Netflix review: The Casketeers

Hello readers! Only 4 days left to Halloween!

If you are still searching for a good series to watch this October, I’m here today to recommend The Casketeers, or Pompe Funebri (Funeral Home) as it’s called in Italian.

The Casketeers (I love this title) is a New Zealand reality tv shows that follow the Tipene family who runs the Tipene funerals in Oakland.

Maybe you think it’s a morbid show, but in fact, it’s really heartwarming and funny too.

Francis Tipene, the boss of the funeral home, is a super funny person, obviously still respectful of his job and his clients.

There are a lot of comedic scenes between him and his wife, or between him and one of his staff members, Fiona. I love Fiona, she’s my favorite because we have a similar character. But it’s a reality show that talks about death, funerals and grief, so please be aware of that. Nothing is shown too explicitly, we only catch glimpses of the deceased, but it will not be suitable for a sensible viewer. It deals a lot with human emotions, and that’s the heart of this show: the love of the Tipene family, the respect for their job, the sadness, the despair caused by a death, the joy of seeing the community embrace and celebrate a life on this planet. I confess I’ve cried nearly for every single episode.

The episodes are in English (with Italian subtitles for us) but they talk a lot in Maori, so it’s really interesting and useful to learn words in Maori, at least for me. Don’t worry, all the Maori words are translated on screen.

On Netflix Italy there are only 2 seasons of this show that has begun in January 2018, but I read online that are currently 4 seasons, the last one deals with the pandemic and the victims of Covid-19.

Have you watched it?

Can’t wait to hear your opinions!

ARC Review: The women of Blackmouth Street

Title: The women of Blackmouth Street

Author: Thea Sutton

Pages: 244

Publication date: September 29th, 2021

Genre: historical fiction, crime, adult.

Goodreads rating: 4.06/5

My rating: 2/5

Trigger warning: graphic description of murders, corpses, blood, mental illness, asylum, torture, s*x.

Synopsis:

A gifted psychologist is forced to hunt a serial killer or risk having a dark chapter of her past exposed—but her mission may mark her as the next victim…
1890’s London. Strong-willed Georgia Buchanan, a mind doctor and heiress, spends her time with the mad, the bad, and devils incarnate, armed only with her expert understanding of the human psyche.
But when her young, high-profile patient unexpectedly commits suicide, Georgia leaves Boston under a cloud of guilt. Lured to London’s notorious Bedlam asylum, she’s trapped by a vengeful detective and a dangerous anarchist—who know too much about her—into tracking a serial killer of women in the city’s East End.
As Georgia struggles to prevent more women from meeting a violent end, her own secrets and closest ties are stripped bare… With her Harvard mentor, William James, and his sister. With her wealthy, scandalous father. With a troubled patient. All the while the city’s streets reel with carnage and social unrest. Alone and questioning her abilities as the killer closes in, Georgia has one last chance to save the innocent before she confronts the most devastating truth yet.

Review:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thanks to BookSirens and the author for an ARC of this book.

Was it a retelling of the murders of Jack The Ripper? Because the murders are very similar, and the victim’s name too, also the locations of the crime, so if you are interested in this particular episode of history, you will easily be deduced how the murders occurred and the wounds on the victims.
It’s also set in 1890, so just 2 years after the real murders, but Jack isn’t mentioned, so nothing happened in this alternative version of London.
I was confused also by the treatment received by the female main character: why most of the male characters are treating her so badly, so rude, and menacing?
We have two male characters who ask for the help of Georgia, but constantly judging and mistreating her, but when in trouble, one of them calls Georgia to help him and his family, deciding later to host her in his home with his wife and children. I was like, WTF?

It wasn’t pleasing to read, it made me sad and I didn’t understand it. Probably it was more historically accurate to a lot of historical fiction where women can do everything and go everywhere they want, but I don’t want to be sad when I read something, except if I know it’s a sad story on purpose.

I appreciated the writing style and the MC, but in conclusion, I think this was like a female retelling of Jack The Ripper that nobody needed.

Review: The spirit engineer

Title: The spirit engineer

Author: A.J. West

Pages: 304

Published: October 7th, 2021 by Duckworth Books

Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery, Adult, Paranormal, Gothic

Goodreads rating: 4.17/5

My rating: 1/5

Add on: Goodreads / Amazon

Trigger warning: death, blood, beating, mental illness

Synopsis:

Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism in the form of seances that attempt to contact the spirits of loved ones lost at sea.

William is a man of science and a skeptic, but one night with everyone sat around the circle something happens that places doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far?

This early 20th century gothic set in Northern Ireland contains all the mystery and intrigue one might expect from a Sarah Waters novel. Deftly plotted with echoes of The Woman in Black, readers will be thrilled to discover West’s chilling prose.

Based on the true story of William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters that include Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunting tale that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Review:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I had great expectations from The spirit Engineer, which combines a lot of my favorite genres/situations: ghosts, spiritism, historical fiction, seancè, the sinking of the Titanic, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a beautiful cover.

I ended up deeply regretting the time I spent reading it. The night I finished it, I had had problems to fell asleep, causing it by the terrible ending.
For the first 30% of the book nothing happens: is about boring arguments between the MC and his family, him talking bad about his colleagues, and no ghosts.

I want my books full of ghosts!! Real and terrifying ghosts!!

My main issue with this book is William Crawford: he’s totally unlikeable. He’s mean with his family, sarcastic and annoyed by his children, whiny and invidious, and most of the time just stupid. There’s nothing about him that I liked, even worse when he became involved in the seances.

A lot of the great revelations or plot twists were easily guessed if someone is familiar with this kind of gothic story.
The tragedy of the Titanic and the lives of those who have lost someone is barely mentioned, same for Sir Conan Doyle and Houdini: they appear only in a chapter, but I really liked them, they are portrayed well in my opinion. Such a shame it doesn’t elaborate on the Titanic, a book set in Ireland some years after the sinking can talk for hours about this, and I will gladly read it.
And I don’t want to talk about the ending, but I hate this kind of revelation in horror/gothic books.

In conclusion: I save nothing about this book, except the cover.

Wrap Up: September 2021

Hello readers! My favorite month of the year is finally arrived, I’m so excited, Halloween is coming!

In September I’ve read 9 books with 1 DNF. I also lowered my Goodreads challenge from 140 to 130 books.

5 stars:

Give me all the historical fiction crime books set in Scotland!! An amazing debut of a series, The Anatomist’s Wife has captured my attention and now I want to read all the installment in this series.

4 stars:

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A Whale in Paris is a lovely historical middle grade about the war and the friendship between a girl and a lonely whale trapped in the Sein.

Under the oak tree is a manhwa so romantic! Yes, sometimes I read a romantic story, I know you are stunned by this fact.

Another great historical middle grade is The Vanishing trick, a dark fairytale similar to Coraline, very well written.

3 stars:

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A lady in the smoke is a historical crime fiction involving a train accident, with a headstrong main character and a hint of romance, but it will gain some points with less pages.

The tutor is M/M historical romance with a gothic setting, two children without a mother and a dark presence in the house.

1 star + DNF:

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Tim Specter has great potential: a detective specialized to treat ghosts has to investigate the ghost of a hanged butler… but the writing was horrible.

A shadow on the lens has a wonderful cover, seriously, I’m in love with this cover, and the story is intriguing, with the beginning of the photography, a murder, a ghost who appears only on photo… but again, the writing was poor, focused only on the description of the landscape, and not on the characters.

The eye of Zeus is the DNF of the month: it’s a copy of Percy Jackson, the same scenes, the same monsters. No thanks, there’s only one Percy.

And that’s all, be prepared for a month of ghostly post!