Tanya
Picoult explores the topic of teen suicide in this novel, which opens with a gunshot in the first few minutes. While later courtroom scenes keep you on the edge of your seat, I found the parents responses to the actions of their children to be a little unbelieveable, especially considering their close relationship to one another. Overall, a good read.
This book is easily one of my favorites. It's the story of a family that moves to the Congo to be missionaries to the Congolese people, and is told from the point of view of the mother and her four daughters. Even though the narration voice alternates between five people, the flow of the writing isn't choppy at all.
What was intended to be a simple Sweet Sixteen celebration for her daughter, Hannah, turns into a nightmare for Kim when she is awakened in the middle of the night by Hannah covered in blood. Soon Kim's carefully constructed life with her husband Jeff begins to crumble.
While this book was marketed as a suspense novel, it's really more of a fast-paced family drama in the vein of Herman Koch's The Dinner , full of unlikable characters and melodramatic in the style of a Lifetime movie. On the surface this book delivers on the promise of a tragedy involving self-absorbed teens and their parents, the type that are obsessed with organic homemade energy bars for soccer practices and Instagramable homes. It's not as suspenseful as I expected, however, as the details of the story are laid out plainly for the reader and the book focuses mostly on the aftermath of this party. That would still make for a great story if the book started out with strong interpersonal relationships and a close-knit community, which it did not. I wanted a lot more from this book and it unfortunately did not deliver. Good premise, poor execution, earning it more of a 2.5 from me.
(Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Press for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
Laurel Muir returns to Chateau du Cigne Noir, an atmospheric old B&B to reunite with some old friends she hasn't seen in a decade. The friends hope to reconnect after their last visit ended in tragedy when one of them fell from a balcony and is now wheel-chair bound. When one of them is murdered they all again fall under suspicion by the local police and must figure out who the killer is before they strike again.
This book is almost written like a cozy mystery, except that it's much heavier and darker. The characters are complex and well developed, and I really enjoyed a rather accurate portrayal of the various intricacies in a group of female friends. There was a hint of Agatha Christie in the small cast of characters and the remote “country house” of sorts. What I thought was going to develop into a full-blown romantic story line kept itself cool until the end, which I appreciate. I settled on a killer several times and was proved wrong in the end. This is the first book I've read by this author and I'm definitely going to find another one to read soon.
This was a solid debut from a new Australian crime writer. The Dark Lake is a police procedural with a complex plot. I occasionally found it difficult to accept all of the professional screw-ups by our characters but it wasn't enough to warrant more than an eyeroll from me. The character development was superb though, to be honest, the “emotionally damaged detective” trope isn't my favorite. Gemma as a character is rather unlikable and I soon grew tired of hearing about her dumpster fire of a personal life. That being said, the fact that I had such a strong reaction to her says something, even if it wasn't a strong positive reaction. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next from Sarah Bailey.
This book is, at it's root, an in-depth look at the character of two abused children who grow up to be adults. Marion is child-like and anxious, having internalized that she was clumsy, stupid, and ugly. John is a tyrannical monster, raging at Marion over small slights in the childhood home they still share after the deaths of their parents. They live there, surrounded by garbage and rotting food, wearing thread-bare clothing, and something odd in the basement. Burns does an amazing job telling the story from Marion's point of view and I found her endlessly sympathetic. With denial as her primary coping mechanism, Marion refuses to acknowledge “the visitors” John brings to the basement. When she is forced to confront the truth we get to see another side of Marion. Often the ending of a suspense novel can either make or break the book. Not only did this book carry itself just on the characterization of Marion and John but the ending blew me away entirely. Marion is a character I still think about months later...and she still gives me the chills.
(Thank you to Legends Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
I don't quite know how to categorize this book. I have been “currently reading” this book for over a year (I only have about 20 pages to go). It's odd, to say the least, and I can't quite figure out whether I want to finish it. It's part mystery, part horror, part science fiction, and part “non-fiction” (through an odd internal story). Give it a try if you're looking for something WAY off the beaten track.
This novel is an exploration of how a single violent act can have repercussions far past it's initial horror. It starts with the murder of a young girl while she and her friends are enjoying time together on a day off of school. The girls' mother, unable to accept that her daughter was the target of random violence, curses the other girls for not being able to stop it or identify the killer. The girls go on with school and scatter around the world but are still haunted by that single defining moment of their childhoods. This is a dark, character driven mystery and one I enjoyed more than Minato's other book, Confession.
I always view it as a bad sign when, 200+ pages into a 600 page book, I still have no idea what's going on or where a book is going.
I'm not going to even try to review this book. It was amazing. It was SK at his best. I loved every word of it. I want to see the movie version (and a real movie, not some made for tv miniseries for a channel I don't get). Go read it.
This was a fun book and a really quick read. While it read a bit too YA for my personal tastes, it has a great premise and I enjoyed the story. It sounds silly to say, but one supernatural element in general had me rolling my eyes (a bit of a Salem deus ex machina at play). Had I read this as a tween or early teen, though, I think I would have adored it, so I think I'm just too old and used to scarier horror for this to have entirely worked for me.
(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
This is the haunted house story you've always wanted. Four writers enter a house at the request of an online horror website creator, to participate in an interview sure to reinvigorate their waning careers. While there they have some strange experiences but nothing too worrisome. It's what happens after they leave that starts the story spiraling out of control.
Once I picked up this book I did not want to put it down. It took two days to read ONLY because I started it too late to make it all the way through and couldn't stay up all night to finish it. The characters came to life on the page (I cast the movie in my head as I read) and their interactions felt seamless. I could easily follow which character was which and, while they were definitely cast as different “types” of writers (you had your Stephen King, your Frank Peretti/R.L. Stein, etc.) the characters never felt cliche. The pacing was brilliant - once the scares started, the calm between the scares lasted just long enough to let you catch your breath but not enough to fully relax. No spoilers of course but...the ending...I honestly gasped out loud in the middle of a crowded Starbucks. Chills, you guys. Amazingly, this is Thomas' first novel. It is not an exaggeration to say that I am very eagerly anticipating his next book.
* Trigger warning for domestic violence.*
If you like a good haunted house story, pick up this book!
This book was...interesting. The atmosphere and writing were great and the premise (spooky boarding school) had promise. I was enjoying the first couple hundred pages, then wondered where the story was going for about another hundred more. Then came the twist, one that made me roll my eyes and heave a giant sign of disappointment. It wasn't the kind of twist that gives you chills up your spine and think “YESSSS!” - rather it was an out-of-left-field twist that left me wondering if I wanted to bother finishing. I decided to power through the last few pages because I'd made it this far, right? Wrong. The actual end of the book might have been the worst part...if it hadn't been for the cringe-worthy “mythology” of the Zapuche people in the book. They were described as “savages” and the plot includes a “sacrifice a girl to the gods” trope that feeds into the narrative of the “uncivilized natives.” I did not like the handling of the indigenous storyline in the book and wished the author could have made a few changes to make that part of the mythology a bit less stereotypical and more nuanced.
I'd be interested in giving the author another chance, though, as the writing was good and Faring does a good job building atmosphere in the book, even though the book, unfortunately, didn't ever drift into “scary” territory for me.
I won't rate this because I didn't finish it, but I just couldn't force myself to continue on. I stopped about 70% of the way through because the book was just a failure for me almost from the start and I didn't see it getting any better. About 15-20% of the way into the book you find out who the “bad guy” is and the only suspense left is whether or not the captive is going to survive. I never got a sense of who she was due to underwhelming character development and therefore didn't develop an attachment to her. Whether she lived or died was the only real “question” in the end and I found myself not really caring what happened to any of the characters. The pacing was good and the book was action packed, but once the suspense element was taken from me as a reader, I found myself bored.
Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book for review.
I tried to like this...and then I was just trying to finish it. I finally got to the scene with the Bird Man. Now I'm tapping out - I quit.
This was just as spooky and atmospheric and I had hoped it would be. With a totally immersive story line and fantastic writing, the book asks what lengths people are willing to go to in order to see their loved ones again. This is my favorite McMahon novel and I'd highly recommend it.
This is the perfect rainy day ghost story. Don't expect anything too scary, though, as there are no very spine-tingling moments in this book. It's pure, escapist reading at it's best so don't think about the plot, or it's holes, either.
While on her way home one evening Zoe spots an add in the local paper with her photo and a website - www.FindTheOne.com. Sure it must be someone who simply looks like her she blows it off as a coincidence until she sees more photos with the same website. These women she has seen before, however. They've been in the news, victims of violent crimes. Worried about her safety and that of her family, she contacts the police. Detective Kelly Swift, assigned to the pickpocket case of one woman that later turned out to be murdered, believes her and works to unmask whomever is behind these ads.
This book is an entertaining read, full of twists and turns, and is told from multiple perspectives. My main issue with the book happened after I had read it and set it aside. It takes a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief in order to accept the basic premise of this book. It's well written, though, and worth the time if you're a fan of psychological suspense novels.
This was a fun horror debut from an author best known for her comtemporary YA. This book read like a teen-focused slasher film and reminded me of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream. There's a biracial black/Hawaiian female protagonist (our “final girl”) and good sex representation in which teens have responsible sex and feel good about it afterwards. There was some really heavy-handed foreshadowing about the protagonists “mysterious past” that turned out to not be as big a deal as it was built up to be. It was a fun, fast-paced read that I enjoyed more than I expected to.
This was my ABSOLUTE favorite book when I was little, and I recently found it on one of the Bests lists. I LOVE THIS BOOK! :)