A Selection of Reviews from Our Professional Writers

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Library

Books

The Recovering Spender
by Anna Moat
A calculated look at Greutman's pitch on money management

The Best Kind of People
by Myryam Ladouceur
The best kind of book: emotional, complex and thought-provoking

Sharp Objects
by Phoebe Strike
Gillian Flynn's murky thrill ride will make you want a drink

 

 

My Life in Japan
by Marty Le Gallez
Charm, sweetness and real life in a new(ish) place

My Best Friend's Exorcism
by Chris Campeau
Grady Hendrix's latest novel is a character-driven blend of demons and '80s pop culture

Cursed Child
by Nick Gibbins
The new awkward installment in J.K. Rowland's series proves her magic may be lost

Restaurants

The Savoy Brasserie
by Paulina Grace Hrebacka
A charming Westboro gem that will satisfy your eyes as well as your stomach

Sweet Jesus
by Cody Lirette
How will an extremely popular Toronto ice cream shop fare in the Byward Market?

Grow Your Roots
by Steve Smith
Crowded, delicious, vegan

Menu

Video Games

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
by John Cutland
Can Eidos Montreal's sequel live up to the hype?

Journey
by Ashton Heaps
Play the story of a traveller in one of the most beautiful games of our time

Overwatch
by Catherine Arbour
Blizzard's reaction to the call for heroes

Inside
by William Cousins
Another masterpiece from the makers of Limbo

TV & Film

Scream Queens
by Amanda Pereira
Ryan Murphy does it again with his comedy-horror's second season

Looking Up at the Half-Moon
by Mazen El-Kayssi
An anime wrought with moral dilemmas

Haters Back Off!
by Allison Van Maren
Miranda Sings' television debut hits all the right notes

Re: Zero - Starting Life in Another World
by Tyler Cooke
Why this new and energetic Anime is one of the best shows of the year

Shin Godzilla
by Alex Sundaresan
Hideaki Anno pulls the strings on a revamped Godzilla

Plays

Romeo and Juliet REDUX
by Madeleine Lange-Chenier
A stab at modernizing the Shakespearean classic

Constellations
by Amanda Simard
Unending love in parallel universes

Mamma Mia
by Marta Zwart
The ABBA-inspired musical gets a welcoming facelift from an exuberant Port Hope cast 

Macbeth
by Meaghan Côté
Seven actors playing dozens of roles. Can they pull off one of Shakespeare's best?

Reel

A Gargantuan Revival

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A Gargantuan Revival

My first exposure to the Godzilla series occurred when I was eight years old and I received the game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube. A game in which you controlled giant monsters that you used to fight other giant monsters and destroy cities in a process that was, frankly, irresistible. The character design of all of these famous creatures—Orga, Ghidorah, Destoroyah, and Angirus just to name a few—all sparked something in my imagination.

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A Cursed Idea: J.K. Rowling's Magic is Finally Running Out

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A Cursed Idea: J.K. Rowling's Magic is Finally Running Out

Longtime Harry Potter fans appear to be either rejoicing or deeply concerned, as J.K. Rowling proves not ready to let “The Boy Who Lived” rest in peace. Nine years after concluding her series of unprecedented success, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is released as the unexpected eighth entry, but with a stylistic twist. With help from playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany, Rowling takes Potter to the West End stage as a live play, and sells the rehearsal script to the masses.

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A Delightful Taste of France: The Savoy Brasserie

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A Delightful Taste of France: The Savoy Brasserie

Ever since I quit my four-year-long bartending gig this past summer, I’ve been anxious to try out a new restaurant as an unbiased customer; I promised myself I wouldn’t judge a bar by its tap selection, choice of gin, bourbon option or the font on the cocktail menu…Alas, I found myself doing just that last night, when my fiancé and I decided to drive to Westboro for dinner. I suppose I’ll never lose my eye for those details. Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was impressed. Every aspect of my visit to the Savoy Brasserie was charming.

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A Side-Scrolling Pilgrimage

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A Side-Scrolling Pilgrimage

The sand rises in large dunes as far as you can see. One dune in particular stands before you, marked by stone structures. Climbing the hill, you see a massive mountain with a split in the middle. You have begun your journey.

Before playing, I had never heard anything about this game. Since it is very short, it only took me three hours to beat it. I was unprepared for the unique experience that Journey would provide. Journey, developed by thatgamecompany, is an indie game made in 2012 for the PS3, and re-released on the PS4 in 2015. It focuses on your personal adventure towards the game's goal through varied environments, from deserts to snow-covered mountains.

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From the Ground Up: Grow Your Roots Plants the Vegan Flag

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From the Ground Up: Grow Your Roots Plants the Vegan Flag

Vegan restaurants are an elusive species in Ottawa. Even vegetarian restaurants tend to gather mostly in the downtown area. So what is a discerning vegetarian living in Kanata with no wheels and zero tolerance for the OC Transpo supposed to do? Cook their own food? Well, Grow Your Roots café has the answer for starving vegans in the Kanata area.

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The Laughs Keep Coming

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The Laughs Keep Coming

With the quirkiness of Glee and the frights of American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens is the perfect blend of both his prior and current TV projects. Last fall, the horror-comedy established itself as one of the surprise hits and most underestimated shows of the season.  Now it’s back again and ready to make you shriek.

Scream Queens' first season began at the fictional Wallace University, where members of sorority Kappa Kappa Tau are being terrorized by a serial killer dressed as the school’s mascot: a red devil. The show became an instant hit, with a star-studded cast, a diverse set of characters, and a equal amount of screams and laughs.

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Not So Divine: Sweet Jesus' Ice Cream Won't Make You Scream

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Not So Divine: Sweet Jesus' Ice Cream Won't Make You Scream

It’s rich, smooth and delectable in every season. If ice cream was a religion, then you’d be looking at the Pope. Toronto ice cream phenomenon Sweet Jesus recently blessed Ottawa by opening up a little spot on Clarence Street in the Byward Market, and ice cream lovers are losing their minds. 

Cones packed eight-inches high with swirling soft-serve, layered with topping upon topping until each piece looks like an abstract piece of art. The Sweet Jesus hype was too contagious, so we ventured on down to the Market to get the scoop. 

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"Cheers, love. The cavalry's here."

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"Cheers, love. The cavalry's here."

Overwatch is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter, created and developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Released on May 24th, 2016, it is available for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Set in the distant future, the game’s backstory revolves around the elite task force that the game is named after. Following a crisis stopped by the task force, their influence waned and eventually Overwatch was disbanded. Unlike many other games, the lore, background, and history of the world and characters is available through the official website of the game (including art and references), as well as fan-powered sites. However, knowing the lore is not required to play and enjoy the game.

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Darkness Dipped in Sequins

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Darkness Dipped in Sequins

If you’ve read Horrorstör, Grady Hendrix’s 2014 horror-comedy about a haunted IKEA-type furniture store, then you’re aware of the author’s ability to skew the parameters of genre, and to do it well. My Best Friend’s Exorcism follows suit. Sure, you’ll find it on the horror shelves, but beneath its sinister surface is a tale of a resilient friendship—just basted with blood and vomit.

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Life Traced out in Choices

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Life Traced out in Choices

Love and death aren’t new themes in the theatre by any count, but Constellations sets them in a unique landscape: string theory.

Constellations explores the idea that our lives are a series of choices, and consequently possibilities. It centers on Marianne, a theoretical cosmologist, and Roland, a beekeeper, placing them in a variety of parallel universes. The audience watches as the couple meets, falls in love, moves in together, is torn apart by affairs and disease, or lives happily married. The story is funny at times and heartbreaking at others, all while raising important reflections about time, mortality and free will.

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Poorly Written Advice from a Financial Guru

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Poorly Written Advice from a Financial Guru

In case you were wondering, Lauren Greutman is not just some stay-at-home mom with frugal living tips and tricks.  She’s a real American, started-from-the-bottom-now-she’s-here success story; a Christian woman with a shopping addiction who successfully got herself and her family out of over $40,000 worth of debt. I know this because she makes sure to reiterate it every few pages in her new book, The Recovering Spender.

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Everything's Not Always Black And White

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Everything's Not Always Black And White

Secrets can divide us. They can turn an entire community on its side.  The sheltered, upper-class small town of Avalon Hills is no exception to that, no matter whose secrets they are. Ten years ago, George Woodbury was deemed a hero when he singlehandedly stopped a gunman at the prep school where he was a popular science teacher, earning him an American Citizen Award for bravery, and the “Teacher of the Year” title every year after that. Now, his family is about to be torn apart as he is unexpectedly placed under arrest one Sunday night. The charges? Three counts of sexual impropriety with a minor, one count of attempted rape of a minor.  His family, who reside at Woodbury Lake, a prestigious suburb in Avalon Hills founded by George’s ancestor, faces the repercussions that these allegations have on their own lives. Joan, his wife, toes the line between denial and fury. Andrew, the eldest son, moves home from New York to come to his father’s defence. And Sadie, their 17-year-old daughter and now social pariah at school, tries to cope with the best ways a teenager can, even though they aren’t necessarily the wisest choices. The Best Kind of People is their story.

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Relatable Isn't Always Better

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Relatable Isn't Always Better

The play I saw is Romeo and Juliet Redux at The Gladstone Theatre. For those who don’t know the Shakespearean story, it goes like this: Romeo Montague goes to a ball hosted by the Capulets (rivals of his family) and falls in love with Juliet Capulet. After the dance, they meet a couple times and exchange loving remarks. Then, with the help of Juliet’s maid, they secretly get married. Everything seems fine until Romeo, his friend Mercutio, and Juliet’s cousin Tybalt get in a fight. Tybalt and Mercutio are killed and Romeo is blamed for their deaths. Romeo is ordered to leave Verona or be put to death for his supposed crime. Romeo tells Juliet this, and they have a tender parting scene professing their love.

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All Fired Up: A Local Spin on Macbeth

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All Fired Up: A Local Spin on Macbeth

On September 28th, I attended Bear and Co.’s production of Macbeth at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa. Bear and Co. had done an outside performance of Macbeth during the month of July and successfully attracted a large audience. They performed at the Gladstone the nights of the 28th to the first of October with additional performances Thursday at 12:30 pm and Saturday at 2:30 pm. I bought a ticket for the first night and was excited to see my first play out of my high school drama class years ago

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Sharp Objects And Sharper Thoughts

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Sharp Objects And Sharper Thoughts

Raw from a brief stay at a psychiatric hospital, Chicago journalist Camille Preaker is given the daunting task of returning to her tightly knit home town after the murder of a young girl and the kidnapping of another. Having been estranged from her neurotic mother and retaining little connection with her half-sister, Camille’s welcome home is less than uncomfortable. She soon finds herself identifying with the missing girls, in more ways than she finds comfortable. Flynn skillfully takes the reader on a psychological thrill ride through an almost gothic southern small town and its horrible secrets.

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Haters...Give It A Chance

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Haters...Give It A Chance

Netflix original Haters Back Off! opens boldly and unapologetically with popular YouTube personality Miranda Sings (played by Colleen Ballinger) doing what she does horribly–singing. Admittedly, it wasn’t love at first sight–or perhaps, love at first listen. But I stuck through, and I’m glad I did. On its surface, the series chronicles Miranda’s rise to internet stardom with the help of her “manager”–and uncle–Jim. However, as the story continues to unfold, we see there’s more than initially meets the eye. Miranda lives in a small and dysfunctional household with her uncle, mother, and sister. Miranda and her uncle share a strange relationship, with him obsessively dedicated to seeing her achieve fame–despite her lack of any real talent. Her mother, Tiffany, also plays into her delusions of grandeur, and acts as more of a complacent yes-woman to her daughter than an actual parent. Emily, Miranda’s sister, is the sole voice of reason amidst the chaos–the black sheep of the family through her normalcy.

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You Can Dance, You Can Jive: Mamma Mia Live

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You Can Dance, You Can Jive: Mamma Mia Live

When I was younger, my parents played our ABBA record so often it looked like our cats had gotten to it. By the time my mother and I watched the Mamma Mia movie we were hooked and it has since become something we can always bond over. I have seen many renditions of Mamma Mia portrayed on stage (with varying budgets) and the most recent was definitely one of my favourites.

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