Tag: book review

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

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“It’s only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn’t make sense at all.”

— Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door

    The Couple Next Door is one of the most wildest story that occurs within just a couple of days. This debut thriller by Shari Lapena offers fans a captivating yet highly insane whodunit featuring a couple and their infant. On the night where both Anne and Marco go over to their neighbours for a little dinner party, the two of them decide to leave their child in its crib while bringing with them a baby monitor to keep an eye out for trouble. It’s by keeping in mind that the neighbours really wanted a baby-free night, that our married couple leave themselves open for a nice little disaster that will cunningly sneak its way into the dark and into their house. Past midnight, our highly confident couple decides to return home only to realize that their worst nightmare has come to life: their baby is gone. As this marks the end of chapter 1, The Couple Next Door will promise you with a paradise of twists and turns to satisfy the most gluttonous of thriller fans in this undeniable page-turner.
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The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

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“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

— Isaac Asimov, Foundation

    Mind games at their finest! In The Foundation Trilogy, comprised of Foundation (Book 1), Foundation and Empire (Book 2), and Second Foundation (Book 3), you’ll quickly find yourself in front of an author whose grasp on science-fiction is beyond belief. Far more idea-driven than character-driven, Isaac Asimov crafts the rise and fall of civilization in an intricate and astonishing prose. Tackling subjects ranging from religion to politics, this story will challenge your comprehension of individuals, but especially of collectives. Spanning over centuries, the Foundation series is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. Foundation propels us in a time period where the Galactic Empire has thrived for over 12000 years. Psychohistorian Hari Seldon however shocks the world by announcing an impending Dark Age where the Empire will fall and dwell in barbarism for almost thirty millennia unless the Empire’s Commission of Public Safety permits him to establish a back-up plan that will guarantee a much more shorter age of barbarism and the promise of rebirth. It is on this premise that resides the adventures to come and thus leaves us with the torturous question: Will Hari Seldon’s plan bear fruit?

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Top Fcked Up Books

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I was going to put up a review today but I feel like sharing my fcked up books instead haha 😉 The fcked up genre for me group the taboos, psychological thriller and weird plots that make you go omg…WHAT AM I READING.

The Whole Collection of Chuck Palahniuk Books

chuckpalahniuk-15 My favourite book from him is Invisible Monsters but all the other books are pretty fucked up to be honest. Haunted has some of the most disturbed short stories while Choke provide us with a solid story about sex addiction and the lies we tell ourselves and Rant is still about the extravagant and crazy imagination of Chuck while toying with the timeline.

 

 

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The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

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“How to tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By slowly becoming everything.”

— Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

    20 years after the release of the classic Booker Prize winner The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy releases her second work of fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Although I have yet to read the former—I do plan on doing so in the near future—my first experience of Roy’s writing wasn’t exactly a very compelling one. Tackling the social climate and various taboo subjects in India and its proximity, Arundhati Roy brings readers the story of multiple different characters who will all have their lives connect together at an unlikely juncture. Focusing greatly on these characters and the unbelievable misery that clouds their lives, Arundhati Roy does the impossible and presents us with the relativity of happiness and the rarity of normality. She does so by embracing the Indian culture in all its forms and shows us in different forms the problems that people are submerged in for countless years.
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Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

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MY RATING: ★★/ 5 

“It’s easy to lose yourself in the idea of a person and be blinded to their reality.”
― Jay Kristoff, Stormdancer

I was very excited to read this novel giving the fact that I’ve loved AIDAN in The Illuminae Files and I knew that Jay Kristoff was the one behind it. Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me.

At first, I found it weird  that I couldn’t like it because the concept and ideas are VERY GOOD. We have a bad-ass heroin set in Japan, telepathic samurai, a search for a griffin, super skills in martial arts, may mystical creatures and a worldbuilding out of this world.  Continue reading →

Our Little Secret by Roz Nay [+GIVEAWAY]

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“Do you really want to know what happened?”

— Roz Nay, Our Little Secret

    This is one of those rare thrillers that actually succeeds in telling a fast-paced, completely immersive and strongly manipulative story in the most concise and addictive way possible. I’d mention that I’m slightly exaggerating, but I’m really not. In under 230 pages, Roz Nay will initially make you feel things towards certain characters and later compel you to embrace polar opposite emotions as the story unfolds. Her writing is brilliant and draws you into the story like none other. Expect time to fly and emotions to be played around with. But what is Our Little Secret about? This psychological thriller focuses on the disappearance of a woman and a love triangle that is in the midst of it all. The whole tale is our protagonist, also the narrator, who’s being interviewed by a detective who’s trying to figure out what happened to this missing woman. What comes next is our lead character telling us the story of her teenage days as she builds the intrigue in an completely addictive and manipulative fashion. For a thriller this short, this one delivers its story brilliantly!
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The Long Drop by Denise Mina

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“He knows too much to be an honest man but says he wants to help.”

— Denise Mina, The Long Drop

    Denise Mina delivers a true crime story infused with fiction as she tells the story behind Scotland’s very first serial killer. Deemed to be the trial of the century in 1950’s Glasglow, The Long Drop recounts the fight for innocence for the accused father, William Watt, and the denial of guilt by the known liar and murderer, Peter Manuel. While the outcome of this story is well-known, Denise Mina offers readers the opportunity to read about a trial—thanks to her access to transcriptions—interspersed with her own reimagining of the mysterious night that both William Watt and Peter Manuel spent together trying to bargain for freedom in their own particular ways. While William Watt only wishes to find the gun that was used to kill three members of his family, Peter Manuel attempts to play with an innocent man’s emotions and thoughts and secure his way to a win-win situation. In The Long Drop, the author proposes an exploration of the capital punishment, as well as the darkness within everyone, innocent or guilty.
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The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

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“No, darling! To die it’s easy… But you have to struggle for life!”

— Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus

    This is a dreadfully moving narrative that shines through the many dichotomies of life. The Complete Maus is not like anything you’ve read before. Containing both Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History as well as Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, this volume recounts the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife’s perseverance and ruthless ordeal through one of the darkest times in history: the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman also interweaves his own story as the son of a survivor and the impact of a dark and twisted historical event on his generation. While exploring the comic medium in all its subtleties, The Complete Maus dives deep into the struggles of every day life and sheds light on the complexity of trust, of survival, of fear and of guilt. It is a inter-generational look into the heart-wrenching and horrendous events pertaining to World War II and the weight that individuals carry since its end.
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Skullsworn by Brian Staveley

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“Give to the god the one who made your mind and body sing with love.”

— Brian Staveley, Skullsworn

    Skullsworn is a stand-alone story set in the same universe as The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne written by Brian Staveley. Although having failed to get around to read the original trilogy that laid the foundation to Staveley’s popularity, I can still confidently confirm that Skullsworn remains a beautiful introduction to a great talent in the fantasy world and can easily be read without worrying about the potential references it could have to The Emperor’s Blades, The Providence of Fire or The Last Mortal Bond. This new tale features Pyrre as the main protagonist and recounts her Trial to officially arise as a priestess of Ananshael, God of Death. Presented with a song that unveils the very requirements to become a priestess, Pyrre embarks on an adventure in her hometown of Dombâng in hopes of completing the challenge under the eyes of two Witnesses, long time priestess and priest of Ananshael: Ela and Kossal. While the song instructs Pyrre to bestow death upon seven specific individuals, Skullsworn exposes us to the ramifications of love, and the deadly edge to it.
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Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

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MY RATING: ★★★  

“Because,” said Thor, “when something goes wrong, the first thing I always think is, it is Loki’s fault. It saves a lot of time.”

This novel was very hard for me to rate because I’ve never rated a mythology translation/retelling before. Therefore, you can’t really rate a book based on the plot or the story since the author didn’t decide it by himself. It was a tradition passed on from oral stories to poems. Then I tell myself, how would rate or review a book like Norse Mythology?

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Ill Will by Dan Chaon

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“What do you call it when someone can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not real?”

— Dan Chaon, Ill Will

    Get ready for one of the most infuriating thrillers this year as Ill Will will come tugging at every single inch of your patience. Focused around the nebulous and erratic nature of memories, as well as the sensational Satanic cult phenomenon in the 1980s, Dan Chaon delivers two mysteries from two different times and their inevitable connection that will propel readers down a rocky and ruthless road of self-deception and self-destruction. Dustin Tillman is the main protagonist of this story; a middle-age psychologist who thrives in the art of hypnosis. It’s upon hearing the news about the prison release of his adopted brother that his life is suddenly pushed to the edge. Young, his adopted brother Rusty received a life sentence for the murder of Dustin’s parents, uncle and aunt. His release through the Innocence Project reopens old wounds and dips Dustin’s whole life into a sea of confusion. Around the same time, one of Dustin’s patient, Aqil Ozorowski, an ex-police officer, investigates the drowning of collegiate boys over the past couple of years and presents a wild theory that will initially seem impossible, only to later drag Dustin onto an irresistible path in search for the truth.
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CARAVAL // SPECIAL GIVEAWAY

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Hello everyone ! 😀

I know all about the buzz surrounding Caraval and I partnered up with Flatiron Books to giveaway not 1 but 6 sets of Caraval goodies- 3 winners with 2 sets each ! I’ll be putting my review up soon enough (also read-along with OrangUtanLibrarian and believe me you’ll want to see this LOL)   but here are my  other fellow bloggers reviews 😉 If you reviewed Caraval too, do not hesitate to link yours so others can read it 😀

Well, where to begin? Caraval is on many, and I mean many, people’s most anticipated lists for 2017, and it was… well, it was good (in fact pretty damn great at some parts) but it was not as good as I wanted, and those two are very, very different things […]

As as setting, Caraval was simply whimsical. Nothing is quite as it seems in this world, and since the magic has no real rules, anything and everything can happen. Garber’s writing was immersive, vivid and lush with details, a delight to all senses. It wasn’t quite ‘un-put-down-able’, but it was compelling enough for me to want to read on, and I really enjoyed visiting this world of hers. – Reg @ She Latitude

Honestly, I could go on and on about how amazing the plot was and how completely engrossed I was by this novel. I mean, I did read it in 24 hours. But all I’m going to say is that this book completely pulls you in and doesn’t let you go until the very last page. The hype is real, y’all. However, I did have a few issues with this book even though I enjoyed it so much that they did not affect my overall rating of it. – WonderfilleReads

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood | Read-Along

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“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.”

— Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

    Margaret Atwood wrote a devastating and greatly depressing dystopian world that begs to be taken seriously with its unprecedented ability to depict a possible and near future. Written through the eyes of a protagonist who goes by the name of Offred, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a bleak, colourless and entrapped reality where women only have one purpose: to breed. In this totalitarian society where women are stripped of their most basic rights, individuals revert to traditional values in order to keep every single women in check. Offred, severed of her husband and child, adapts into a community where she deceptively pretends to be perfectly submissive, while her thoughts beg to differ. It is what goes on in her own mind that brings great depth and insight into this story that revolves not only around the political atmosphere of this vile reality, but the total control of sexuality. The Handmaid’s Tale easily goes down as a classic dystopian story that can be seen as being in the same vein as 1984 or Brave New World. This is a story of survival and a hunt for freedom and power, one that will jolt the dead back to life and one that will greatly touch the hearts of many, especially women.
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Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

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“And that’s how you go on. You lay laughter over the dark parts. The more dark parts, the more you have to laugh. With defiance, with abandon, with hysteria, any way you can.” 

Lazlo Strange is an orphan who got the most beautiful and interesting mind, he was attracted to stories, fairytales, the books were telling him all their secrets and he just kept coming back. Everybody was calling him Strange The Dreamer because his head was always in the clouds, in the books about a city that no one was interested : The Weep City.

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I fell in love with this book in the first pages, Laini Taylor’s writing was on point. She wanted tell us the story with a fairytale point of view, from a far away observation. She crafts a strong beginning like most tales start with Once Upon A Time, Laini Taylor made sure that her novel started with a bang. A strong beginning also includes an amazing intense atmosphere, where the reader can imagine himself being in the story, observing it like  watching a movie in his head. The details of her world-building and the character’s introduction are her strongest points. It’s an experience I’d invite anyone to witness. Lazlo Strange is a character you want to to get attached to, because he has such an unique perspective of his life, of his place in the city. We have enough information on his childhood, when he grew up, the pace was believable and not weird transactions like some YA novels. As a reader, I’m very satisfied with all the the beginnings and half of the book, which is the introduction to this new world. IMG_6054 Continue reading →

The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood

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“A dragon handler with her head in the clouds is cursed. Those were my mother’s last words to me.”

— Todd Lockwood, The Summer Dragon

    Illustrator Todd Lockwood has decided to jump into the story-telling business with this debut novel featuring the one thing he’ll never fail to draw magnificently: dragons. Known for his artistic talent and his artwork in The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, The Summer Dragon is his first venture in the fantasy world. This novel is marketed as a a high fantasy novel with dragons and deadly politics but I’d rectify that and say it felt a lot more like a young adult fantasy novel with dragons and a discourse on the foundation of religion. There’s nothing wrong with that, as even adults can find this debut novel engrossing, but a warning beforehand would definitely have been highly welcome! Todd Lockwood delivers a very fluid, straight-forward and easy-to-picture story that puts Maia, a young women who will do anything for what she believes is right for her aerie, in the center stage. The plot develops very smoothly and never falters, diving here and then in questions of belief and faith with a unique dragon lore/mythology to envelop Todd Lockwood’s world.
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Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

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MY RATING: ★★★★/5

“Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.”

― Paula Hawkins

To be honest, I was one of those who didn’t like The Girl On The Train. But with Into The Water, Paula Hawkins has shown me her brilliant cinematic writing. I now understand why she got her first book adapted into a movie so easily.

Into The Water transports us into the mysterious deaths of young girls in the Drowning Pool, a name of a river in Northumberland. The young girls’ deaths has a pattern of The Roanoke Girls. But when you start this novel, the author wanted it to be shocking, and it was. We gradually get introduced to our narrator Jules who came back in the town after her sister’s suicide.

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