Ling's Report

I am the type of person who enjoys books of a psychological nature. The human mind is one of the most familiar yet most mysterious aspects of humanity, capable of surprising us even after we believe we have seen it all. When someone recommended In This Way I was Saved to me by saying that it was a great psychological story, I decided to give it a shot and I was not disappointed. In This Way I was Saved is a book published in 2009, the first ever novel by Brian DeLeeuw. The story is told from the point of view of a boy named Daniel and his friendship and relationship with another boy named Luke. Luke himself is a seemingly normal child, but his personal life is plagued with many problems, particularly his psychologically disturbed mother. Luke’s friendship with Daniel is one of the only things he can enjoy when he needs to take refuge from the harshness of the real world; however, as the two grow older, Luke finds himself depending less and less on Daniel. Daniel doesn’t like th...

Last Days is a 2012 novel by Adam Nevill about a documentary maker named Kyle Freeman. Kyle is contacted by a man named Maximillian Solomon who wants him to make a film about the Temple of the Last Days, a cult run by a woman named Sister Katherine that was thought to have met its end when several members, Sister Katherine included, were found dead from what looked like a gruesome suicide ritual. Kyle, in desperate need of money, takes the job and begins filming, but complications begin to arise in strange sightings and dreams. Soon, Kyle begins to wonder if the Temple of the Last Days has some secrets of a more insidious nature. The atmosphere of the story is well-developed, particularly the cult. While the Temple of the Last Days itself seems to be an amalgamation of several horrific stereotypes associated with cults, the real life existence of such cults such as the one founded by Jim Jones does help in making the Temple not seem too over the top. The atrocities committed by...

The Dark Knight Rises is the final movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie trilogy. Nolan has set the bar for himself quite high ever since the second movie, The Dark Knight , gathered critical acclaim; he certainly does not disappoint with the third movie. This movie takes place roughly eight years after the event of The Dark Knight after the Joker’s rampage was put to a stop. Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, having hung up his cowl and still haunted by the death of Rachel Dawes. However, a new threat has come to Gotham, a threat named ‘Bane.’ Bane is a terrifying antagonist, incredibly strong and very cunning as well; Bruce Wayne returns to being Batman to face him, but the past years have not been kind to him and Bane is more than ready to take on the Bat.   This movie was definitely a fun one. Bane was a wonderful villain, a combination of monstrous fighter and criminal mastermind who has a great presence, causing audience members to be on the edge of their...

The Night Circus is a 2011 novel written by Erin Morgenstern. It features a circus known as “Le Cirque de R ê ves, a circus clad in black and white colors that only opens at night. The circus has become the site of a contest between two men: Prospero the Enchanter and Mr. Alexander H---. The two have selected two young illusionists to be their proxies, Prospero choosing his own daughter Celia and Mr. Alexander choosing a young orphan boy named Marco. However, none of the players know the rules of the game or even who their competitor is. This is a book that is very much magical realism, a world where magic and mundane are intimately linked together. Reading through The Night Circus truly does feel like walking through a childhood dream of a carnival of wonders. It is true that the magical elements of the book are never really explained, but that can be excused given the folklore-esque narrative and that such explanations would ruin the whole point of magical realism. The circu...

I remember when I was still in high school I had stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for a movie called The Ruins . I remember reading through the plot of the movie and noticed that it was based on a book. A couple years later and I finally got my hands on the book. The Ruins is a novel written by Scott Smith in 2006. It is about a group of four college students: Jeff, Amy, Stacy, and Eric. The four of them are on vacation and meet up with two other characters: a German named Mathias and a Greek that calls himself Pablo. Mathias’s brother Heinrich had run off to an archaeological dig site because he had fallen in love with one of the archaeologists and Mathias wants to bring him back. Jeff offers to accompany him and that is how the four end up going to the ruins. Despite several attempts to dissuade them, the six go up to the ruins only to be forcibly quarantined up there by several Mayans after Amy stepped on some of the vines growing there. Things get worse when Pablo fal...

During one of my latest visits to the local library I stumbled upon a novelization of the 2010 remake of The Wolfman , written by Jonathan Maberry. The 2010 movie was a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine; it wasn’t as much of a horror film as I hoped, but it was a pretty enjoyable action film and it was quite pretty to look at when the entrails of hapless victims weren’t being thrown about. The novelization almost exactly follows the movie’s script. Protagonist Lawrence Talbot heads back to his old home in Blackmoor after hearing that his brother Ben had disappeared. Back in Blackmoor he reunites with his estranged father Sir John and discovers that they had found his Ben’s corpse, mangled beyond belief. Lawrence is bitten by a werewolf while searching for the truth of his brother’s murder and transforms into the equally psychotic and dangerous Wolfman when the full moon rears her pretty head. Even though the book follows the movie script almost exactly, it is still a bit of a d...

I have recently finished reading this 2008 novelization of the 2001 Playstation 2 game “Ico,” written by Miyuki Miyabe and translated by Alexander O. Smith. I will freely admit to have never actually played the game due to not owning a PS2, so please let me know if I make any mistakes due to my limited knowledge of the game. The game’s plot is relatively simple: a young boy with horns named Ico who has been chosen to head into the Castle in the Mist as a sacrifice. While inside the castle he meets a girl by the name of Yorda and the two work together in order to escape the castle while shadowy creatures working for the queen of the castle attempt to hinder them and recapture Yorda. As you can tell, the plot is somewhat minimalistic and must be expanded upon for novelization. The additions to the novel aren’t bad when it comes to characterization. The first few chapters are dedicated to Ico’s life before being sent into the castle and focus on his relationship with his fe...