Timo
A story that seems very familiar. There is a missing girl, a weird man in a boarded up house who regularly looses hours if not days he can't remember, and the sister of the missing girl still on the search years later.
But then there's also a talking cat and this is where things got a bit more interesting.
The story is small in scope, taking place only with a handful of characters and locations, which makes it very easy too read and it flows great.
The atmosphere throughout is very tense and the slow dripping of new information keeps the mystery interesting.
That is until at a certain point the “unreliable narrator” trope is getting a bit too much and it became pretty clear where the story will be going. There was a lot of drag in the third act and some chapters blended together because the characters kept repeating the same stuff again and again.
In the end it was enjoyable enough because it took some turns away from the usual tropes.
A story about two 11 year old girls in a rural Scandinavian village. One day one of the girls wanders into a half frozen waterfall and goes missing.
The story is pretty short and there is not a lot happening story wise. Most of the book is about describing the cold wintery landscape in a very lyrical matter.
I know that the main characters are 11 year old girls and I'm the furthest from that particular mindset, but their cryptic conversations and the way they handled things made me want to scream at them.
All dialogues in the book are very cryptic and more akin to poems, which is really fitting with the lyrical landscape description mentioned above and the overall writing style. But in the end it all blurred together and I was skipping more and more passages.
It started interesting and the part which describes how the girl wanders off and goes deeper and deeper into the wilderness is cleverly written, but everything after that frustrated me.
„Sea of Tranquility“ is a relatively short book that touches on such topics as time travel, or the theory that life is just a simulation.
Because it is so short it needs to move pretty fast to cover those ideas, and this is where it fell flat for me. There are too many characters being introduced too fast for any real character development, which in turn kept me from having any connection with those characters.
There was also a lot of talk about a pandemic, which felt kind of forced in just so that the author can write down her thoughts during COVID-19.
It was a easy and fast read and the writing style is pretty, but all in all the story didn't hold my interest.
Poorly written thriller in the „The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window“ subgenre, about a woman on the run after she kills her husband.
It's full of clichés, boring characters and uninteresting twists. It's a quick read, but I still forced myself to finish the last 40%. But not without a lot of eye rolling.
A series of short stories that explores the impact of a deadly decades long pandemic, and how the world and people deal with it.
Beginning in the near future it tells very different stories full of fresh ideas about how society and humans change in a world where death and climate change is all around.
The stories often build upon another and have breadcrumb like connections from the very start of the outbreak, to thousand years in the future where humanity travels among the stars.
Some stories are more forgettable than other but concepts like the City of Laughter and other visions of the future will likely stay with me for a long time. I got a lot of „Black Mirror“ vibes while reading, which I consider a good thing.
A cozy little story about the life of a small town book store owner which fully changes after a baby gets abandoned in his store. It's a story about choices that we make and the people that we choose to have around.
Even though there are some heavy themes, the underlining message and theme is hopeful and happy.
Books and the love of reading are an essential element to the story and are elemental in every characters life, and that's where I couldn't connect in the same way. I like reading, but not in the same life fulfilling way and I'm not as literary as all those characters.
The beautiful and off the grid location which is amplified by great visual writing is what hooked me to this book. I could sometimes hear the birds and feel the summer breeze.
Although the „power“ of the first main character that we meet at the beginning feels kind of gimmicky, the mystery that unfolded was interesting enough. That is until around 30% in, where there are so many obvious „hints“ that I instantly knew one of the major twists. I don't know if the author wanted to be sneaky or not, but come on.
From that point on the writing and location were the only things that kept me going. Unfortunately it also got worse towards the end. One twist I correctly guessed and the other was incredibly ridiculous.
A short but powerful book about trying to deal with the devastating news of a horrifying illness.
The writing of Paul captivated me from start to finish. I wanted to know all of his thoughts about the tiniest details. His more scientific look at his illness felt enlightening. Even though I have no medical background it helped me to better understand and feel for everyone with such illnesses.
The medical behind the scenes although pretty interesting, didn't do that much for me. I know that they're essential to his life and therefore is memoirs but I could've lived with a bit less of it.
The parts were he was just a patient and not a doctor were the most intimate.
Ironically the most resonating and memorable part of Pauls memoir for me, wasn't something he wrote. It was the afterword if his wife.
I have to admit I cheated a little, and chose to read this short story because it's the last day of 2015 and I was missing 1 book for my reading challenge.
But “The Last Question” from Isaac Asimov was a short story that I've got recommended from so many different places, that I wanted to read this for some time now.
And sure enough, everyone was right. This is a must read for every Sci-Fi lover out there. Even if you have only the tiniest interest in space and space travel this short story will satisfy you greatly.
It is really mind blowing that Isaac Asimov wrote this in 1956. It would have the same impact if it were published today. A really great and thought provoking story and a great ending to my 2015 reading year.
I had high hopes for this book at the beginning. It started out interesting enough, and I hoped that it would be some clever play with dialogue. I hoped that the main protagonist would use the situation he created, to change the perspective and view of things of the people he kidnapped.
But all my hopes got flushed down really fast. The main protagonist turned out to be a self absorbed maniac, trapped in his own private circle jerk. Literally none of his actions made any kind of sense. I understand that he has some serious mental issues, but even with that in mind I couldn't find one part of his thinking that I could reason with.
I just felt bored the whole way through and only finished it because it's short enough. Still a waste of time.
I recently got the itch to read more non-fiction to broaden my horizon and learn a thing or two. To start this off, I picked up this highly praised book. Why not start the journey to more knowledge with deadly viruses?
Of course I've followed the news and knew about Ebola and its symptoms and consequences. But I never really digged deeper into it. And boy it is as fascinating as it is terrifying.
Although based truly in facts and history, “The Hot Zone” is written like fiction which immensely helps to terrify you. It was really fascinating to learn about the place of birth of filoviruses and how they're adapting to survive. Preston describes in detail what happens to a human being and/or animal once it catches one of many different strings of filoviruses. If this would be a fiction book, many people would be appalled of the cruelty and brutality that happens to animals and humans. The fact that it isn't makes this story so haunting.
What can you learn from this book? Besides the story of the discovery of different deadly viruses and a look behind the scenes of scientific animal tests, you learn how hauntingly helpless we humans are if nature decides to get rid of us. We can battle it, but it's a fight against windmills. Nature can adapt and change and we will never know where it's going to strike next.
Incredible! It's been a long long time since I devoured a book as much as “Bird Box”. I couldn't put it down. I won't give too much away, because I think everyone should get into this without reading too much about it beforehand.
“Bird Box” creeped me out more than any other book so far. It's the combination of hopelessness and emptiness with the ever present danger waiting for you to lower your guard and make one small mistake. Just as the characters in the book, you never know what the danger is, but you sure as hell know there has to be something because people die horribly. So you'll have to barricade yourself, you have to put on a blindfold, and you have to try to leave the house as little as possible. But in the same time you want to fight it, you want to try and make sense of it, all while keeping your eyes closed.
And this abundance of sight that Josh Malerman introduces, is an incredible medium of horror. Every moment outside the house, from small visits to the well, to the incredible voyage on the river is pure terror. Outside of your blindfold is the beautiful world with its vibrant colors that you haven't experienced for years. But you know that it's empty of most human life. But there has to be something with you, because you can hear it...
The story follows a handful of survivors as they barricade themselves in a house and try to cope with their losses and the hopelessness of the future. The characters are strong and you can feel the heavy burden on all of their shoulders.
It all feels realistic. You can easily believe that it would all play out like this, in such a scenario. Hope, love, hate, distrust, anger...
For me one of the best books I've read in years.
I'm not a hardcore comic fan. To be frank, I haven't read many. I'm more interested in bigger graphic novels that tell a whole story, than in short comics with an ongoing one. Once in a while there are some collections coming out that combine a few comics in one bigger issue. Wytches Vol.1 is one of them and I got it because I love horror and it's been getting some rave from different places.
So with my completely unprofessional knowledge of comics: it was okay. The story is still not completed (hence the Vol.1), but it's not as open ended as you think. It can easily be read as a stand alone.
The illustrations are really good. There are a lot of colors and distortions that feet right, and are used to give it all a really dirty and gritty look. The wytches are beautifully creepy.
The story moved way too fast for me (maybe that's a comic thing?), and I would have loved to get a little more background on every character. It started really strong and creepy, but couldn't hold my interest later as the dad decided to get his daughter back.
Because it's such a quick read, I won't say that I felt like I wasted my time with it, but I definitely won't read Volume 2 once it gets released. Maybe comics aren't for me, and I'll be sticking to graphic novels in the future.
I'm really torn about “Sphere”. I've read books that I instantly loved and ones that I disliked and stopped reading. “Sphere” somehow managed to keep me in the middle ground all the way to the end. I disliked many things, but the story and pace was interesting enough to keep me going.
“Sphere” got me really hooked in the first half. Throw in some mystery from outer space, some future science and black holes with time travel and I'm instantly hooked on your book. But at the same time I already didn't like the cliche characters and the dialogue. But the action had a good enough pace to keep me going and I hoped for the best that the characters wouldn't get in the way too much. But oh boy did they get in the way.
Michael Crichton had a firm idea how his story needed to advance and play out and disregarded logic and character actions. Illogical actions and implausible reactions to nearly all situations are really a common theme throughout the whole book.
Although this really damped the story for me, I didn't stopped reading because I wanted to know how this all plays out. In the end my time with “Sphere” was worth it, but this story could've been so much more.
Brilliant.
Although it discusses serious topics, Wolf in White Van is a brilliantly written book full of beautiful descriptions. It's a book about rash decisions and the consequences that follow. It's about growing up and the time you spent inside your own head while doing so. It explores regions we all have wandered in at some point in our lives, but goes farther.
“My parents would have asked the younger me, what do you want to be safe from? After the accident nobody would ask. That was, to put it harshly, the best thing about the rifle blast that destroyed most of my face.”
Wolf in White Van is a character study if you will. After finishing it, I felt like there is more depth in there than I thought. I feel that if I read this again, now knowing where it's headed I will reveal even more layers of the labyrinth that is the protagonists mind.
It was one of those kind of books, that really impressed me with their writing style and left me with a bit more than a engaging story. It left me something to think about, be it for just a few minutes or even days. I love those kinds.
Jesus. What was that?
I appreciate darker stories centering around social backgrounds that I don't have experience with. I like to be thrown into lives that are so different than mine, and into places that I will probably never visit. It helps me broaden my horizon and appreciate the live I'm able to live.
Jesus Saves gave me exactly this. Taking place in the outskirts of U.S cities, where poverty, drugs and hopelessness rules the day, it really showed me a way of living I've never really thought about before. The descriptions of trash filled parking lots and run down mall strips is really graphic and helps you to be drawn into the world.
The characters though, didn't made me feel for them. Yes their lives are hard, but nothing that happened really made me hope for or suffer with them.
I must admit, the first few chapters from the viewpoint of the young kidnapped girl were brilliant. Her way of trying to deal with the circumstances by fleeing into fantasy worlds and imagining the smallest details outside of the room she's kept in, were very very well written. But instead of limiting those scenes to a few chapters, the author did it over and over again. It really got old for me, and hindered my sympathy.
I also really appreciate short, abrupt and non happy endings. But this was just...what? There was no real connection between everything, and it all felt out of place.
All in all, a partly well written book with graphic descriptions of it's world ,but sadly for the most part a tedious and confusing mess of stories with no beginning and no end.
I've always loved the woods. I love the mostly untouched nature and all it's beauty. I love it when the sun's shimmering through the trees during the day, and I respect and fear it during the night. When trees and branches get distorted and forming shadows, that your brain interprets as pure terror.
I think everyone feared the woods at night as a child, and many adults still do. They were/are the perfect embodiment of all our fears.
Through the Woods captures this feeling of fear and terror, I felt as a kid in the most perfect way. Even though not really centered around the woods, they're still in every story one way or another. Every tale has its own distinctive art style, and different feeling. But they're all so beautifully detailed that it's easy to get lost in them. The panels are cleverly used, and between illustrations of beauty there are drawings of horrors from deep within your nightmares. But still, the horror elements are more subtle, left to flourish in your head rather than graphic. It's like your every childhood fear come to paper.
“I dreamt a Captain dressed in greyI dreamt I wore a long white coatI dreamt a stone caught in my throatI dreamt I chokedand chokedand choked”I recommend this beauty of a book to everyone, that still knows about the now embarrassing things that we feared as a child. This book makes you revisit them and who knows, maybe they weren't so reasonless?
After reading and loving “The Knife Of Never Letting Go”, and letting this trilogy rest for a year, I wanted to return to New World to see what's happening next.
The book starts right after the abrupt but awesome ending of the first. Everything seems lost and without hope. Good premise, right? Yeah, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Everything that I loved about the first book -the interesting narrative, the powerful characters, the scifi elements...- is falling flat here.
“The Ask And The Answer” in its whole, is a book about dictatorship, and all the problems that come with it. Still very good written (I'm beginning to love Patrick Ness's writing style), but nothing new and interesting. There's the dictator with his brainwashed army, the few citizens that rise against him and all the fighting and cruelty that naturally comes with this constellation.
The “Noise” that made the first book so interesting in the first place, is just a byproduct. The only interesting change was the mayors ability to use it as a weapon. But even that fell short. I hope this gets more fleshed out in the final book.
But then again, I'm not really sure if I'll read the last one.
The ending felt way too forced. Like Ness wanted to create the most interesting cliffhanger that he could, and ruined it. There's just so much happening at once all of a sudden, that even a fictional story like this feels unbelievable.
Though mostly good written and with a nice pace, I just didn't care for the characters anymore. Not as I did in the first book.
I've always been really intrigued by Japanese culture and media. I watch the occasional anime, and like to play Japanese video games. For my next dive into this world, I thought why not try to get into mangas? So I purchased a few that I had either heard from, or that sounded interesting. Death Note, being pretty popular was one I heard about.
What did I like? The art. Most of the time. I love when animes are beautiful drawn. They can really spread some comfy feelings for me. Death Note had some of this. Scenes inside a classroom, in the city, or inside Lights bedroom were quite comfortable. Ryuk, the god of death, is perfectly drawn with his dead eyes and evil grin.
What else did I like? The overall story. But only nearing the end of Vol. 1. There are a few “twists” and elements getting thrown in at the end that could make it pretty interesting later on.
What I hated? The writing. Good god the writing is so bad. I understand that this is probably the fault of the translation (I hope), but this is really cringe worthy.
Light is such a weird character and his dialogues with Ryuk are really feeling forced.
I purchased Vol. 2 at the same time and will of course give it a go. But if there aren't some new awesome and engaging story elements that will hook me, I don't think I will continue this series. Especially if the writing keeps being so bad.
This book is awesome. Randall Munroe does a really good job with explaining science to everyone (everyone who knows xkcd already knows this).
The topics are short but informative. You always get way more information than you thought, and with its on point humor it's just fun to read.
I really learned some new stuff, and even though most of the topics are really crazy, I already could shine with some knowledge or facts around my friends.
I really can recommend this to everyone. Fun!
A Monster Calls is a short book filled with clever elements that will make you turn page after page in no time. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story, with its short chapters and beautifully subtle chapter names.
The whole book feels kind of subtle, because no one ever speaks openly about what is happening until the very end. And that ending comes so abruptly and with full force, that I needed a few minutes to comprehend it all. Of course I, and everybody in the book knew what was going to happen, but I felt just like Conor, still hoping and not accepting till the end.
Although the story is centered around a young boy, there is still enough to take away at an older age.
“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”
Thankfully I never had to go through something like this in my life, but everything still felt eerily real. The clinging on ones childish naivety, the fear and hate of getting ignored for something you have no control over and the sheer heaviness of it all at such a young age.
All of this combined helped A Monster Calls to be remembered.
Brandon Sanderson managed to hook me once again. The Well of Ascension has the perk of being the second book in a trilogy. Which means that we're already introduced to the characters, the state of the world, the magic system and everything else we need to know. So instead of using the pages to introduce us to those things, the 2nd book can jump straight into the action. And Sanderson doesn't use this perk very well.
Yes, this one has way more action than the 1st and there is even a huge battle for the city, but it could've been so much more. Sanderson likes to fill pages after pages with conversations, when you just want action.
I also thought that there was way too much hand holding. Often there are hints about interesting things lore wise, and just as you finished to piece together the pieces and getting that nice AHA! effect, Sanderson destroys it by explaining every little detail. I think he fears we will miss something, or thinks we cannot form thoughts on our own.
But all this is bitching on a high standard, because despite of those small things that bugged me, The Well of Ascension -just like The Final Empire- is one hell of a ride. Most of the long conversations are adding depth to the characters, the magic system is still fresh and fast paced and the world with it's lore is full of interesting cultures and species.
The ending sure is twisted and open enough, to have peaked my interest to read the 3rd and last installment. But I guess I would have done it either way, just to see where those likable characters end up.
Ever sat on a train or bus, looking out of the window and imagining what's going on in those houses? I'm a bit like this. Sometimes I stop and wonder what all those people around me are up to. They all have a life as complex as mine, and for them I'm just an extra in a movie, instantly forgotten. This is where this book starts.
“I watch the people I pass - the two men running, backpacks on, training for the marathon, the young woman in a black skirt and white trainers, heels in her bag, on her way to work - and I wonder what they're hiding. Are they moving to stop drinking, running to stand still?”
I enjoyed it immensely. It's a clever written thriller that is very fast paced but doesn't leave character building behind. There are different viewpoints from 3 main characters which are perfectly spaced, giving you just enough information to keep you guessing.
People keep drawing comparisons to Gone Girl, but I don't think that gives Paula Hawkins's work justice. While Gone Girl has loosely a similar tone and story, The Girl on the Train is a different kind of beast. Yes there are twists that I didn't saw coming, but it's less of a heavy character study and more a realistic chain of events where bad things happen to good (or are they?) people.
And this is why this book gets 5 stars from me. It's realistic. So realistic that it's scary. The Girl on the Train must be the first thriller I've read, where every action from every character just made sense. Everything done and said happened exactly like I thought it should. And not needing to shout at the characters for their foolishness, was a nice change.
A psychologically troubled women returns to her dysfunctional small hometown, where she tries to uncover the story behind the abduction and brutal killing of two girls. And it's as bad as it sounds.
After reading and loving “Gone Girl”, this is my second novel of Gillian Flynn I started. And one thing's for sure: This women is a master in creating really really messed up characters. I don't know what she must have been through to come up with such terrible people, but I love it.
Sharp Objects it's a downward spiral of terrible people doing terrible things in a terrible town. Spending the few weeks alongside Camille in her hometown was no holiday. The overall atmosphere is intense and oppressive. There's wealth, poverty, broken families, broken feelings, alcohol, really messed up little kids, unhealthy sex as a coping mechanism and a lot of failure. It's a dissection of small towns that are somewhat been halted in time.
I really enjoyed my time with Sharp Objects (as much as you can enjoy such depressive books), but sometimes I just couldn't understand the reason behind stuff that Camille did and didn't do. I wanted to shout at her more than a few times to grow up. Yes, you had a troubled life, but that doesn't mean you have to take this shit from a 12 year old Lolita.
A scary and depressive book. If you're sick of books full of unrealistic love and happiness, go on, Sharp objects is for you. I for one, need something full of unrealistic love and happiness now.