Kajwan

My Best Friend's Exorcism is a horror novel that leaves me with conflicting emotions. While it feels lengthy at times and the pacing isn't always on point, I can't help but admit how much I enjoyed it. Some of the symbolism feels undercooked, hinting at deeper meanings that never fully materialize. However, when the book hits its stride, it's genuinely terrifying - delivering bone-chilling moments that had me on edge. Despite its flaws, I found myself immersed in its increasingly dark world, guiltily savoring every scary development. It may not be perfect, but at its peak, it taps into primal fears with unsettling precision, and by the final paragraphs, it managed to bring tears to my eyes. What else is there to desire? I give it a shaking 5, not a solid one, but a 5 nevertheless.

Considered a sequel (as far as non-fiction books can go) to Gomorrah, Saviano's debut, published 8 years before this, ZeroZeroZero once again puts on display the scheme of organized crime, this time on an international scale; South America, Western Europe, the United States, and North Africa.

Much like Gomorrah, this book is a combination of the author's musings on one hand and facts about the international operations of narcotraffickers and different branches of law enforcement around the globe on the other. And much like Gomorrah to my dismay, whenever Saviano approaches the subjects from his home country, he seems to forget that they are just names, like the names of those from other places, and delves so deep into the details that everything becomes a blurry monolith, extremely difficult to comprehend. When he puts his Italian macro lens aside and picks up a wider lens to capture the larger picture, his writing, the rapid succession of details, becomes comprehensible.

The author tries to present the reader with a whole picture through minor details, brief stories, interviews, memories, snippets of information, and short biographies of those involved. This is mostly a successful attempt, because the lines are drawn clearly, and the shapes soon start to emerge from the vague lines.

I found The Alchemist to be immoral, but that pales in comparison with this horrible excuse of a novel.

Veronika Decides to Die is outright dangerous. Dangerous in its approach. Dangerous in preaching mental illness, romanticizing it, mystifying it to an unimaginable level.

Of course, I fell for a few scenes and tidbits along the way, but altogether, this book is a clear and present danger to those susceptible to ill-thought interpretations of evident crises.