Month: April 2019

Review: Murder Games

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His victims appear to be total strangers. The only clue that links the crimes is the playing card left behind at each scene that hints at the next target.

The killer, known in the tabloids as the Dealer, is baiting cops into a deadly guessing game that has the city on edge. Elizabeth Needham, the tenacious detective in charge of the case, turns to an unlikely ally – Dylan Reinhart, a brilliant professor whose book was found along with the first playing card.

As the public frenzy over the Dealer reaches a fever pitch, Dylan and Elizabeth must connect the clues to discover what the victims have in common – before the Dealer runs through his entire deck.

I watched the first episode of the TV adaptation last year when it aired and didn’t enjoy it, but I did think that the plot was interesting and would have been better in the book. A year later I finally read the book, and I was right, it is much better.

The book gets straight into the story and I was immediately hooked. I read the entire book in one evening.

I loved the characters in this book, particularly Dylan, and I liked finding out more about him as the book went on. His relationship with Tracy was particularly adorable and made the character more likeable.

The plot in this book is really interesting. There’s a lot going on, but everything adds to the story, and keeps going to the last page of the book. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an easy to read mystery. This would be a good rainy day read, an enjoyable read but doesn’t require a lot of concentration.

My rating: 4 stars. I don’t know that I’ll try the TV show again, but I’m looking forward to book two.

Review: Nine Perfect Strangers

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The retreat at health-and-wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation.
Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages.
Miles from anywhere, without cars or phones, they have no way to reach the outside world. Just time to think about themselves, and get to know each other.
Watching over them is the resort’s director, a woman on a mission. But quite a different one from any the guests might have imagined.
For behind the retreat’s glamorous facade lies a dark agenda.
These nine perfect strangers have no idea what’s about to hit them . . .

This is the first book I’ve read by Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies is still on my TBR list, and I really liked it. This had mixed reviews so going in with no expectations may have helped.

When I started reading this the idea of a retreat sounded quite nice, but I quickly changed my mind. The daily blood tests and five day ‘Transformative Silence’ were enough to put me off.

As the blurb was quite vague I was expecting a murder mystery before I started the book. The plot starts like a typical whodunnit, nine people arrive at a location with no means of contacting the outside world. What’s actually going on is much more sinister.

There is a sense early on in the book that something is not quite right with the retreat, but you’re not sure what. This builds up the tension in the book as you try to guess what’s going on behind the scenes. There are hints that the leaders of the retreat have plans that aren’t being shared with the guests, but I wasn’t expecting it to go much deeper than this.I certainly wouldn’t have guessed what was actually going on.

My rating: 3.5 stars, and I’m planning to move Big Little Lies further up my TBR list.

Reading This Week: 8 April 2019

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I had a great reading week, I finished seven books last week. I read five books for my readathons (four for the O.W.L.s magical readathon and one for the Unsolvedathon). I’ll be posting reviews of some of these this week. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to set aside just as much time for reading this week.

I have a few review copies to read this week. I’m particularly excited about The Lights which I got a paperback copy of. This and The Humid don’t have any reviews, and Room 11 only has a couple so I don’t have any expectations going in and I’m really excited.

I’m also planning on reading Circe and The Chalk Man for the Unsolvedathon and Cruel Acts starting on The Pigeonhole.

How was your reading last week? What are you reading this week?

Pet Sematary: Book vs Film

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Film adaptations seem to be hit and miss. They’re either great; The Hunger Games and The Book Thief (perfect), or they’re awful; The Maze Runner (I still haven’t watched 2&3), The Vampire’s Assistant (I can rant for hours), or The War of the Worlds (just no). With that in mind, reading Pet Sematary and watching the film so soon after probably wasn’t the best idea, but is what I did.

I really enjoyed the book, but thought the film was lacking. I think the changes made for the film removed some of the suspense and creepiness that made the book so good.

One of the first major changes is the relationship between Jud and Louis. Instead of the wonderful relationship they have in the book, Jud is the creepy neighbour, and the lack of relationship means that some of Jud’s actions don’t quite make sense, or take on a sinister edge. While in the book the relationship between Jud and the family mean that him showing Louis the place to bury Church demonstrates how much he cares about Ellie, whereas in the film Jud has barely interacted with the family so this action doesn’t have the pure intent behind it. In the film Jud also seems to be aware that this will change Church in a bad way, which doesn’t match with what we see in the book.

The film also changes which child is killed. While I partly understand the decision to kill Ellie instead, an older child can act the part of creepy zombie, this meant that one of the creepier parts of the book didn’t happen in the same way. Ellie having nightmares about what Louis was going to do, and scaring Rachel into trying to stop him, was one of the most sinister parts of the book, and while the film tried to recreate this with Gage, it didn’t create the same feeling of suspense and terror.

In the book we get to understand Louis’s thought process, which adds to the suspense, particularly at the end of the book. We don’t get the same sense of this in the film, and the ending differs quite a bit from the book. The film is quite forgettable and the end doesn’t leave you with anything, whereas you’re left with a feeling with unease after finishing the book.

Overall the movie seems to move closer to a stereotypical horror movie relying on jump scares, rather than building up the terror through the story where we both fear and understand Louis’s actions.

I’d recommend reading the book and skipping the movie. On an unrelated note if anything ever happens to Dominick then he’s being cremated.

Have you read/watched Pet Sematary? What did you think?

Review: The Passengers

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Self-drive cars are mandatory in the UK and roads are safer than ever before. Eight passengers get into their vehicles, which are then hacked and set on a collision course.
Libby has been selected to be a member of a secret jury who determine whether any road accidents are the fault of the car or human error, and it’s never been the fault of the car. The jury, along with the public must choose which passenger should survive. Each passenger has ten minutes to convince the jurors and the public to vote for them, but they all have something to hide.

This was the first book I’ve read on The Pigeonhole and it was an interesting way to read. It meant that I had to take my time with the book, as it was released in ten parts. This was frustrating at times when there was a cliffhanger and I wanted to read the next chapter straight away. I think if I’d had the entire book I’d have read it in a day.

This book is set in the future where the only cars available are ‘Level 5’, automated self-drive cars, that don’t even have pedals for the passengers to take control. Eight of these ‘unhackable’ cars are hacked, and each passenger told that they will be dead in XX. It’s a really interesting plot idea, as we move closer to a time when driverless cars will be seen on our streets, I think we’ll start to see more books addressing the fears that people have around this.

There’s a lot going on in this book, and it keeps you constantly guessing. As I was reading my opinions on the different passengers was constantly changing as more information about the passengers was revealed. It was clear that as well as the passengers holding things back, the hacker was also controlling what information he revealed to try and manipulate the public’s opinion of the passengers.

Part of what made this book so interesting is that it doesn’t seem farfetched. People engaging with this kind of situation, using social media to vote for who should die, and the mob mentality surrounding it all seem very realistic. Even some of the revelations in the book, around the cars and the government, while surprising, are not unlikely.

I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a good thriller. Clear your day, get a nice cup of tea and settle in for a good read.

My rating: 5 stars, and I’m going to catch up on the other John Marrs books I haven’t read yet.

Review: In Bloom

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Rhiannon’s fiancé Craig is in jail for the murders she committed, and her ex-lover AJ is dead. Everything is perfect, except for the fact that Rhiannon is pregnant with AJ’s baby, and the baby doesn’t approve of her killing. Forced to move in with Craig’s parents, will Rhiannon manage to curb her killer instincts, or will she give into her urges?

I read Sweetpea a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, and In Bloom keeps a lot of the aspects that worked in the first book. I like the chapters that start with ‘kill lists’, we’ve all had those days when we hate everyone who does X.

Sadly that was one of the few things in this book that I enjoyed. I don’t often see female serial killers in media so I was looking forward to this, but I was left disappointed. It took me almost a week to read this, because I just couldn’t get into it.

This book didn’t really have a plot, and didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. I didn’t feel anything when the book ended, and I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore. I just wanted to be finished, rather than reading because I was enjoying it.

My rating: 2 stars, and I wouldn’t read anymore if the series continued.

March Round Up

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March was a really busy month at work, so I didn’t read as much as I would have liked. I finished ten books in March, and DNF’d two.

Read

Solaris – 2/5 stars
This sounded interesting, but I felt like it didn’t really go anywhere.

Sphere – 3/5 stars
This was an interesting idea, but I thought that parts of it were rushed, and the end was disappointing.

The Detainee – 2/5 stars
I liked the idea behind this book, but it felt like it was just building to the next book in the series, and I don’t care enough about any of the characters to want to carry on reading.

Her Last Move – 3/5 stars
This was a standard crime thriller, enjoyable, but nothing special

The Halloween Tree – 3/5 stars
This is the first Ray Bradbury book I’ve read, and it was fun, if quite strange.

Lost Boy – 4/5 stars
This was a wonderful retelling of Peter Pan and I loved reading about Jamie before he became Captain Hook.
Read my full review here.

I Thought I Knew You – 4/5 stars
This was another great read. I’m not sure if books dealing with rape are becoming more common, or if I’ve read more of them recently but this was really interesting.
Read my full review here.

Take Me In – 2/5 stars
I wanted to like this, but I just couldn’t connect with the story.
Read my full review here.

Witness – 4/5 stars
This was a good thriller. There was a lot going on to keep you interested.
Read my full review here.

In Bloom – 2/5 stars
Parts of this were funny/enjoyable but it didn’t really have a plot.
Full review to follow this week

Did Not Finish

Beartown – I accidentally placed a hold for this on Libby so I thought I’d try it, even though it’s not something I’d usually read. I thought the first chapter was quite gripping, but then the focus and description afterwards was all about hockey and I quickly lost interest.

Repressed – I didn’t realise that this was a romance when I borrowed it, and I found a lot of the descriptions and scenarios too annoying to continue with the book.

This Month

I’m doing two readathons this month so I’m hoping to read at least 22 books. I also got my first review copy in the post this morning so I’m going to be reading that as soon as I can.

Reading This Week: 1st April 2019

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We’re officialy in April, I can’t believe we’re already a quarter of the way through 2019. Today is the start of the O.W.L.s magical readathon and Unsolvedathon, so I’m making a start on my reading lists.

I’m starting my readathons with We Were Liars, the Disney retellings A Whole New World and As Old as Time, and Murder Games. These are all quite short so should be quick reads to help give me a good start to the challenges. These are also all paperbacks, and I’m on holiday from the middle of April so I want to read these first so I only have to take my kindle with me.

I’m also going to be reading A Good Enough Mother and Close to the Edge on The Pigeonhole. I read The Passengers on the app and it’s an interesting way to read a book, if sometimes slightly frustrating to have to wait for the next part instead of reading it all at once.

What are you reading this month? Are you taking part in any reading challenges or readathons?