Extra Dimensional Pain.
596478
You maybe thinking to yourself, what does the title of this review have to do with the movie?  We'll let me explain.  I saw this "movie" when it came out in 2000 in the theatre.  I had seen the first Mission Impossible and was pleased.  This sequel is what is quintessentially wrong with Hollywood.  When a movie makes some money, immediately Hollywood wants to run out and make another one and rake in more bucks at the expense of good story telling.  I swear, if they could, they'd make a Titanic 2.
(But what does this have to do with your review title?) We'll here it is.  I was so disappointed, so mad, so angry that this garbage made it to a movie theatre and charged ME over 8 bucks to see it, that 5 years after it came out, I'm still angry.  So angry I'm writing a review about how awful this mess is.  To put it another way, If I could travel to another dimension in time and space, the pain that watching this movie would cause, would still reach me.  So what am I talking about, exactly?  The last 15 minutes of the movie alone will make my point.  To be sure, this uber-toxic disease which required its first subject to be hospitalized, bed ridden with weeping soars and pustules, only causes our female hero a slight red eye and sniffly nose even though she has had the same level of exposure.  Tom Cruise can somehow kick a gun laterally, in the sand, have it "pop up" 3 feet in the air grab it, aim and fire at a low lying target (the villain) who already has a bead on Tom with gun fully loaded.  Tom gets off two shots and our villian can't hit the broad side of a barn. (lame isn't the word) The motorcycle scene when Tom (ethan hunt) is skidding on the ground with his feet (roller skates) and doesn't get thrown off his bike.  The director with his "white doves" nonsense as tom enters a room to shoot everybody as some sort of holier-than-thou-bad-ass.  If I ever met either tom cruise or john woo in real life, i'd demand they pay me the 20 bucks (ticket, popcorn and soda) that I shelled out for watching this garbage.  I'd also strap them to a chair and make them watch 2 hours of static and make them loose two hours of their lives.  Why am I writing this now? I saw all of 15 seconds of this awful movie, flipping through channels on cable and got angry that it was STILL being shown to the public and that nobody had filed "crimes against humanity" charges against the USA network.  I am pleading with Amazon, PLEASE let me give this star to something else... Mi2 is NOT worthy of such high praise!
1430933
This book is painful to read.  The brutal honesty that Frank McCort uses to chronical his childhood will make you sad, it will make you uncomfortable, but it is so beautifully written that it is well worth the pain.
4881769
This book pains my heart from start to finish. The content seems made-up though because everything is just too bazaar. However, if my emotion is stirred up and down by a book, I think that book is somewhat a success. Fake or not, I did not hate the book though I did feel the pain and depressions throughout the book because of this child's unfortunate life.
1690083
A devastating book. Some of the descriptions in it made me ache in sympathetic pain. The book itself is clear and well written, with functional prose devoid of unnecessary flourish or ornamentation. You feel for the protagonist in this book, it would honestly be hard not to. There are some twists I won't spoil the book with, but be aware this book goes beyond the strictly realistic body-horror elements and touches on both the spiritual and supernatural. A definite recommend if you can get past some of the torture elements in the book.
2719677
I loved this story and simultaneously hated it. Maybe it was just a little too real or close to home. The ending was too real and kinda hurt, or hit a place that isn't quite healed.
379451
Claire's Head is a stunning depiction headache pain and treatment, desperation, and hope. The novel is an examination of the relationship that someone with migraines has with him or herself and with others. Even if your headaches aren't migraines, the struggle is probably familiar.

Yes, the descriptions of the headaches get old, The repetition might be annoying, but that's the point. Frequent disabling headaches are bothersome and do interrupt the plot - whether it is the plot of fictional characters or real people.

If you have a hard time telling your loved ones what your headaches are like, pass this book on to them. There's no way anyone can deny the reality of the pain after seeing it spelled out so well in this novel.

All that said, the story itself was not believable or particularly interesting! But reading struggles so similar to mine was engaging enough to make it worthwhile.
3790475
A funny mix of story based on actual events or diaries from people who lived through these times and fictional elements.  More to recommend than to dislike, but I could never truly feel immersed in it.  The ending seems tacked on.  Wanted to believe that the girl could have risen so far above her torture, but I really don't buy it.  Perhaps if she had had a great deal of therapy, but just turning off the memories, I don't buy this as real and I think it demeans the lasting effects of such horrific suffering.  Having known Holocaust survivors, and sensed their deep insecurities and misery, I just can't buy such a miraculous healing--unless it happened for inexplicable reasons.  Robert's descent into alcoholism seems closer to the reality of what I have seen.  This was a terrible war and left a lot of crippled survivors.  Read it, but question it!  One virtue of the book is to reveal the suffering that members of the French resistance endured.
203366
I could feel the pain, the hate, the frustration. The album gives a very good way of creating a visual for the story it tells. Lyrically; alot of emotion but  too repetitive.
1578804
Oh there is so much to learn about our parents when we are little children!! And so much more to FIND OUT about them, when we are adults!!!
Is an argument with a parent of that much consequence in the future when we think back on it? Are our assumptions about our parents based in reality?

Anya Yurchshyn leads the reader through her own personal experiences with her parents which is evocative of, or could also be in part, the reader's experience with theirs.

Some of this book was painful -- as it brought back memories of how I as a child, decided what my mother could and could not be, when in fact she was only expressing her own humanity. And some of the betrayal I felt when coming across some of my mother's notes, mirror that of our author. Are we betrayed or surprised? Perhaps it took my mother's death for me to be able to stand back at a distance and know her as a person, not just as my mother.

In some parts, there is a darkness to this book, some pathos, and much soul searching and revelations.  But then again, doesn't that also mirror our own lives?
2229279
Sad and inciteful. Mental illness as seen from many vantage points.
4641529
The is a lot of pain & gore in this book but it has some good psychology in it. I must now read the rest of the series. C.J.Lyons is a pediatrician & so am I and have dealt with young peoples psych. problems for over 50 years. This book is a little exaggeration of a teenagers life & abilities but it is good on dealings with feelings. Be prepared for horror, blood and pain. But enjoy the good parts. If you like horror and good psychology of teenagers, this is the book for you. RAG
550552
Where does this mother daughter relationship go from here? I felt heart pain for both of these women after reading this book. The stories and recollection of events are from a single point of view and in this case, a hurt child's point of view. One can certainly understand Sachis pain and loneliness as a child. What seems to be missing is the adult dimension of understanding life's contradictions.

By the end of the book, I felt an awkwardness; such as walking in on a family fight, knowing both parties are lost and injured.
Although Shirely is the mom and the weight falls on her to be the bigger person, I couldn't help but wonder how I would have handled large sums of money with children. My educated guess says Shirley made some big mistakes parenting, and she knows she did. She certainly paid a hefty child support payment each month, buying the freedom to be a star and celebrity. I doubt that Shirley was aware of the severity of abuse and neglect Sachi experienced in her fathers care. I have to wonder how much of Shirley's grandiosity is compensation for missing the most basic need and primal instinct of protecting ones child.

I hope to see these gals work this out, in this incarnation.
4446010
It felt very sad to familiarize myself with the families' pain and guilt in this read. While the initial love for Daniel is palpable, the longing for what should have been insinuates itself throughout the book. All through the story, I found myself building compassion for the characters because people never really know the "why" nor could they be prepared for a tragedy of this magnitude. Having met the recipients of such unexpected maladies, I found it interesting walking with the father through the mental calisthenics of acceptance.
4770120
Anna Hope has written a sometimes unbearably painful novel, told through three voices. (third person narration)Two of them are patients: John, a Irish man, diagnosed with melancholia who has been on the chronic ward  long term, little chance of release and Ella, a recently admitted patient, following a vandalising action (breaking a window) in her spinning mill workplace, her unstableness seen as some kind of hysteria. The third voice is that of Charles, a disappointment to his high achieving, driven, medical professional family. Charles is much more drawn to the arts, particularly music, and is a skilled amateur violinist. He finds what seems like an ideal compromise  a large psychiatric hospital in Yorkshire are looking to recruit another member of the medical team, but are wanting someone with musical ability, to join the small staff orchestra.

Interwoven with the stories of her three characters are philosophies, politics, and ideologies influenced by Darwinism at that time  most powerfully, the idea of Eugenics.

Politically, there were the prospects of general strikes looming. Working conditions were often appalling, wages dreadful. Poverty and destitution was equated, in some circles, with feeblemindedness. It was interesting, reading Hopes afterword, to see how strongly, in some quarters of government, ideas about Eugenics were being considered. There were some curious bedfellows who wished to exert control over who might be allowed to have children and who might not  Winston Churchill, Marie Stopes, George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb.

Mental hospitals have of course, across times and across countries, been used to incarcerate people who fall foul of received thinking of the times. Class politics, political and religious ideologies, gender, sexuality, race, may all render an individual more likely to receive a diagnosis of mental illness.

Hope draws the reader in most skilfully, and the central three characters, and two other patients, Clem, a young middle class woman, and Johns friend Dan, another patient, a gypsy, all have changes, developments and trajectories to follow. Some move towards wholeness, some towards disintegration, and Hope makes sense of all journeys.

Character, narrative, individual voice and indeed the authorial voice are skilfully done.
Whilst reading, I noticed that Hope seemed to be using words I had never come across before, which did not exist in my dictionaries  words like tallacky, chelping, gawbers. Her interesting language made sense in context, and I found myself knowing I thought, what these made-up words meant..on finishing the book and reading her afterword, I discovered she was using North Yorkshire dialect words, probably long fallen into disuse.

This novel also arose out of a personal, family association for Hope. There had been a real asylum, in Yorkshire which Hopes asylum was modelled on : Menston Asylum, opening in 1888, and originally called the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Hopes great-great-grandfather, an Irishman from County Mayo, was transferred there from the workhouse, in 1909. Poor and destitute, pauper lunatic. That asylum, like Hopes imaginary one, had a spectacular large ballroom.

I had some slight disappointment or reservation over the final coda scene, feeling perhaps that authorial chance was providing a satisfying wrap which I couldn't quite accept as likely, but in no way does that detract from my absolute recommendation

I received this as a digital review copy from the publishers, via NetGalley.

I now want to read Hopes first novel, Wake. She is one to watch, for sure.
4080280
This is a movie about adolescent pain.  Physical, emotional, and mental pain.  I don't know if this is an "entertaining" movie, but for the most part it gave a grungy realistic view of two teenagers, who try to escape the pain of their home lives by drowning it in the excessive pain of their teenage adventures (if you want to call them that).

I will say the two leads give a better performance here than they do on their current vampire related endeavors (True Blood & Twilight).
232063
This is a Dragon story that starts with pain and ends with pain. There is sex and a tiny bit of romance. Altogether this was a dark tail of war, death and vengeance on good people. Not my mind of story.
2857154
As  a piece of literature, I would rate it a 5 star.  As a book that enjoyed, I would rate it lower because of the human drama.  The pain and agony that  is derived from drugs and alcohol I found unsettling.  The tale was plausible. The human emotion was too real.