Tag: Thriller (Page 7 of 16)

BOOK REVIEW – Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

May 21, 2016 / Anna

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Razor-sharp, psychological thriller set in a snowy Arctic wilderness.

“They say that dead men tell no tales, but they’re wrong. Even the dead tell stories.”

It's 1910. In a cabin north of the Arctic Circle, in a place murderously cold and desolate, Sig Andersson is alone. Except for the corpse of his father, frozen to death that morning when he fell through the ice on the lake.

The cabin is silent, so silent, and then there's a knock at the door. It's a stranger, and as his extraordinary story of gold dust and gold lust unwinds, Sig's thoughts turn more and more to his father's prized possession, a Colt revolver, hidden in the storeroom.

A revolver just waiting to be used...but should Sig use it, or not?

What a fool I was, thinking that I rated my books depending on the story they delivered. If one novel can destroy this belief, it’s Revolver.

Sometimes, it’s all about the atmosphere.

Sometimes, a storyline that shouldn’t work for me just does. And oh man, how Revolver shouldn’t work : ~~1910. A fifteen years-old boy living in a little cabin in Nome, Alaska. The frozen dead corpse of his father. A strong fixation on an old Colt (don’t hate me, but I do not like guns). Religion~~.

Here’s my advice : forget the blurb. Forget the story, even, because that’s not really what matters. Let yourself be swept along in the chilling and sad atmosphere, where all our self-delusions are shattered. What’s life, really, when so many factors stay beyond our control? See, I do not believe in Fate or whatever you want to call it. This is actually a concept that annoys me, because lazy much?! (I would say moronic, but I’ve spent years listening to my mum and she really believe in that stuff. Also, I respect others’ opinions)

Yet I recognize that we deceive ourselves when we think that we hold a complete control on your life. We can’t. Life’s made of choices, of chaos, of other people and their choices, and we’re too complex creatures to organize ourselves like a schedule (also, planning sucks, okay?)

I am really, really happy we’re not machines, and reading the discreetly beautiful and compelling words of Marcus Sedgwick, the feeling of being lost spread into my chest more and more along the way – I loved it. In that sense, I think that his numerous references to guns, by showing the delusion of security, of control they offer (again, gun-skeptic here, bear with me), perfectly served this disenchanted and thought-provoking story.

Considering my personal preferences, I shouldn’t have given this book the time of a day, yet I’m very, very glad I did, because wow. Such an haunting little story, Revolver is. I was invested from the beginning and my interest – my fascination – never wavered.

Strangely, I close this book thinking about Un roi sans divertissement, another strange tale that took me by surprise during my third year of French Literature in Uni. Same suffocating, snowy ambiance. Same intriguing, out of time mystery.

Same millions of people bored by it, maybe, and same pleasantly surprised Anna.

BOOK REVIEW – Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

February 19, 2016 / Anna

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GONE GIRL

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.

*breathes deeply*

What a ride! Finally a mystery that keeps its appeal intact after the first 50% and does not make me roll my eyes all duh! like in the end. Let’s see why, shall we?

► Highly recommended if you can stomach the depression. *whispers* In the end, I even rooted for Libby. Don’t ask me why. I just did. Nobody’s perfect, okay? I said that the characters made me sick, but oh, the sadness. The despair. The misunderstandings. The loneliness. My heart aches from lack of hope.

BOOK REVIEW: Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro #5) by Dennis Lehane

November 19, 2015 / Chelsea / 0 Comments

Prayers for Rain (Kenzie & Gennaro #5)
by Dennis Lehane
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.

Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark—the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What he finds is a sadistic stalker who targeted the young woman and methodically drove her to her death. A monster the law can’t touch. But Kenzie can. He and his former partner, Angela Gennaro, will fight a mind-twisting battle against this psychopath even as he turns his tricks on them.

You wanted to play? Well, hide-and-seek is over. Let the real games begin, motherfucker.

I can’t say this is exactly what I wanted it to be….because it wasn’t. But not for one minute did I not enjoy it. Is that weird? This book took me a week to read, which doesn’t bode well for what I thought of it-But then I take into account how busy, tired, meh I’ve been and it about evens out with my mood. The verdict?? When I felt a distance at the beginning, I should have stopped.
I drank some more Beck’s, fingered the cardboard coaster, felt a grin fighting to break across my face. I glanced at Angie. The corners of her mouth twitched, too.
“Don’t look at me,” she said.
“Why not?”
“I’m telling you-” She lost the battle and closed her eyes as the smile broke across her cheeks.
Mine followed about a half second later.
“I don’t know why I’m smiling,” Angie said.
“Me, either.”
“Prick.”
“Bitch.”
She laughed and turned on her chair, drink in hand. “Miss me?”
Like you can’t imagine.
“Not a bit,” I said.

I’ve been in no mood for tedious and detailed books seeing as I am tired beyond reason all the time now, and when I picked this up and felt like I was getting nowhere (knowing these books like I do and loving them all) I should have known to call it quits and save it for a vacation or a holiday. But I never learn my lesson it seems…

“You don’t kill a guy for trashing a woman’s car.”
“Yeah?” Bubba said. “Where’s that written?”
I have to admit he had me there.
“Plus,” Bubba said, “you know, he gets the chance he’ll rape her.”
I nodded.
“I hate rape-os,” Bubba said.
“Me, too.”
“It’d be cool if he never did it again.”
I turned in my seat. “We’re not killing him.”
Bubba shrugged.

But here’s the thing: Even after saying all that, I still love this book and my Patrick. I may not have gotten the full enjoyment because of my mood, but it can’t possibly stunt the deep love I have for these characters or this series.

She pulled her hand back, stuffed it in her pocket as if it were burning.
“I-“
She stepped back from whatever she saw in my face. “Don’t say it.”
I shrugged. “Okay. I do, though.”
“Shh.” She put a finger to her lips, smiled around it, but her eyes shimmered with moisture. “Shh,” she said again.

And, sadly, again I don’t really have time to be writing a review, but I wanted to put one out anyway-Because my Patrick and Bubba and Angie deserve one. Patrick’s love for Angie is unparalleled and makes my heart hurt with his want.

“Do you hate my hair?” Angie whispered.
“No. It’s just…”
“Short?” She smiled.
“Yeah. I don’t love you because of your hair, though.”
She shifted slightly, turned her shoulder into the holes between rungs.
“Why do you love me?”
I chuckled. “You want me to count the ways?”
She didn’t say anything, just watched me.
“I love you, Ange, because…I don’t know. Because I always have. Because you make me laugh. A lot. Because…”

He’d do anything for her-even die for her, if it kept her safe.

“Because since you left I have these dreams that you’re sleeping beside me. And I wake up and I can still smell you, and I’m still half dreaming, but I don’t know it, so I reach for you. I reach across to your pillow, and you’re not there. And I gotta lie there at five in the morning, with the birds waking up outside and you not there and your smell just fading away. It fades and there’s-” I cleared my throat. “There’s nothing but me left there. And white sheets. White sheets and those birds and it hurts, and all I can do is close my eyes and lie there and wish I didn’t feel like dying.”

And this is the basis of everything, isn’t it? Holding on dearly to those few people you cherish, keeping them safe and out of harm’s way. But that isn’t easy with a psychopath hell bent on ruining peoples’ lives, forcing them to become shells of themselves. So when Patrick is threatened, and all those around him threatened if he doesn’t back off, what does he do? Well…I’ll tell ya: He’s Patrick, so no, he doesn’t fucking back off. Would you expect any less?
The clerk behind the counter, far from being the dweeby, bespectacled, balding type one would expect to meet in a tax assessor’s office, was tall, well built, blond, and judging by Angie’s furtive glances at him, something of a male babe.
Himbos, I swear. There ought to be a law that keeps them from ever leaving the beach.

So, yeah, I probably ruined some of this book, but I also just couldn’t wait. Patrick’s dedication, loyalty, conviction to do right by those wronged when they don’t have anyone else to fight for them, his love for his friends, his partner, Angie, and his all around spunk are something I’ve been missing wholeheartedly are something I admire and force me to say I’m not sorry I pushed it. So, you know, there’s only one left and it looks like, at this point, I’ll be waiting for a good time to read it, because I wouldn’t dare ruin the final Patrick book. That would be a huge mistake…even Patrick would agree with that. 😉

BOOK REVIEW – The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong

October 19, 2015 / Anna

The Masked Truth by Kelley Armstrong
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Riley Vasquez is haunted by the brutal murder of the couple she was babysitting for.

Max Cross is suffering under the shadow of a life-altering diagnosis he doesn’t dare reveal.

The last thing either of them wants is to spend a weekend away at a therapy camp alongside five other teens with “issues.” But that’s exactly where they are when three masked men burst in to take the group hostage.

The building has no windows. The exits are sealed shut. Their phones are gone. And their captors are on a killing spree.

Riley and Max know that if they can’t get out, they’ll be next—but they’re about to discover that even escape doesn’t equal freedom.

► Let’s start with several questions, okay?

1) Are you able to repeatedly suspend your disbelief?

✘ It doesn’t bother you if the therapy weekend aimed at teenagers is organized in an old office building without windows (because apparently when you’re disturbed/suicidal/suffering from random mental illness issues, spending days without natural light is going to help you) and which is not up to fire code. You think that parents would willingly put their children through this.

✘ It seems natural to you that a teenager whose dad was part of a SWAT team actually knows loads of details about the way hostage operations are handled, but wait, hey, he knew that he couldn’t say anything, so they only watch SWAT TV shows and debriefed them. I’m so silly sometimes.

✘ If someone tells you that … Oh, damn, spoiler. Well, let’s just say that I couldn’t buy several scenes here.

The good news is, it’s not predictable, because obviously if it’s not believable every twist has the power to throw you off.

2) Are you excited about a plot which revolves around two teenagers who are running around in an office building for at least 50% of the novel? (I can’t say more, I stopped there)

✘ You don’t mind that most of their discoveries are constituted of doors, and doors, and more doors. They run. In an office building. Oh, a villain. Let’s fight. They run in an office building. A door. Did you hear that noise? *insert random childhood event* They run. THEY RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN.

✘ You intend to work on your frustration management : this book is perf for that!

3) Do you love ramblings?

✘ You just adore yelling to your characters to GO TO THE FREAKING POINT DAMMIT.

✘ Info-dumping and random anecdotes about the characters’ past are your thing.

✘A female-lead who spends her time internally dismissing herself for something GREAT she did doesn’t annoy you one bit.

► If you answered YES to every question, you should be good. As for me, I’m done at 50% : there’s only so much time I’m willing to lose on books that bore me. Of course, of course, perhaps it gets better after. It’s your call, as usual, and maybe my frustration management does need improvement.

Ps. Let’s talk about Max. Okay, I feel bad. Shame on you Max to make me feel as if I was lacking common understanding and empathy. See, Max rambles a lot in his head. But Max is entitled to be a serial rambler because of his condition[he’s schizophrenic (hide spoiler)]. I loved him at first. Really, I did. I swear. It remains that as much as his ramblings were understandable and defendable, sometimes I just wanted him to GO TO THE FREAKING POINT.

So, Max, you make me feel as if I was a nasty bitch. You don’t want that now do you? DO YOU? I love him, and I thought that it was an amazing idea to incorporate such a different character. I did root for him and Riley to hook up. But it doesn’t replace an actual PLOT!

So unfortunately even him reached the limit of my patience. However, you should know that my extra half-star is for him. I might skim the rest to get to the kiss scene.

#Notevenashamed

BOOK REVIEW – The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist #1) by Rick Yancey

October 2, 2015 / Anna

The Monstrumologist (The Monstrumologist #1)
by Rick Yancey
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

A gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does man become the very thing he hunts?

If this book was a landscape, it would be the Sahara desert : perhaps beautiful from a distance, but so fucking dry that I wouldn’t want to stay there more than 1 hour. I stopped at 67%, because there’s just so much boredom I can take.

► Lack of … interest. What’s the point of this? Oh, here’s a monster. Look, his teeth are in his belly. This is a *insert Latin name to appear clever*. How wonderful. Now, you can eat your porridge, but just so you know, these creatures are invading New Jerusalem. What do you mean you don’t care? SNAP TO, READER! SNAP TO!

I’m sorry but I can’t.

Nothing fucking happens! I don’t care if it’s gross, I mean, I do have an history of disgust with maggots but in all honesty that’s not at all what bothered me here. No. What annoyed the crap out of me is the fact that the plot felt way too simple to interest me, the whole thing punctuated with so many useless and slooooooow scenes that I struggled to keep my eyes open.

Not to mention that far from awakening my interest, the Latin names and other classics references felt somewhat pretentious to me, because they seemed completely out of phase with the simple plot.

► Lack of … depth in the characterization. Look, I love darkness. I love morally ambiguous characters. You know I do. Yet if I do like wondering what characters really think and analyzing their actions, in my opinion I haven’t near enough material here to work with : everyone keeps telling me that Warthorpe is complex and multi-layered, but HUH? Really, HUH? To me he’s one dimensional and pretty boring, and don’t get me started about the stiff and repetitive dialogues which consistently failed to convince me.

Moreover, young Will Henry lacked a voice in my opinion. I know what you’re thinking, “what’s her problem? It’s Will’s POV!” except, yes it is but no it’s not. The narrator isn’t 12 years-old Will Henry, but the events are told years after they originally took place. As it is, I know how old Will Henry interprets them, and if his thoughts aren’t (always) uninteresting, by no means do I have any insight about what he was thinking when he was younger. Come on. No 12 years-old would express an opinion in such a way. None.

To me, Warthorpe is pretty dry in his selfish manners and Will Henry acts like a spineless puppy. Please don’t hate me, but I really didn’t see anything else so far.

► Lack of … emotions. I don’t mind the lack of romance, and several of my favorite books don’t contain one bit of it. This being said, I need to feel at least ONE emotion – I know, I’m annoying.

What brings me to… the absence of fear. Scary, The Monstrumologist? Monsters don’t scare me. Humans scare me on a daily basis – when I watch the news, when I read, when I talk to random people. Stupidity scares me to death. Clowns do scare me, but only because Stephen King screwed up my childhood. Monsters? Nope. Grossed-out? Maybe, but never scared. This book should have made my heart pound – sadly, it never did.

Anyway – blablabla, I didn’t get it, blablabla, I don’t care is all. So, okay, It’s well-written. Okay. GOOD. Sadly I don’t give a damn if I’m bored to death (it did escape the 1-star rating thanks to it, though).

*shrug*

I’m in the minority though, so don’t let my review prevent you from reading it^^