Gemma

Read for my IRL Bookclub.I don't really pick up historical fiction, so I was pushing myself out of my usual interests. I was completely wrapped up in the main relationship in the book (and I loved discussing it with my book club).

I never thought I would enjoy a Liane Moriarty novel, after I hated The Husband's Secret (?????? ?????????). In that a particular story, I found the reveal came too quickly and the writing wasn't strong enough to support the story. However, in this novel I really enjoyed the writing. The style of the book lends itself well to the writing, as it is all written through the speculation of 3 unreliable narrators. At the end of chapters there was a brief summary of the gossip going about.

The novel is a similar construction as to The Husband's Secret, where it follows 3 women who know each other because their children all attend the same school. Drama flies about the school after one child is accused of bullying; while the chapter titles count down to the school trivia night, where something horrible has occurred.

I feel like this was the novel The Husband's Secret was meant to be, but seeing as this came only a year after according to goodreads publication dates I'm surprised the quality improved so quickly. I highly recommend this one, and I'm delighted I've finished now and I can watch the tv show.

This was a delightfully quick read, which I was in need of after hitting a small slump. I found the writing to be a bit bland to read, but I suspect that was due to the author trying to convey the lack of emotions of some of the characters. This was a good thriller, and I would have given it four stars if the ending had not left me feeling unsatisfied. I understood the twists, and I really liked the idea of them, but I think if they had been revealed more gradually (over 20% of the book versus 10%) the impact of the individual twists would have hit me more. I will say that I only saw about half of the twists coming, and even then I wasn't really sure.

A genuinely engaging and surprising read, but not a favourite of the genre so far.

Sharp Objects is my first Gillian Flynn novel, but not my fist experience of her work. I watched Gone Girl and was hopelessly confused. Not by the plot, but I had read a review before seeing the film that desibed it as a feminist work of art. After seeing the film I had to conclude it was one of the greater thrillers I'd seen, but that blogpost about its feminist contributions must have been satire.

I read Sharp Objects for my bookclub, on my suggestion. I was expecting a typical detective style thriller where the big twist was that the reporter we were following was much more closely connected to the story that we expected. A lot of thrillers follow this pattern, but I really wasn't expecting the twists and flavour that Flynn put on that storyline. The plot took such a rapid increase in tension towards the end of the book that I flew through the pages. The story was captivating and horrifying; I almost didn't believe the ending once I had read it.

For this book, I would have to say that while I enjoyed the reading experience I would have preffered a longer book. I think that some of the plot elements would have benefitted from more time before the reveal, and that Flynn's writing was so gripping that I could have easily read double that pagecount. I'd like to go on to read all of her stories, especially as I hear so many great things said about her as an author.

I genuinely loved this book for many different reasons. Firstly, I know the history of how the States came to be (a little), but the specifics of it all isn't something I'm familiar with. I really enjoyed and appreciated a closer look into the life, and variations of a life, you might expect living in different states in that time period. I love the closeness we feel to Cora, in fact, I found her to be an endearing character. I really resonated with her struggle with her relationship with her mother, the sudden moments of anger she felt and admired how human she felt at times.

Similarly, the book struck a really strong emotional chord with me throughout. I really feel like this book was the one that made me feel the most this year.

3.5 stars

When I picked up The Roanoke Girls, I was in a rut with many aspects of like. Particularly reading, as I was completely failing my reading challenge and couldn't seem to finish any book I picked up.

The Roanoke Girls is a compelling, creepy read that is different to the thrillers I've read before. In a refreshingly new take on a mystery novel, I both knew the creepy twists that were coming and simultaneously was desperate to find out more.

If that doesn't intrigue you, I finished the book in under 2 hours.

I picked up The Essex Serpent in an effort to start reading more literary works. That effort paid off, and the habit persisted even if the original book did not. I began this novel in early January and am finally calling it quits in July at 70%.

There is nothing to fault with the novel itself. The characters, setting and relationships are all interesting and I genuinely enjoyed reading the book every time I picked it up. The brush of the unknown, magical elements within the story really improved the concept. I'm giving the book a solid four stars due to how much I enjoyed the book when I originally started it. However, after having left it for so long the plot was hard to remember and my interest in the book have faded, so it remains an unfinished four stars. I have every belief that a reread will be a successful four or five stars.

Wow. I adored The Martian and read it within one day, raved about it to anyone who would listen and devoured that movie. I even considered listening to the audiobook after all that because I loved the book that much and I really don't enjoy audiobooks.

I wish I'd never picked Artemis up. Jazz wasn't written as a human being so much as the author's idea of a wisecracking protagonist. I could go on for a long rant about how your female characters should be noticeably female in a way that isn't the character or other characters talking about shagging her. Or how MCs who can do everything they need to do with ease isn't interesting or fun to read, especially if they over explain what they're doing while narrating. Or any other of the aspects to this book.

Basically I don't think there were any redeeming features to this book. 300 pages of absolute guff.

I picked up The Husband's Secret because I'd been recommended it by a friend at work. I quite like domestic thrillers (or simply thrillers in general) when I'm in a reading slump. And this book did just the trick!

I enjoyed the story, although the big reveal came altogether too early in the plot I think. The characters were enjoyable and felt real. The ending felt a bit like a cop-out with all the endings neatly tied away. And we're not going to talk about the epilogue, because as far as I'm concerned that ruined the book.

Circe has given me the taste for retellings of ancient myths, because this was a beautiful story. It follows the life of a young daughter of Helios and all of the men who enter and leave her life.

The writing is simple yet powerful and I really appreciated how it let the story stand on it's own. I felt deeply connected to Circe throughout the plot, which particularly impressed me as I read this book with almost a months gap between the first two thirds and reading the last third. When I picked the story back up only a small reminder of the plot was required and I quickly fell back into the world and sensation of reading this book.

I definitely recommend this book if you are interested, and will investigate Miller's other novels to tide me by until her next release.

The Graces was an unusual book. It's probably the best way I have to describe it, as I'm not sure I have a clue what I just read.

The book follows a teenage girl as she moves to a new school and becomes obsessed with a family called Grace, who she suspects to be witches. She is determined to become part of their inner circle, desperate for the brother to fall in love with her. In fact, I didn't feel like the main character and narrator of this book had any strong personality or direction. There didn't feel like there was any insight into her past (except brief mentions of her parents behavior which was never explained or examined). The character even remained nameless for the first portion of the book!

The Graces were interesting, but majority of them were not really given much depth. I think this book would have been a strong candidate if the characters had been fleshed out and given more aspects to make them feel 3D.

I was not expecting this book. It???s had a lot of hype in the past few months so it has been on my radar and I jumped at the chance to request an arc, but I had forgotten the blurb by the time it came to read my copy. I got to try and figure out the world and magic as it unfolded in the book and it made the experience all the better.

I appreciated how different all our point of view characters were in status; personality and political views. I found myself quickly attached to two characters but by the end of the book I was enjoying all of them equally. I can???t wait to know more about their plotlines.

The plot was fairly busy, with five points of view to balance and a lot of action throughout the book. It kept me glued to the pages. I struggled to keep the points of view separate initially, especially the names, but I had a clear idea by the end of the book. There was a surprise towards the end of the book that has me eagerly awaiting the sequel.

The magic and worldbuilding in this first book was something different. The magic uses bones to draw power from and can power constructs. I???d like to see more of the world built up in the sequel but I???m looking forward to picking it as it releases.

I was not expecting this book. It???s had a lot of hype in the past few months so it has been on my radar and I jumped at the chance to request an arc, but I had forgotten the blurb by the time it came to read my copy. I got to try and figure out the world and magic as it unfolded in the book and it made the experience all the better.

I appreciated how different all our point of view characters were in status; personality and political views. I found myself quickly attached to two characters but by the end of the book I was enjoying all of them equally. I can???t wait to know more about their plotlines.

The plot was fairly busy, with five points of view to balance and a lot of action throughout the book. It kept me glued to the pages. I struggled to keep the points of view separate initially, especially the names, but I had a clear idea by the end of the book. There was a surprise towards the end of the book that has me eagerly awaiting the sequel.

The magic and worldbuilding in this first book was something different. The magic uses bones to draw power from and can power constructs. I???d like to see more of the world built up in the sequel but I???m looking forward to picking it as it releases.

The first thing that jumped out to me as I started Anna is how creepy and visceral the book was. The book was excellent at building terror as we moved through the story and I thought it was remarkably well done. This was probably one of the strongest aspects of the book. It really elevated the first and third part of the book but during the middle where the character was in a relatively stable environment it meant that the novel dragged a little. As the book is written from Anna???a point of view, it???s her emotions that really help to build the tension and atmosphere so when she gets any form of safety it means the atmosphere falls flat.

Unfortunately, the plot didn???t add to the reading experience. I don???t think it was a negative aspect but it was fairly predictable and a plot line I think I???ve seen before in similar settings. The characters did exactly what I thought they would, so as the plot wore on I enjoyed it less. I think if there???d been a bit more to the plot, maybe subverting some of my expectations it could have been a really solid read.

I thought Anna was a good read, a definite page turner as the first part hooks you in deep. I enjoyed soaking in the suspense and atmosphere the author built and I really think it stands apart from other books in how well the tension was built.

Man, talk about a cover pick. There???s a style of cover art that uses the distinct paint strokes to build up the art and get a textured feel that just makes me want to pick the book up immediately.

There???s Roman influences in the structure of the army and it???s the most I???ve enjoyed any Roman influenced fantasy. I just don???t get a long with it. The setting was built up fairly minimally and done through conversation mostly so you built up a wider picture in little chunks. I thought that was a good balance to strike considering how little the setting plays a part in the story.

The dialogue felt overly stiff and formal for how well characters knew each other. And then there were moments when I couldn???t believe things happened for any reason other than the plot requiring it, like torturers giving information away freely while trying to interrogate someone. C???mon man. The character felt like they were mostly just designed to fit the plot rather than having layers and feeling more real.

I had a fun time reading Seven Deaths of an Empire, it was a cool premise. I was hooked quite early on but unfortunately it didn???t end up a hit for me.

One of my most surprising reads of the year! I didn't have any interest surrounding doping in sports, but the author told his story with plenty of details to keep me interested. I also really appreciated a lot of the additional information about his life in Russia and expanding on the picture so we got a fuller idea of his life. I think it really helped explain how it was expected of his and a natural next step to start hiding this evidence.

The audiobook was also a great choice. I listened to the book all in one day and it was so easy to follow along. I think the author did a good job of keeping the writing brief and avoided over explaining.