Abigail
4.25*
I think that A.R.Torre is officially one of my fav authors!!
I read the good lie abt a week ago and I LOVED it. But I went into this with very low expectations coz someone I know had read and rated this very low so I was nervous going into it. But I LOVED this one!!
It had all the things I love in a mystery/thriller;
-Multiple povs
-Short chapters
- Alternating timelines
-Twists and turns that make you want to keep flipping pages.
I have to say tho during the first 50% I thought that this might be a 2 star coz I was not a huge fan of the characters in this book (except one) and the stuff they did/said made me so mad. But the last 50% changed the entire thing around and I was so invested.
If you are looking for a book to binge this is for you!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this e-arc:))
Did I read the same book as everyone else? I feel like the book I read and what everyone else read was COMPLETELY different.
We get the exact same story from 5 different perspectives and I was SO BORED.
There's no build up, no character development and the revenge? Please I have read much much better revenge stories than this.
If the book had ended with just the 1 chap it would have been a def 5 star coz I loved the 1 chap but then it kept going and I just lost interest after one point.
I feel like I am being lenient by giving this 2 stars and the only reason for that is I loved how the book portrayed relationships between a parent and a child coz obviously everyone is unique and everyone is different and this book showed that. And that's the ONLY reason I am rating this 2 stars.
A very unique and interesting concept but poorly executed.
It started off strong and really intriguing but as the book went on and as Ivy started digging through her family's secrets it became very annoying and repetitive. Also I HATED how Ivy was too trusting with strangers, I mean a serial killer is on the loose for chrissakes and she goes into a motel room with a stranger she met a few days prior.
It was assumed that Tatum's mom was a victim of the full moon killer and all the evidence to back that was very weak and almost non existent.
The author threw in various plots and it all ended up clashing in the end (not in a good way).
And in the end you end up confused with more questions than answers.
3.5This review might contain spoilers for the family upstairs, so proceed with caution. Thank you!In this sequel to [b:The Family Upstairs 43822820 The Family Upstairs (The Family Upstairs, #1) Lisa Jewell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564517337l/43822820.SY75.jpg 66179743] we explore the Lamb's family more thoroughly. Unlike [b:The Family Upstairs 43822820 The Family Upstairs (The Family Upstairs, #1) Lisa Jewell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1564517337l/43822820.SY75.jpg 66179743] which was more dark and twisted this is a slow burn mystery with family drama and in depth character study.In the typical Lisa Jewell style,we get short chapters that helps a lot in flying through the book and the writing is very easy to read.I liked the family upstairs more than this coz this was very slow and didn't have much twists but I really enjoyed reading more about the characters and their lives. There was one particular story line in this which had a very satisfying ending and I have given one star solely for that.While this can be read as a standalone I recommend reading The family upstairs first and then this coz you can get into the story more easily.My review of The Family Upstairs- Review of The Family Upstairs
Slow at first but towards the end it was so hard to put down.It has short chapters that will help you fly through the book, gets really creepy at times and has the spooky inherited house trope.Highly recommend this!!Now onto [b:The Family Remains 58855185 The Family Remains (The Family Upstairs, #2) Lisa Jewell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1636568994l/58855185.SY75.jpg 90282275]!!
3.25(still trying to decide if this is a 3.25 or 3.5 star read)Very disappointed that I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. It was very slow paced and all the ‘reveals' were thrown all together at the end. I wish the author had sprinkled them out throughout the whole book for more suspense because for the first 67% I felt like nothing was happening, just interviews and gossip and the last 33% was like twist after twist after twist and reveal after reveal after reveal.One thing I will say though the aunties gossip in this is spot on. I am SriLankan too and I have been in many situations with aunties like this lol and let me tell you this is almost exactly how it is. Also I really enjoyed reading abt the setting coz many of the places mentioned in the book are places I have been to.(Mt Lavinia beach, Lovinia's secret passageway, Colombo 7, etc) And since SriLanka is rarely mentioned in thrillers it was like a whole new experience reading this. I will definitely be checking out [a:Amanda Jayatissa 20764500 Amanda Jayatissa https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1608019813p2/20764500.jpg]'s other book [b:My Sweet Girl 61381189 My Sweet Girl An addictive, shocking thriller with an UNFORGETTABLE narrator Amanda Jayatissa https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656758133l/61381189.SY75.jpg 86560415] and I cannot wait!!Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.:))
3.5I like this a tad bit more than I liked [b:We Were Liars 16143347 We Were Liars E. Lockhart https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1402749479l/16143347.SY75.jpg 21975829]. It felt like it would be a 4-4.25 star while reading, but there was a twist in the last few chapters, (the one which revealed that it was actually Carrie who killed Pfeff and not Bess) which made me lower my rating to a 3.5.Overall an enjoyable, fast paced read which is perfect for the summer:)
4.25
Oh wow. I am flabbergasted. Didn't expect to love this book so much.
I picked it up on a whim from the library because the synopsis sounded so interesting. But I didn't expect to love the book so much and connect to the characters.
It started off as a slow burn mystery and somewhere along the halfway point it turned into smthg else entirely. When I mean slow burn I mean SLOWW (it took me a week to read the 1st half, but I read the 2nd half in less than a day lol) but after the halfway point secrets started getting revealed and it became so much more interesting.
I loved the characters so much(except for that one person) and the setting of the book is amazing, specially if you are a book lover(our mc is a bookseller) coz its filled with books,talks about loving books,how books impact our lives,etc
Highly recommend this if you want a good book that will keep you guessing till d very end!
I think you need to have a lot of patience when reading this, coz its SO confusing. Like I finished reading the book and I'm still so confused lol.
The twist was surprising yes, but like I said I am still very confused.
Loved the gothic and spooky vibes. But I wish we had gotten to know more about the ‘him' mentioned.
Would def recommend this for spooky season coz it gives all those creepy gothic mansion vibes.
Giving this a 3 star rating because I still dont know if I like this book or not.
OKAY let me start off by saying I removed a whole star coz Kenna our mc coz she was so annoying!! She was so nosy and I felt like with the way she kept asking questions and annoying everyone I was surprised that she didn't get killed.
I would have dnfed it coz of that nosy woman Kenna but I was really invested in the tribe and everything to do with it. And I loved the vibes of the book it was set in an isolated beach in Australia called Sorrow Bay
The premise of the book sounds a lot like The Island by Adrian Mckinty and at times while reading it felt a lot like it coz it was set in Australia (like The Island and here also we got a tribe(a bit like a cult) but as I kept reading on the similarities ended and I was able to separate the 2 books in my head.
Also this book had a lot of surfing in it and now I feel like an expert on the various surfing terms lol
If you are looking for a summer read with lot of beachy and surfing vibes this book is perfect for you:)
I wish the ending would have been a bit different and I wish that the thing that had been happening had been revealed towards the end (so that it would have been more shocking) but it was def smthg unexpected. Very excited to read Allie Reynolds other book the Shiver for all the snowy and wintery vibes:)
Thank you so much to netgalley, the publishers and Allie Reynolds for the arc:)
This comes out on the 19th of July:))
2.5
Ngl i read the 1st chap and it was a snooze fest, but I wanted to read it n see how Anna was surviving so I continued and at one point about halfway through the 2 chap I couldn't take it anymore with the main character Lib she was soo f***ing ANNOYING. And I wanted to dnf but like I said wanted to see what was going on with Anna so decided to read the chapter summaries and once I was done I skimmed thru the last 2 chapters and let me tell you its not worth it. The reason behind everything is believable and at the same time unbelievable.
So mad at myself for wasting time on this coz the 1 chap is literally 73 PAGES LONG. Like no thank you. Good bye
This book is going to live in my head rent free for a VERY long time.
Evelyn Hugo is a character that I don't think I will ever be able to forget about and at times while reading I had to stop and remind myself that this is a work of fiction coz she felt like a real person. I felt like I was really reading someones biography and wow I don't think I can describe the feeling I got while reading the book, coz it is THAT good.
Also the way her life intersects with Monique's is both tragic and very heartbreaking and I would have never seen it coming.
Fav character is HARRY CAMERON!!! He's probably one of my fav characters of all time,LOVE him so much!!
PLEASE READ IT!! I guarantee you wont be disappointed.
3.5
This is not like the other CoHo books I've read, in this we get various messed up characters who have secrets that they don't want anyone knowing. And the book shows us how nobody is perfect and how everyone is different from each other.
Honestly during the first 45% (roughly) I thought I might dnf it coz it took almost an entire chapter to describe the house(which was a church b4) and I wasn't interested in knowing abt it. But after the 50% mark it got really interesting coz all the characters flaws and secrets were getting revealed bit by bit and it got so drama filled.
I was getting annoyed with the mc Merit during the first few chapters but after a while I got used to her and she didn't bother me anymore.
Also during the last few chapters there were some scenes that were so funny and I kid you not it was abt 2:30AM and I was trying so hard not to make a noise by laughing coz it was that funny.
But aside from that the book deals with some dark topics and I really appreciated how it was dealt, it was very chaotic yes, but at the same time done properly. (Not listing the triggers here coz it might spoil the book, but dm me if you want to know them:)
I don't think this is a romance(coz the romance in this was on the side and the book was more focused on Merit and her family), more like a character study.
If you are looking for a very messing,chaotic book filled with very flawed characters this book is perfect for u:)
3.25
I was very disappointed with this one coz I have heard so many great things about Lucinda Berry, I went into it expecting to love it but all I got was a meh feeling. The book felt so rushed that towards the end I didn't feel like we had got all the answers we needed. But I did like the fact that we got to know more about autism and I learnt a lot more about it.
Some quotes I liked.
1) "A mothers rejection cuts to the core. Its impossible not to feel her grief."2)"Nobody knows the insides of a woman like her daughter"3)"You should worry about the kids who never want to be at home"4)"When you're a kid, you feel things when they're wrong. Everything goes by your feelings because you don't really understand all the stuff going on around you."
3.5
This is the first time reading a cult thriller and I really enjoyed it.
Loved the past timelines where we learned abt the cult and the plot twist was crazyy.
Only think is I wish the book was shorter coz I felt i dragging for way too long.(It took me 2 weeks to read it,when at other times I take 3 days to finish a book at most) If it were shorter this would have definitely been between 4 to 5 stars.
Read this if you love;
-Cult thrillers
-Multiple povs
-Past and present timelines
-Spooky atmosphere
-Crazy twists
Thank you to netgalley, the publishers and the author for the e-arc:)
Just finished 4.5 stars. Lovedd this one!! Very fast paced and I felt so much sympathy for the characters, I also loved how we got all povs of the story coz I feel like I was connected more to the characters.Highly recommend!! If you love [a:Lisa Jewell 93504 Lisa Jewell https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272239443p2/93504.jpg]'s books then this book is perfect for u!!
Alice Oseman is officially one of my fav authors of all TIME!!!!
Loved all the characters(favs are Jason and Pip :) and I was so sad when the book ended:(
The book also talks about the importance of friendships and I loved it so much for that coz normally in books friendships are given a second place but here I loved it so much for the friendships the characters had with each other. They were so wholesome and sweet.
4.25
I was almost gonna dnf this while reading the first few chapters but when Baz entered the scene I COULDN'T STOP READING!!! Just kept flipping pages coz it suddenly became so interesting.The chemistry between Baz and Simon is SOOO cuteeeee and I have prob reread their cute moments abt 5 or 6 times each lol
Lovee the book and the main characters!!!(except Agatha)
Read it!!!!!
Fav quotes.
1)”It's going to be okay.” Baz wraps both arms around him. “It's all right, love.”Everything is starting to make sense.”2)“Simon Snow is still going to die kissing me.Just not today.”3)“You were the sun, and I was crashing into you.”4)“It's the good things that hurt when you're missing them.”5)“He's not a monster. He's just a villain. He's not a villain. He's just a boy. I'm kissing a boy. I'm kissing Baz.”6)“And sometimes holes want to get bigger, but Baz was wrong—sometimes they just want to be filled.”7)“I am going to die kissing Simon Snow. Aleister Crowley, I'm living a charmed life.”8)“Just when you think you're having a scene without Simon, he drops in to remind you that everyone else is a supporting character in his catastrophe.”9)“I was eleven years old, and I'd lost my mother, and my soul, and the Crucible gave me you.”10)“I let myself slip away... Just to stay sane. Just to get through it. And when I felt myself slipping too far, I held on to the one thing I'm always sure of - Blue eyes. Bronze curls. The fact that Simon Snow is the most powerful magician alive. That nothing can hurt him, not even me. That Simon Snow is alive. And I'm hopelessly in love with him.”