Well, after the fun of last Friday, and a week of MAP testing for my son, we’ve made it to another weekend! Although we finished The Expanse and I started reading Leviathan Wakes, I am not finished yet, so will hold off on a review for now.

I did, however, find the time to squeeze in a movie this morning, and I am happy to bring you a report on Nightbooks, a new Netflix Original!

This movie was really cute, and I figure it’s a good movie for older kids and pre-teens who have an interest in scary movies. The premise is pretty simple. The main character Alex, played by Winslow Fegley, gets lured into a trap by The Lost Boys and pumpkin pie. I mean, that would probably do it for me too, honestly. I loved that movie when I was a kid.

The action pretty much gets started right away, and once Alex is trapped in a magical, location-shifting apartment, he has to write and read his stories to the evil witch who trapped him. Krysten Ritter plays the witch, who I have loved since Breaking Bad and Jessica Jones. It’s so hard to see her being an evil witch because she’s so cute and apparently doesn’t age, but she plays the part well.

The movie is very bright and colorful, but there are some really creepy scenes for a movie targeted toward a younger crowd. The shredders are absolute nightmare fuel, and the eating/psychedelic scene in the house in the woods was very unsettling. However, there is no gore and no real sense of fear for the lives of the characters, aside from it being suspenseful and tense at times.

The foreshadowing is good, maybe too good for an adult viewer because it’s easy to guess where the movie is going. However, there are enough twists that it wasn’t without its surprises. Although the movie received mediocre reviews on IMDB, and it was probably just mediocre, I found I actually enjoyed it. I mean, throwing in unicorns and Cry Little Sister as direct callbacks to my youth might have helped, but it was a fun hour and a half for me.

P.S. I loved Lenore.

As for progress on Westgate, it’s going. It’s in a really weird stage as some scenes are almost entirely finished, and others are only vaguely outlined. That is why it’s still so hard for me to pinpoint where I’m at progress-wise, as some of these outlined scenes are smack in the middle. I’ve never ended up in a writing situation like this, so I’m having fun digging myself out. That being said, I am extremely pleased with the story so far, and I will continue to pluck away at it. Because I’ve been outlining and planning more lately, I even have some solid planning done for the next, untitled book… Book 7!

Weird.

Anyway, that wraps it up for this week, and I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend! Until next Friday, Happy Reading!