns a grudging respect. Just like in that movie.
The only weird part is where they have a whole discussion about the importance of voting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s importance, but it felt like an awkward insert. Like the story screeched to a halt to talk about voting for three page before resuming the plot.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 