Where the Red Fern Grows is about a boy named Billy who saves up enough money to buy two coon hunting dogs. The story is about his adventures and hunts with these dogs that he names Old Dan and Little Ann, and it's a story about their bond with eachother.

If you have ever lost pets as a kid, I highly highly don't recommend/recommend you read this book as it will feel cathartic but it will also paralyze you with sorrow for an hour or a half. Beyond that, it's a neat little book about a boy riding out with his coon hounds and hunting game.

Anthony Heald did an amazing job with the voicing the main character who's a 14 year old kid. He sounded innocent and curious but also desperate whenever the story commanded it. The adults he voices in an accent and they all sound great, there's even a few bawls from the dogs thrown in which sounded amazing so I was really happy with the audiobook adaptation of it.

I have never seen a raccoon or even knew anything about the coon hunting culture in the Ozark mountains but the book is pretty easy to read and you never feel lost. The hunts are a big highlight of these book and some of the more important ones were a thrill to read through.

There's a lot of sensibility in the book as well, it doesn't shy away from the brutality of the hunt or real life but it also tries it's best to show that there can be something noble in it as well or atleast a way to do something more nobly.

There are some really dark scenes and dark imagery in the book but it's not scary per se and a little bit of adventuring thrill makes the book feel engaging and impactful.

I really enjoyed my time with this little book, the pacing is easy and it's a nice journey to go on with a few serious moments.

For my next read, I'm thinking of going to Stephen King's Tower but I don't know the correct way so if there's a chronological order comprising those books and any important ones I could use that or just go through the published order. I'll be listening to them as audiobooks

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/51532459

I have just started getting into reading magazines and specifically using Libby to read bits of articles here and there. I like the current political stuff and some media coverage but on the whole it hasn't been a very interesting experience until I came across this short story

I didn't even realize The New Yorker published short stories, at first I thought it was just an excerpt. It's about an Indian girl who has to go live with her aunt for a little while while her mom and dad work through the grief of having gone through a miscarriage.

The mystery and intrigue builds up in little blocks, each paragraph showing us a little moment in Nidhi's (our protagonist) life: her life with her parents, the going away to live with her aunt, meeting her aunt's mentally handicapped daughter...

I thought it was really well-written and compelling and by the end of it it built such a well-realized cast of characters that each had shades of darkness and human qualities in them that I wanted to explore their stories more, to spend a little more time with their thoughts and personal griefs.

It's a simple coming-of-age story that read like a thriller that was brilliantly paced and I would love it if other people learned about it as there wasn't a lot of discourse online

I have just started getting into reading magazines and specifically using Libby to read bits of articles here and there. I like the current political stuff and some media coverage but on the whole it hasn't been a very interesting experience until I came across this short story

I didn't even realize The New Yorker published short stories, at first I thought it was just an excerpt. It's about an Indian girl who has to go live with her aunt for a little while while her mom and dad work through the grief of having gone through a miscarriage.

The mystery and intrigue builds up in little blocks, each paragraph showing us a little moment in Nidhi's (our protagonist) life: her life with her parents, the going away to live with her aunt, meeting her aunt's mentally handicapped daughter...

I thought it was really well-written and compelling and by the end of it it built such a well-realized cast of characters that each had shades of darkness and human qualities in them that I wanted to explore their stories more, to spend a little more time with their thoughts and personal griefs.

It's a simple coming-of-age story that read like a thriller that was brilliantly paced and I would love it if other people learned about it as there wasn't a lot of discourse online

I'm trying to think of something good to say about this series, trying to look at it as an ambitious portrayal of darkness and depravity in the Marvel universe but it's much too lightheaded and too fleeting to be taken seriously.

Essentially a "What if?" scenario featuring the protagonist Phil Sheldon, from Alex Ross's grounded Marvel comic books "Marvel's", the book shows us a world where basically everything that could have gone wrong with our heroes does go wrong.

Captain America becomes a cannibal, Iron Man incapacitated, Peter Parker never gets to be Spider-Man and is a freak with a skin disease caused by a radioactive spider. Things like these and many more often with exaggerated details of violence and ugliness are showcased page after page.

It's a really short book too, just 68 or so pages and rather than telling you a proper story it just takes you around on a tour to see the fates awaiting the different characters or groups in the Marvel universe. I really disliked it, the lack of focus and story and just the pacing of it all makes reading it have no impact which feels like it would be the opposite of what was intended.

Indeed, as you read this book it feels more absurd than horrific. Like someone was trying to be very clever and failed to be original.

The artwork on the other hand is atleast good looking. Gone are beautiful realistic portraits drawn by Alex Ross and instead we get this moody panels where everything is grey and overcast. Like you're looking at burnt paper. It does help out in accentuating and developing the horrible descriptions of these characters by drawing them in as many distorted painful positions as possible but ultimately falls short of "this looks so good I must own it and touch it" standards of Kingdom Come and Marvels. It looks best when the scenes are more brightly lit

Around the second half of the second issue, the art style changes hands to be a bit more comic book-y but I didn't mind that. I didn't care enough about it

I do like that this comic proves that just bring grimdark and "realistic" doesn't make a book good and I appreciate it for that much atleast though I still think DC's Kingdom Come is much better at reflecting that sentiment than this meaningless tale of cruelty. This is the kind of book that feels like it would be perfect for "The Boys" watching modern realistic superhero watchers of today but ends up holding nothing substantial inside, much like the later seasons of the show.

4/10 The only inspiring and worth reading part of this whole comic book is the opening poem/epigrapgh. I love how cleanly it sets up that what you're reading is just a different universe and how it name-drops the original comic book and Ruins.

PS: I wish Doctor Strange 2 had explored some of these darker multiverses instead of giving a busy and distracting cameo scene of random heroes

This game was a missed opportunity in my opinion. It's such a cool setting and I can't believe something like Far Cry with it's infinite radio towers and forests hasn't even managed to sell a forest area this well as Firewatch does in only a few hours. The map is small so you get quickly familiar with the few choice routes you like to take and the in-game map which is a real map that the character holds instead of a HUD element feels really intimate and useful.

But that's where the gameplay mechanics peak, most of the game is your average walking simulator's "I hate it when you go off path" type of deal which normally annoys me but in this game it felt especially frustrating. To see Henry do the same animation multiple times to get from one area to the next (chopping a tree to make a bridge, jumping over, jumping down, climbing down) doesn't get more immersive than it was the first time around, it actually makes the game feel monotonous in a way. Also the whole traversal thing is pretty uninspired: all of the actions that your character takes are automated and you just have to click a button for him to do it. That basically means if the game gives you an axe, sorry a PULASKI, it just stays there unable to be used by the player unless you click the button to chop a tree or clear a path and Henry automatically does it. It all kind of turns into a Spider-Man 2 on PC situation and if you have ever played that game then u know how boring it is.

The problems even seep into the storytelling department. Because Henry carries a walkie talkie to communicate to Delilah, the other main character of the game, everytime you pick up a note in the game to read these guys have a conversation. Almost everytime this pattern repeats and establishes itself and I don't know if that bothers anyone else but to my brain it tells me that the notes I'm picking up aren't worth reading because the characters are already summarizing their emotions and thoughts on it before I have even read it. Now other games do have commentary like this when you pick up an item but it's always short, not like Firewatch. This and the fact that the game keeps building up mysteries without resolving any of them and the infrequent abrupt time jumps without any clear character dynamic developing between the characters made me care even less about what was going on.

The game gives you dialogue choices, to flavour the text and I never really told Delilah in the game about what was going on with my character so maybe that lack of character development was my bad.

I'll also say that the opening of this game is the most emotionally powerful and engaging part of this game. It reminded me of old text adventure games I used to play with no voice acting and a simple wall of text where you have to pick options to basically tell Henry's backstory your way and it's done really well. I wish more games used this simple narrative device instead of making long introductory cutscenes

Overall: 6.5/10 Maybe it's my expectation that was too high or maybe I wasn't just in the mood but I'm so bored with it that even finishing this short game again with the audio commentary on feels too much. On that note, how the fuck do you make a painless and simple audio commentary experience in a game where the vast majority of storytelling drama comes from audio dialogues in your head. To have to differentiate between them is just too much; it's not like an action game where the audio talks about the game as you fight the bad guys.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/50316606

I can't talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book.

That's one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot.

Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes.

I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost.

Of course, Alex Ross's drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there's nothing grand going on action-wise.

What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead,

spoiler

the only time he comes too close them, he ends up losing his right eye.

spoiler

It's not a criticism per say but I find it very strange and interesting how this book forms it's own version of superhero fatigue within the story. Phil Sheldon towards the end gets so sick and tired of people admiring these heroes whenever they get saved and accuse them of villainy when things are peaceful that he doesn't want to be a part of it and retires, leaving the story at an inconclusive end for him and the reader.

I can't talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book.

That's one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot.

Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes.

I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost.

Of course, Alex Ross's drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there's nothing grand going on action-wise.

What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/49791809

The only other comic book I have read and finished is Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and that was years ago so I don't really know how to go about this but I'll try my best.

I freaking loved Kingdom Come. This is an Elseworlds DC comic set in a distant futuristic scenario where superheroes have been so absorbed by the general masses that people have forgotten the value of their own achievements. The things our main character, Norman MaClay, reminisces about include Nobel Prizes, sports competitions. We see modern world absorb superheroes into their culture and as a result we have justice league themed restaurants (a prominent one in the story is called Planet Krypto).

Superheroes too have changed, apparently people got bored of "truth, justice and the American way", of Superman being a symbol of hope and peace that doesn't kill and after a tragedy, he is rejected by people who used to brother in him- in favor of more brutal and savage superheroes.

What follows is a story of moral responsibility written in a way that doesn't answer "must there be a Superman" as much as it feels like a more realistic evolution of Spider-Man's motto "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

In a way it reminds me of the modern trend of superhero media's shift towards more adult deconstructions of the genre with shows like Invincible and The Boys and the superhero fatigue. In following them we somehow forgot what it really meant to be a superhero until Superman (2025) came and reminded us that kindness and helping others is what superheroes should be teaching

I also think this is one of the best visual feasts I have ever experienced in comic books. The art style, I don't know what it's called but it feels so realistic yet very aesthetic at the same time. This is one of those comics where if you had to adapt it you would have to just make it in live-action because I don't think this art style can be done justice in animation. It already looks and feels so real

It's very cinematic too, I loved the Wonder Woman in this comic and every scene with her especially her scenes with Superman look so damn good.

My minor complaint and this maybe because I'm not used to this stuff, is the amount of other side heroes that fight in these huge scale full panels that I did not recognize and feel connected to. That's a part of the story, the newer generation of superheroes are cool but I don't feel anything towards them and that makes the action sequences just beautiful eye-candy.

Also I thought the ending especially the epilogue could have been more impactful.

The only other comic book I have read and finished is Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and that was years ago so I don't really know how to go about this but I'll try my best.

I freaking loved Kingdom Come. This is an Elseworlds DC comic set in a distant futuristic scenario where superheroes have been so absorbed by the general masses that people have forgotten the value of their own achievements. The things our main character, Norman MaClay, reminisces about include Nobel Prizes, sports competitions. We see modern world absorb superheroes into their culture and as a result we have justice league themed restaurants (a prominent one in the story is called Planet Krypto).

Superheroes too have changed, apparently people got bored of "truth, justice and the American way", of Superman being a symbol of hope and peace that doesn't kill and after a tragedy, he is rejected by people who used to believe in him- in favor of more brutal and savage superheroes.

What follows is a story of moral responsibility written in a way that doesn't answer "must there be a Superman" as much as it feels like a more realistic evolution of Spider-Man's motto "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility."

In a way it reminds me of the modern trend of superhero media's shift towards more adult deconstructions of the genre with shows like Invincible and The Boys and the superhero fatigue. In following them we somehow forgot what it really meant to be a superhero until Superman (2025) came and reminded us that kindness and helping others is what superheroes should be teaching

I also think this is one of the best visual feasts I have ever experienced in comic books. The art style, I don't know what it's called but it feels so realistic yet very aesthetic at the same time. This is one of those comics where if you had to adapt it you would have to just make it in live-action because I don't think this art style can be done justice in animation. It already looks and feels so real

It's very cinematic too, I loved the Wonder Woman in this comic and every scene with her especially her scenes with Superman look so damn good.

My minor complaint and this maybe because I'm not used to this stuff, is the amount of other side heroes that fight in these huge scale full panels that I did not recognize and feel connected to. That's a part of the story, the newer generation of superheroes are cool but I don't feel anything towards them and that makes the action sequences just beautiful eye-candy.

Also I thought the ending especially the epilogue could have been more impactful.

Lots of emotion with this one.

Right off the bat, I love Stephen King and IT is my fav book of all time. I prefer his stories to go as batshit crazy as they can and this has been delivered with books like IT and Misery and Pet Sematary but then there are his other works, like 11/22/63 and Hearts in Atlantis which seem to be much more grounded and calm because their main focus is just normal people.

So can Stephen King tell a good story when there's no undead pets or clown monsters? Absolutely. Hearts in Atlantis is a solution of five stories taking place from the 60s to '99 that are interconnected to some degree.

It would be worth it to talk about those different stories in detail but I don't wanna give away the discovery aspect of this book though I will say that I probably liked the first story most since it had that little children dealing with magic sort of charm which was very reminiscent of IT. Even had an old man wanting to give a suckjob to a kid so it was very similiar (Poor Eddie)

Other stories are more focused on Vietnam and the American war there. I'll admit, I don't know much about that part of history, I'm not from any western country and you just don't read about stuff like that in schools. I think I picked it up casually through years of just reading books

Anyways, that whole Vietnam experience is here. We get to be there, running away from the heat of fire, camping and being drunk, and then back home trying to adjust to a normal life and trying somehow to forget and be forgiven for all the bad things we did there while trying to live a normal life. It's presented very well though I will say some of the stories do get a little too smart-ass sometimes. It's not something I would take out of the book but it is a little immersion breaking when you feel a character making a pointed speech about something that reads like a statement by the author.

Overral, I gave this book a solid 4 out of 5 and I think it has honestly helped me come to terms with King's more "normal people" books. I had tried to read 11/22/63 but gave up because I was sort of expecting something more edgy but I think I'm ready to make peace with it after Hearts in Atlantis

It's too sweet a game to write anything bad about.

If I had to nitpick, I would say the material is there for a great story but the plot meanders a bit. It's basically a quest to find a Macguffin, it's funny and chaotic and a lot of the charm is due to the characters interacting with one another but as for the plot itself... it's kind of boring. One thing leads to one thing then we're doing something else, it doesn't feel as tightly knit as the character dialogue in the game

Aside from a few QTE annoyances, I did enjoy a lot of the action scenes. They're very well choreographed and provide a fun and engaging experience

I don't hate any of the main characters, they're like a family and even the worst people of them have a GOTG-type vibe to them that makes it fun to keep following their stories.

Obviously it's a Telltale game so most of your choices don't impact the plot much but it was still nice to experience this game as a narrative where you can choose what to say, the added customization options were really fun too as was the last action sequence that gives you a lot of choice on how things play out

Overall, it's some of the best comedic games I have played and a great Telltale game. Definitely my fav for now as the only other one I have played is that disappointing Expanse one.

8/10 ⭐

Listened to the audiobook version narrated beautifully by Michael C. Hall, this is the first Stephen King book I have listened to and the first by this narrator.

I don't even know where I'm going to rank this book in the Stephen King canon but I know that the trademark touch of horror that leaps out of the page and whispers and settles into you is in this book. More scary and human than Misery, it does not compare to the freak of IT but somehow the rising tension of its last act reminded me of IT's similar final act.

The best thing about Pet Sematary is how how it's paced so openly, the Creed family gets to live and breath and be happy in many of its pages even when narratively it seems tiresome and boring, even when the promise of horror keeping it's eye on the family begins to dull. When the shadow of death finally falls on this family, it almost seems unlike Stephen King, it feels accidental and natural too at some point. Like the characters in the book who think at various points that these things were meant to happen, we as a reader think these events were meant to happen to these characters in exactly this slow, tragic, sad and insane way. There are no big fireworks, yes a house burns down but nothing "spectacular" happens, Louis Creed our protagonist simply pays the price for what he bought.

And the narration is amazing, the way Michael C. Hall voices not only so many diverse characters from old people to kids but what's amazing is how he consistently voices the elements of the book as well. One of my favorite examples of this is the scene where a dog is howling and the narrator doesn't just say he barks but we get the actual sound. Of course now that I think about it it might just be the sound effect or recording of a dog but either way the sounds of this audiobook are beautiful and fitting. I think part of the way the novel felt so suspenseful and dreadful is helped by the sound production

Brilliant, scary, sad and altogether humane, Pet Sematary is a very very good Stephen King novel.