Category: Book review

“The Meek One” By Fyodor Dostoevsky Review

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‘I could see that she was still terribly afraid, but I didn’t soften anything; instead, seeing that she was afraid I deliberately intensified it.’ In this short story, Dostoyevsky masterfully depicts desperation, greed, manipulation and suicide.

I gotta say that this book is easily my favorite book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky I’ve read so far at least. The biggest aspected which made me like this book is that this book makes you really think about the topics this book talks about.

The characters in this book are few yes. But the once we get in this book are positively complicated which for me only added to the aspect of me liking them more. Because they felt like real human beings rather than fictional characters.

The plot in this book gives you a lot of questions but it doesn’t give you conclusive answers for those questions. For me personally made this book so much better and so much more fun in a way.

This book is very short so it doesn’t give me a lot to talk about, since its only 57 pages long or at least my copy of this book is that long.

The writing style in this book is meh to be honest. Ive read some of Fyodor Dostoevsky books in the past so I k ow that he can normally have much better writing style than he had in this book.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“Moby-Dick” By Herman Melville Review

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The crew of the whaling ship the Pequod is bound by its Captain Ahab to a single, bloody goal: the killing of the whale Moby-Dick, the giant albino that has taken his leg and on which he has sworn vengeance. Driven, perhaps doomed, by his dangerous monomania, they sail in pursuit of the monster.

I gotta say that I was afraid of reading this book, because I have heard a lot of good about this book but I know that the more good I read about a book on the interest than the chances that the book is overhyped are very high. But after reading this book I gotta say that this book is okay. 

I need to admit that this book is much longer than I expected it to be. And after reading the entire book, I need to get a little bit honest here and say that at times this book drags for far too long. A lot of parts could have easily been removed and it would make this book so much better and shorter.

This book gives a lot of fun and in depth depiction of sea navigation and how it was like being a sailor back in 1820s and 1830s. But the aspect of whale hunting in this book made me really take away some points of this book. 

This book took awhile to read, because I needed to take some days long breaks from this book. Because a lot of parts of this book drags for too long and it kept making me uninterested but I wanted to finish this book. So when I was getting very close to DNF-ing this book I took some days long breaks before returning back to it. 

The writing style in this book was okay. I wasn’t taken back by it or anything like that. To be honest I am very neutral about the writing style in this book. I don’t have any strong feelings or thoughts about the writing style in this book. 

The characters in this book were okay to be honest. Im writing this review 2 days after I finished this book and I don’t remember any of the characters in this book. That’s because they weren’t memorable or very likable which would make me remember them. The characters in this book felt like different versions of the the same character which really didn’t help me with liking the characters in this book. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“You Like It Darker” By Stephen King Review

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“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

This book is yet again another short stories collection of short stories written by Stephen King. I gotta say the more of the new books written by Stephen King I read the more I want to downgrade him as my favorite author of all time. Because for me personally his books written after the 1990s doesn’t impress nor do they make me fall in love with them as his books before and during the 1990s does. 

After reading all the short stories in this book I started to think that this book is just a collection of short stories Stephen King’s decided weren’t good enough but still decide to publish to get the paycheck from publishing this book. 

All the short stories in this book were a 1 stars reads fro me personality. And most of them dragged for far too long than they needed to me. So I found myself so many times to just to be skimming through those short stories.

If you are looking for good horror short stories you will be much better of reading the “Goosebumps” books which are more better and much scarier than the short stories in this book.

To be honest he only “dark” things about the short stories in this book are how bad they are. Most of the short stories in this book give off the feeling that Stephen King is back to taking drugs and back to his problem with alcohol.

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“Unruly Human Hearts” By Barbara Southard Review

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Elizabeth Tilton, a devout housewife, shares liberal ideals with her husband, Theodore Tilton, and their pastor and close friend Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, both influential reformers of the Reconstruction Era who promote suffrage for women and former slaves and advocate for the spiritual power of love rather than Calvinistic retribution. 

I got a PDF version pre-release to read and review it. To be very honest I had very little expectations for this book but after reading it I need to say that this book is very good.

Its important to mention that this book is based of a true story, of a woman named Elizabeth Tilton. 

This book explores the Henry Ward Beecher scandal through the eyes of Elizabeth Tilton. I know it sounds not very interesting but when you start reading this book you realized that it is actually interesting and enjoyable. This book talks about things like “free love” in 19th century America and sexual revolutions of women in 19th century America. 

This book follows 2 perspectives throughout this book. The major perspective in this book is the main character Elizabeth Tilton during the beginning of 1866. And the second perspective is again Elizabeth but this time its at the end of her life in 1897.

The plot of this book is very good and very well written because it talks about joys, sorrows, frustrations and anger of the perfect soap opera and in 19th century America.

As I said above the plot and the entire book is very interesting and it really sucks you into the plot to the point where you don’t notice the time flying by while reading this book. 

The written style of this book is very very good, but at the same time is very approbate with time this book is set in. Its like the author has a very unique skill to write a with the 19th America writing style but modernize it in a way which would be relevant for people reading this book in 2025 and behind.

The writing style is very engaging and really grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go until the very end of the book. Which I personally love when it happens because it helps the reader to get more immersed in the plot of the book.

In a way its hard to pin this book down to any specific category since its like historical drama but at the same time this book reads as psychological thriller. Which really impressed me.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“A Court of Thorns and Roses” By Sarah J. Maas Review

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When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

I am very surprised with this book. Because I was expecting to not like this book and DNF it along the way. Since I thought that this series was overhyped. But after having read this book I gotta say that I was wrong with my assumptions.

The plot in this book is very unique and very good at the same time. It drags you into the plot instantly and it doesn’t let you go until the very end of this book. I was very obsessed with this book while reading it and I just couldn’t force myself to stop reading this book because I was so deeply consumed by the plot.

The characters in this book are pure gold. They are so well written and so unique. Each of the characters in this book have their own unique personalities and something which sets them apart from the rest of the characters. And if you have read my previous reviews, you know that as long as the characters are good I wont mind a shitty plot. And this book has incredible characters and even better plot. 

The writing style in this book is like the author knew what words to use to complete grab my attention and to not let it go until the very end of this book. This is my first book written by Sarah J Maas, and if she has so incredible writing style in her other books as she had in this one. She might easily overtake Stephen King as my favorite author and become my favorite author.

The ending leaves us at a pretty big cliffhanger, which is so unfair because I have to wait until my second book of this series arrives. Because I have ordered it right after I finished this book.  

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“Police” By Jo Nesbø Review

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When a police officer is found murdered at the scene of an old unsolved murder case that he was involved in investigating, it can hardly be a coincidence. When the same thing happens to two other officers in a matter of months the pattern is as clear as it is terrifying. None of the old cases were ever solved. The killings are extremely brutal and the police have no leads. What’s more, they’re missing their best investigator.

This book is the 10th book in the “Harry Hole” book series created by no other than Jo Nesbø himself. One of the best crime novel authors I come across so far in my book journey. 

I gotta be honest, this book and the 2 previous once were a big misses for me personally. Because I didn’t like them as much as I liked the book in this series up to book 7. And then after book 7 the whole series started going very downhill for me.

This book has a very generic plot for any police deceptive book in existence. The plot in this book is about a serial killer going solely after cops and the only person who can catch the serial killer is lone main character. 

There are a lot of moments in this book where it foes to hell and just becomes very boring and uninteresting and the situations drag for way too long than they needed to be. I personally think that at least 50 pages could have been removed from this book and it only would have made it better.

The characters in this book all over the place, and even Harry Hole doesn’t feel like Harry Hole in this book. He feels more like a imposter than the Harry Hole we spend 9 books getting to know. But at the same time all the female characters in this book are very manipulative. Like one female character falsely accuses a male character of rape. And the rest of the female characters aren’t better than that.

The writing style is the worst it have been this entire series so far. The writing style didn’t even feel like it was written by Jo Nesbø but rather written by a very newbie ghost writer.

The ending in this book is ridiculous. When you read the end you are left thinking “this cant be the end, my copy must be missing a few pages”. Or at least it was what I was thinking when I read the ending of this book. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back” By Elizabeth Schaefer Review

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On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the fortieth anniversary, forty storytellers recreate an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back, through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors and trendsetting artists.

So this book is a collection of 40 short stories which is released what we saw in The Empire Strikes Back.

If you want me to be very honest here, most of those stories in this book were good but they were okay. But surprisingly there were 2-3 very good shorties which really made me be kinder to the stories I didn’t like as much in this book. 

Its important to say that each short stories comes from a less known character from that movie. And we don’t get Luke’s, Leia’s or Han’s perspective but rather from the side characters from the movie. With actually worked very well for this book. Because we get to see the iconic trio through different perspectives rather from their own perspectives. 

To be honest I cant talk about the writing style of this book, because almost all 40 short stories in this book have been written by different authors which of course their own witting styles. 

I think that this book is a nice book to read if you want to expend your star wars knowledge and see the events of The Empire Strikes Back from different perspectives than the iconic trio’s perspectives. But of course this book is very far from being a “must read” in the star wars book universe. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Count of Monte Cristo” By Alexandre Dumas Review

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Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

I gotta say that I’ve heard a lot of good about this book before getting into. But at the same time I didn’t have any expectations for it personally. And that might be the reason why I liked it so much. 

This book is long let me tell you that. The copy I have of this book has over 1200 pages, and after reading the entire thing I feel like this book should be at least 400 pages shorter and it would have made this book so much better.

The plot is is actually very interesting. But there are a lot of moments in this book where the plot drags for way too long. There were a lot of moments in this book where one situation could go for like 50 or more pages. And when it happened I began so overwhelmed by it since the author would give us way too long descriptions and the characters would randomly go onto 5 pages long monologues. 

The characters here were okay for the most part. The main character is the best character in the entire book. Since we get to know him the best in this entire book. But the side characters here were way too noble for me. Because of their need to be the most noble in the room they had zero personality and it felt like every single character tried to be more noble than the rest of the room. 

I gotta say that reading this book have taken me 5 months to read it front to back. Because during reading this book I needed to take long breaks because this book would drag for too long and I just couldn’t handle to read this book in a short time. And I didn’t want to end with the biggest reading demotivation over this book. 

The writing style in this book was actually very charming and good. Which is the reason why I gave this book a higher rating than I wanted to at the beginning. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Middlegame” By Seanan McGuire Review

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Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

I had high expectations for this book because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. But after trying to read it I quickly DNF-ed this book because it was very boring. But let me explain what I mean.

The plot here was all over the place, we follow way too many characters here and its very hard to get track of everyone. From the moment I started reading this book to the moment I DNF-ed I was confused all the time.

The characters here were very weak, and I just couldn’t find the strength in me to care about them or form any thoughts about them. Because my brain refused to give the characters in this book any brainpower. The characters in this book are very silly which makes this book feel like a book for 10 years old. The way the characters talked with each other in this book really made me cringe AF, because it was like the author was trying to make the characters as cartoon-ish as possible and she succeeded but in a very negative way.

When you read the summary of this book then the premise of it sounds very interesting but the moment you start reading this book you realized that the plot is very nonsensical. The entire plot just seems like it was written by second or third graders trying to write a book for themselves.

The writing style was very bad it felt like again second or third graders have written this book. The writing style gets from being very advanced to being way too simple and again to being very advanced. It was like the author couldn’t decide which writing style she wanted to use in this book, so she just went with multiple. 

I DNF-ed this book after having read around 100 pages of this book, just because this entire book was way to bad for me to handle reading the entire book. 

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“Jane Eyre” By Charlotte Brontë Review

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Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane’s natural independence and spirit – which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall’s terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions – even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman’s search for equality and freedom.

I didn’t know much about this book before getting into it. A part of me was expecting me not liking this book, but I actually did like this book. I don’t think it was a master piece but I am glad that I read it. 

This book talks about Jane Eyre who is a orphan, and we follow her journey through her passions, anger, defiance, strength and overwhelming desire. And I gotta say that this book takes us in a lot of places. No matter how it sounds I actually liked in a way.

A lot of people on the internet says its a “cute romance” book, but in my opinion its very far away from actually being a “cute romance” book. She had two romances going on and but of them were train wracks. Its no other way to summarizes her romances. 

I personally liked Jane Eyre as the main character, but the rest of the characters in this book I didn’t like as much. All the characters expect of Jane Eyre were very generic and I had hard time trying to tell them apart. 

The writing style in this book was very good, which really surprised me because I wasn’t expecting it to be so good as it was. And because of the writing style I gave this book some extra points for this. 

To be very honest I don’t have any strong feelings or thoughts about this book. Im very neutral about this book and I think it was a okay read. I know I am very picky when it comes to books, but thats just how I function as I human being.

I Give This Book 3 / 5