I read books. Sometimes, I tell you about them.
The tension between Peach and Natalie set the right tone and I liked watching the romance unfold between the two of them. I also enjoyed how the author addressed Natalie’s grief around the loss of her mother and boyfriend. Natalie was a fairly complex character
The Institute reminds me of Firestarter, which I read as a kid. I remember being terrified bad doctors would come thief my sister and I if they found out we were smart. 🤦🏾♀️🤣😂 The climatic ending is great as well, complete with suspense, action magic, and violence. #ClassicKing Everyone gets what they deserves and the telling is gratifying.
If you allow yourself to be distracted by Siri gone wild, ghosts, strange men, mean maids and angry teenagers the ending is a nice twist on events.
“Your lot in life is dictated by a comprehensive test given at age 10. Score high and you move on to the next level. Fail or score low, your education stops and you end up living in the slums, impoverished for life…”
“The gangster has killed Eddie’s partner, threatens Eddie’s family, straps a bomb to his chest and forces him into the courtroom. If Eddie doesn’t get the guy off, all is lost.”
EJD writes a mean sex scene. You shall be satiated in that regard…eventually. And the concept of getting an arguably behind the scenes perspective of the logistics involved in an erotic one night stand is intriguing.
Very interesting way to tell an old story of teenage pregnancy. I also liked the middle/upper class representation of blackness. Not all blackness is earmarked by poverty and lack.
I must say, between Queenie, Eleanor and Autumn from Speaking of Summer – I liked Eleanor best.
A.I. is a audio only book narrated by Regina Hall and Mindy Kaling. And with those two on deck combined with Cole, who typically writes historical romances, A.I. is part comedy, sci-fi, thriller, and romance.
One day, while struggling to complete her exercise on the communities suicide stairs, she meets a man in a black hat. He offers to change her life forever, and does. Pretty much overnight, she becomes the smart, attractive, popular girl the popular guy is interested in.
Winter Garden, though written beautifully, is not an easy breezy read. A large portion of the story is set in Leningrad, Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944, during The Siege.
This is a suspense novel but the action doesn’t happen until you are more than midway through the book. If reading about peoples lives doesn’t interest you unless theres shooting and killing involved, this is not your book. Move around.
Interesting take on zombies and you don’t have to wait for the action to begin. It starts right away and there is plenty of fighting, screaming, scrambling and dying going on from start to finish.
The thriller/who-dun-it twist is about Lowen trying to understand how Verity ended up paralyzed and how the children were involved. Was the husband at fault? Really a great story with several twists, right up to the end.
Overall, I loved Full Throttle. All the stories were horrific in that Hill/King style of twisting our reality against us in the worst possible way. I was throughly frightened!
The descriptions around characters, food, action scenes and locations: all beautiful beyond reproach. The imagery WILL transport you to the marketplace, the fights on the countryside and onto the castle grounds. The book cover itself is a work of art. We get to understand more about the Maji and their complicated history. Major uptick in action from the first novel.
In present time we meet sisters Maddie and Allie. Allie is set to be married and we learn how and why Maddie is having an affair with her sisters fiancé. Oh, tragedy.
The story begins following Clara and Luke, a young couple sharing a flat. Luke doesn’t come home one night and, having a reputation of a being a philanderer, his friends assume he’s on a binge and will return when he’s ready. After a couple of nights, Clara is not convinced thats true
The parents of the victim paint him to be the perfect son and husband. We determine pretty quickly from the wife, he was just the opposite. As a matter of fact, most of the characters are hiding imperfections behind their public personas.
As readers, we know theres a serial killer on the jury. It’s interesting following Eddie as he figures it out and then, as he finds out that others aren’t what they seem. Again, not just a courtroom drama! Definitely a thriller with a murder mystery twist.
I love the way the author writes dialogues between the characters, perfectly capturing the nuisances of southern conversation. Which is to say, the ability of saying one thing but meaning the opposite.
#InterestingRead My greatest desire as a reader is to be grabbed at sentence one and taken on a long roller coaster ride of a story. In every practical sense, Imaginary Friend delivers, tenfold.
The author has crafted the perfect story, set in the best time, to weave themes of found families, women and sex in the 20th century, reproductive rights, hetero, homo and bi-sexuality, pay equality, and domestic violence without being overhanded at all.
Unlike Queenie, I actually like Autumn and don’t find her to be a self hating, self-sabotaging, casually racist, insufferable psycho slut. Both books tell a story of young black women dealing with trauma in a world that doesn’t allow them to acknowledge that trauma.
Christians versus Muslims, monsters versus monster hunters and monster hunters against Christians. Of course we have appearances from our old villain, Hugo Vox. Good thing there’s a sexy sniper chic as a co-star this episode and we (including Joe!) can all be distracted by her.
The kid asks her about one man, one relationship and Viv decides to tell her the story of her life, beginning with how she lost her virginity to an old veterinarian, whom she thought was a medical doctor, in a dilapidated boarding house when she was 19.
This woman has a beyond twisted mind and writes a mean psychological thriller. I’ve only read two of her books but her habit is to grab your attention early, then proceed to throw everything and the kitchen sink at you as you speed to the climax. This book followed that formula with great return.
With 21 stories and forwards by King, this is a pretty big short story collection. All the stories are interesting in that weird King way that he makes ordinary people deal with extraordinary phenomena.
….it’s sold as a view into choosing family over everything but, I’m not sure that’s what it is. It’s a story about siblings. About how in some families, for any or whatever reason, one child can be cherished or valued over another and, how that preference, can be detrimental to the preferred child as well as the one(s) not preferred.
I’m a newbie on GoodReads, having started my list December 2018. It’s now hovering around 300 reads and…yea. How’s that gonna happen? Lol, may be a quick and dirty edit will help!
In comparison to JC, which was focused more on the clans using brute force to win territory, War is more about the long game. Each clan attempts to use covert political strategy to gain leverage, causing some pointed collateral damage
The author readily admits Queenie’s point of view is problematic and intentionally so. She says the story is a description of what she thinks things would look like if she allowed her life and emotions to “get out of hand”.
the story is intriguing and quite funny in some parts, but, the people you’re reading about are mostly pretentious, self-centered, conniving in some cases and unforgiving in others. How the author managed to write a darkly funny story about a bunch of un-fun people is beyond me.
…,what’s a Ledger book without an over the top secret society, richer than God, meaner than the devil and crazier than a bedbug?! Maberry writes evil really well. The characters here have the audacity to expect honor amongst thieves! They call themselves the Seven Kings…
Anissa Gray writes about the 3 Butler sisters and their life yesterday and today. Yesterday, they narrowly escaped their abusive childhood home and father to grow up to be, today, reflections of the brokenness they’ve never really escaped.
The story is written in a lighthearted, fun poem format but, doesn’t hold back on the truth! Best part was when they get off the train and notice the underground station stinks! 🤣🤣 Hilarious and true!
It’s kind of sex, drugs, rock and roll…and shoot-outs, in a book. This should be a movie.
Most notable is the relationship Hen develops with Matthew, the suspected murderer next door. Even in his own insanity, he is honest with her. The eventual trust built between the two will captivate you. It’s almost a love story. Almost.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the main character, Grace. She’s written as one of those damsels in constant distress always seeking a savior, and that grates my nerves. She bucks up soon enough, if only in her own way,
We meet the Lee family as they’re in breakdown over the disappearance of their middle daughter, Lydia. It will be several days and several revelations before Lydia’s body is dredged from the lake near their home.
Alicia loves Gabriel, and is devoted to him, their life and convincing him she is fine. No spoilers, but eventually Alicia shoots Gabriel and ends up in a psych ward, not speaking and regarded as a lost cause.
The writer, Barbie Wilde plays the only female Cinnabite in the Hellraiser movies. As I’m a fan of all things horror and Hellraiser is a cult fav, I was super excited to dig in.
It’s not the typical psychological thriller where the turnaround is overhanded. It’s actually quite subtle but, months later, you’ll still be wondering about it all.
Cyrus Jakoby and his sidekick Otto have healed from their physical wounds, but, continue to be batshit crazy otherwise. They’ve vigorously pushed forward with their plans of ‘thinning out the herd’ (Thanos, anyone?) by killing ‘mud people’ through maximizing on genetically engineered diseases.
The best thing about the story is what nearly derailed my entire challenge. Murakami does a great job of telling a story. He creates a space and time so detailed with so many moving parts, very simply put, I was interested.
The author does an excellent job of creating several small interesting plots that weave all the characters together in the end to a very good climax. The other great thing about this book is the characters. Ware does a really good job of fleshing out and creating multidimensional characters. I found myself being interested in all of them….
Through a teenage girl’s perspective, you begin to learn about a very well to do family in a small working class town. The oldest member and apparently well liked member of the community, was recently poisoned to death. The town, as judge and jury, has deemed the teenagers older sister as the murderer, though a real court room did not condemn her, but, judged it an accident. Sometimes, judgement by our peers is far worse than any courtroom could deliver.
In Candyland, a loner on a long drive pulls over in a town and gets caught up in..local norms, shall we say. Lol. This is a must read for anyone that enjoys long rides across states, like I do. The fun and fear is pulling over in a different spot and meeting the locals. This one combines all the neurotic things my sister thinks will happen to me when I pull over.
The short stories are odd tales centered around ghosts and death. The good thing (because I like to find something positive), the stories are short, and include I’m sure what was considered racy language at the time of first print. I kept reading because the beginning and middle of each story captured my attention.
Watchers is one of his most loved books and his personal favorite. Originally published in 1987, over 30 years ago, I have been pleasantly surprised at its relevance to modern day. Themes of Christian beliefs versus scientific advancement for the ‘greater good’, moral superiority and love – all play out in a story about a dog and his chosen family.
