Jake
3.75 ⭐️ i definitely enjoyed this book, not quite as much as book 1 but was still really good! Especially the start and finish, it didn't quite grip me as much in the middle! But will definitely be getting to Demon in White soon
“It is strange how we humans make our homes. We arrive in a place and—finding that place foreign and uncomfortable—place objects just as foreign in it until it becomes lived in and all strangeness is gone.”
4.25 ⭐️
This book was great, fast paced, action packed and with great characters! Plus an animal companion who in my brain was a proper little cutie! Its really hard to believe this is a debut novel as it felt very polished and well crafted! Loved the world building and the setting, I'm a sucker for Ancient Egypt and this gave me that feeling to the max. The magic was so interesting and I really cant wait to see how it moves forward in following books. It really had everything, heart pounding action, intrigue and heart breaking gut punches followed up by some of the best humour I've read in any book! Would highly recommend this book to anyone!
Plus Fax! Love Fax
Another amazing, immersive and fast paced home run! The story is brilliant and I think the characters have levelled up a few times from book 1! I love Fódla, how can you not, just a wonderful person! I also love Gormflaith but only to read about, she terrifies me even more in this book, and all the others!
Cannot wait for book 3, i need to know
A little wibbly wobbly in the middle but the start and finish were fantastic! Plus how can you not love Radar! I enjoyed the twisting of old fairy tales and how they got the King treatment!
Overall I enjoyed this quite a bit
“You get used to the amazing, that's all. Mermaids and IMAX, giants and cell phones. If it's in your world, you go with it. It's wonderful, right? Only look at it another way, and it's sort of awful. Think Gogmagog is scary? Our world is sitting on a potentially world-ending supply of nuclear weapons, and if that's not black magic, I don't know what is.”
Where do I start! This book was incredible. It for sure is now in my top 5 reads ever and is possibly my favourite King so far, when I have sat on it a bit I can decide if it replaces IT.
The premise of this book sounded interesting but I was not expecting to get so immersed and drawn in. The characters were brilliant, Jake was someone you could root for and pull your hair out because of but was always believable and don't even get me started on Sadie. Plus a great cast of supporting characters, Deke and Al were slightly above all the others.
The story itself was so good, the time travel was explained enough to kind of make sense but also left mystery, and a fascinating look at late 50's early 60's America that has left me with an urge to find out more! The real life events woven through were so interesting even for someone who knows almost nothing about JFK and that time in American history. What makes it special is the small every day interactions between normal people, this is always something that I enjoy with Kings work.
And the ending....beautiful, heartbreaking, head in hands, bitter sweet, eye leaking and so much more! Not often I don't want a 700ish page book to end but I could have kept reading this forever!
Hands down one of the best books I've ever read and one I will certainly revisit every few years from now on.
Side note, the audio was also brilliant, the narrator brought the characters even more to life for me, being from the UK I'm never sure on accents from places in the US but the audio gave all the characters clear voices so that when I was reading i knew exactly what they sounded like.
4.5/4.75 ⭐️
Wow! Thats pretty much all you can say! All four of these short stories were amazing even if Apt Pupil was maybe a bit much for my sensitive brain, it was so interesting.
My favourite of the four was probably The Body, it sums up for me what King does best (I'm no expert at all having only read 5 or 6 of his books) the coming of age, small town story with a dark twist!
Shawshank was a very very close second, a story that will stay with me forever and I will definitely come back to every so often and The Breathing Method was gripping, heartbreaking and haunting.
Would definitely recommend this!
3.75 rounded up!
“Anyone can be a cynic,” I said. “Cynicism is not wisdom, merely an excuse to watch the world burn when you should be helping to quench the flames.”
Parts of this book were amazing and parts for me were the weakest bits in the series, but that however isn't a bad thing! Its been a fantastic series and it had a very satisfactory ending! The Pariah is still my favourite book in the series, Alwyn is a great character and he had a great cast of supporting characters, after this series i will definitely be going back to experience Mr Ryan's other works
