Category: Book review

“The Leopard” By Jo Nesbø Review

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Inspector Harry Hole has retreated to Hong Kong, escaping the trauma of his last case in squalid opium dens, when two young women are found dead in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches a fever pitch. There are no clues, the police investigation is stalled, and Harry—the one man who might be able to help—can’t be found. After he returns to Oslo, the killer strikes again, Harry’s instincts take over, and nothing can keep him from the investigation, though there is little to go on. Worse, he will soon come to understand that he is dealing with a psychopath who will put him to the test, both professionally and personally, as never before.

This book is the 8th book in the “Harry Hole” book series by Jo Nesbø. Even thou I loved a lot the previous book in this series I have to say that this book is much more less impressive and much less fun than the previous book in this series.

To be very honest here this book goes more under it being a noir category book rather than crime. Because in this book Harry sort of goes on his own and completely leaves behind his police work and any help he could have gotten from his colleges in the police force.

In my opinion this book is very slow and there is not a lot of moments I liked in this book but there were a few. It easily could have been 100 pages shorter and it would have made this book better without all the side quests Harry undertakes in this book.

The writing style in this book is okay, but it wasn’t as good is in the previous books in this series. Which really disappointed me a lot. Because I was expecting this very good writing style in this book which didn’t really happen. 

I personally thing after reading this book that the series is going down hill since book 7. But hopefully the rest of the series isn’t what I’m expecting it to be.

Plot here was very very slow at the beginning, but then the plot had good increase in the plot actually being interesting but then when you come closer and closer to the end the plot again starts to be very slow and not as good as the previous books in this series.

At the same time this book reuses the exactly same plot as the previous book in this series. Which means that it contains the exactly same aspects which are a serial killer on the lose, a woman is found dead and only Harry Hole is able to catch the serial killer and solve the mystery. Like come on Jo Nesbø is it so hard to write something unique and not reuse the same plot ? 

The thing which surprised me the most in this book was that Harry complete forgets about his alcohol problem and just stops drinking Jim beam in this book. If you have read the previous 7 books in this series then you will know that Harry has a huge problem with alcohol but in this book its like the author completely forgets about this aspect and you are left wondering what the fuck happened to Harry which got him to stop drinking. And the author doesn’t give a you anything.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“A Promised Land” By Barack Obama Review

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A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making—from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy. In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

So I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since it first came out in late 2020. But after reading it I just don’t understand why it won the  “Best Memoir & Autobiography” category on Goodreads in 2020. Because its very far from being a good book. But let me explain by this.

Majority of this book feels like a personal therapy session rather than a biography about 44th president of USA. And there are a lot of times it feels like Barack Obama is trying to defend himself from the people who don’t like him or his presidency. At the same time there were many times I got the feeling that Barack Obama tries to glorify himself and make you think that during his political career he never did anything wrong at all.

This book feels like a very broad and shallow chronological timeline of Obama’s political career, from his start in community organizer to him becoming president and ordering the killing / capture of Osama bin Laden. 

If you have seen at least one speech from Barack Obama you would have notices that his speeches are filled with inspiration, hope or motivation. But this book is written by the same guy but this doesn’t feel like it. Because were is the inspiration, hope or motivation in it?

At the same time Barack Obama is very reserved and way too kind to himself in this book which really made me have the impression that he is way too full of himself. Even thou I like Barack Obama and think that he was the best president since JFK.

Of course there are some good parts about this book, like it having the occasional acknowledgement of moments or situation that the press didn’t captured or report on but should which proved that he was better president than people on the right give him the credit for. And this book has few interesting anecdotes which really made me learn something more about Barack Obama and which I found to be very interring and fun to read about. But those moments were very rare and I personally wish that we had gotten more of them.

This book has over 700 pages (which depends on the edition of the book you got), and it feels like Barack Obama have written a love letter to himself which turned out to be 750 pages long. Which really made me view him in a different light than I did before reading this book.

There were a lot of moments during reading this book where I found myself bored of it, uninterested and thinking about if I should DNF this book because I was very bored at times.

The edition I got of this book is 752 pages long, and after reading this whole book I think that it should have been shorter and it would only make this book better than it is now. Because as it is now it feels more like a boring text book from high school which everyone hate but which everyone needed to read.

At the same time this book doesn’t talk or even mention about the major events which happened during his presidency but rather this book talks about the insignificant events which no one really cares about. 

Throughout this book keeps mentioning how much it sucks to be president of USA and how hard of a job it is. I personally think that being a president must be a hard job and not just sitting on the couch all day everyday and making some decisions, but Barack Obama signed himself to being possibly a  president when he started his presidential campaign. 

The writing style in this book wasn’t the best. Of course it had some good moments. But for the most part it feels like a writing style worthy of a high school text book rather than a biography book about a president.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Woman in Me” By Britney Spears Review

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In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

I really dislike reviewing autobiographies and memoir books since to me it feels like judging the experience the person had in their life. But lets review this book and keep in mind that I’m talking about this BOOK not about anything else.

This book is quick read, because its short and its actually interesting. I didn’t know much about Britney Spears before reading this book, I never was a fan of her even thou I liked a few of her songs. I knew very basic things about her like she was in a very shady conservatorship, her love life wasn’t the greatest and she making weird videos on instagram in the recent years.

After reading this book I’ve realized how much she actually went through in her life and reading this book was really so sad because you learn about how much shit she went through since she was born. And it really makes me feel very sad for her.

The writing style in this book was on the 5th grade level which really was pretty painful at times especially when she talked about being forced to do things she didn’t want, be manipulated by her parents or being forced to stay somewhere which she wanted to leave.

The chapters are over the place in this book. The chapters aren’t chronological but instead they jump back and forward in time without any reason. The chapters would go to where she was still in school to her giving birth to her kids like 17 years later and then it would jump back to where she was starting her career and the things she done to kick star her career.

The chapter ending were very abrupt and it felt like the author didn’t bother to give us any details than whats absolutely necessary for us to feel sad about what Britney Spears went through in her life. Which really didn’t help me to like the book.

But this book was very inserting and enjoyable even thou it had its fair share of things which didn’t work out for me. But I still like it and would recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about Britney Spears.

It is said on wikipedia that this book was written together with a ghostwriter named  Sam Lansky. But of course anything taken off of Wikipedia needs to be taken with a lot of salt. If it is true then it might explain why I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Głosy z zaświatów” By Remigiusz Mróz Review

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Seweryn Zaorski stara się na nowo ułożyć sobie życie, kiedy do zakładu patomorfologii w Żeromicach zaczynają trafiać ciała małych dzieci z okolicy. Nikt nie potrafi rozwiązać zagadki śmierci młodych ofiar, nic bowiem nie wskazuje na to, by zostały zamordowane. Seweryn jest jednak przekonany, że może stać się głosem tych, którzy mówią już jedynie z zaświatów. Kto i dlaczego zabija niewinne dzieci? I jaki związek ma to z tajemniczymi wiadomościami, które Zaorski zaczyna otrzymywać?

At the time of writing this review this book is only available in polish.

This book is the second book in the “Seweryn Zaorski” series. I have pretty mixed feelings about this book just as I had after finishing the first book in this series.

On the one side this book is much better than the first book in this series but at the same time the plot is even less existing than it was in the first book and the characters are just so much more annoying than in the first book in this series.

The plot in this book is very absurd just think about someone is killing and raping little girls and there is a investigation to find out who is the murder. And all of the absurd things which you think wont happen because they would have been too stupid or lame. They do happen in this book. 

But also the author doesn’t do a good jobbing in hiding who the murder is throughout this book and only reveling it at the end. The author ignores all that. The moment we first met the murder (of course we didn’t know he was the murder) at the beginning of this book I hade a feeling and was already in chapter 3 or 4 pointing fingers to the correct person who might be the murder. And because of this I would get so angry at the main characters for not even suspecting that person that I would scream at them fully knowing that they are fictional character and that they wouldn’t hear me whatsoever.

The characters seem do develop and grow but in the reverse way than forwards. I don’t know if it just me but I feel like the characters make even more stupid decisions than in the first book. And because of this I found them being so damn annoying.

However I liked the ending a lot in this book. Because we get a twist at the end which makes us think “oh, now it makes sense”. Or at least it was how I reacted when I read the ending of this book. 

I personally think that the ending of this book was much better than the ending in the first book in this series. Because as ive said the review for the first book of the series, I thought and still think that it was very confusing and all over the place. But in this book the whole reveling of who the murder is and how he operated was actually pretty logical than in the first book.

There are times when the author drags for too long and describes things which aren’t relevant or just talks about how much the main two character want to bang each other but they cant since the female main character is married to the major of the town and she is a police deputy. Which really made me so annoyed at this book and the author. Because 15% of this book is talking about how much the two main characters want to kiss each other or bang each other but it never happens. So why use so much of this book talking about something which never happens in the end? But at the same time its a crime / mystery book so I don’t want the author use pages and pages talking about how much 2 characters want to bang each other. If I wanted to read about sex I would pick up “fifty shades of gray” or “365 days”.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Listy zza grobu” By Remigiusz Mróz Review

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Dwadzieścia lat po śmierci ojca Kaja Burzyńska wciąż otrzymuje od niego wiadomości. Zadbał o to, przygotowując je zawczasu i zlecając coroczną wysyłkę tego samego, pozornie przypadkowego dnia. Po czasie Kaja traktuje to już jedynie jako zwyczajną tradycję – aż do momentu, gdy w listach zaczyna dostrzegać drugie dno. Tymczasem do miasteczka po dwudziestu dwóch latach wraca Seweryn Zaorski. Patomorfolog i samotny ojciec dwójki dzieci kupuje zrujnowany dom rodzinny Kai i rozpoczyna remont. W zniszczonym garażu odnajduje zamurowaną skrytkę z materiałami, które rzucają nowe światło na sprawę sprzed dwóch dekad.

At the time of writing this review this book is only available in polish.

At this point I was read multiple books written by Remigiusz Mróz, and I gotta say that I’ve read worse books written by the author and I have read better books by this author. So this book is firmly in the middle.

In my opinion this book is all over the place, because there is a lot of things happening in this book and we follow two perspectives in this book.

The plot here is that the wife of the major is a policewoman and her father went missing with no trace 2 decades before and ever since her father went missing she gets weird letters from her father. So we follow her investigation to what happened with her father those 2 decades ago but then we get mob investigation and secret society investigation which really made it very very confusing for me.

The characters in this book were very far from being good. Don’t get me wrong they were okay. But in the end I just didn’t care about them nor did I bother to remember them for a long time after finishing this book.

The main character in this book was very meh, because I didn’t care at all about what will happen with him. In my opinion he makes stupid decisions and was not the smartest character I came across.

Its important to say that this book is the first book in the series of named “Seweryn Zaorski” which at the time of writing this book is a 5 books series. 

I need to be honest here and say that the first part of this book was actually very good, intriguing, interesting and enjoyable. But the second part of it is when the book started going down hill at least in my opinion. Which of course might explain why I gave this book a 3 star rating. 

The writing style in this book is okay. I have no strong feels about the writing style in this book. Because the author uses very simple and easy language which really doubt make you think about what is happening in the book but rather tells you straight away “this happens, then this happens and then this happens”. Which I personally am not a fan of. I prefer when the authors leave space to reader imagination rather than setting the plot in stone.

The ending of this book as Ive said above is all over the place and left me very confused about what had just happened. Which in my opinion isn’t a good thing if the author wants me give his book a good rating.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Dreamcatcher” By Stephen King Review

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In Derry, Maine, four young boys once stood together and did a brave thing. Something that changed them in ways they hardly understand. A quarter of a century later, the boys are men who have gone their separate ways. Though they still get together once a year, to go hunting in the north woods of Maine. But this time is different. This time a man comes stumbling into their camp, lost, disoriented and muttering about lights in the sky.

Here we are again talking about book written By Stephen King which didn’t really work for me. To be very honest Stephen King books are either hit or miss for me. 

The book is way too long than it needed to be. Because there are a lot of moments which drag for far too long which really makes this boring to be on the boring side of things. 

This book is all over the place in my opinion because its confusing and jumbled. Because it changes perspective between the 4 main characters and you just don’t know where the perspective will change because it happens out of nowhere and you need to put it together who’s perspective are you following at any given moment.

The only good thing about this book is the characters which are amazing. And which is the only reason why I gave this a 2 star rating rather one a 1 star rating. I loved the characters in this book because they have a lot of depth to them and have a lot of strength to them. Which pretty much is the skill which Stephen King posses. 

This book talks about childhood friendships evolving into adulthood friendships and how it changes. I liked the meaning behind this book but the whole book isn’t as good as I wanted to.

The plot in this book for the most part is on the boring side but it has some very good moments here and there throughout the book. As I said above the plot tends to drag for far too long at times and describes things for pages without it going anywhere which really made me consider DNF-ing this book but I was able to finish the entire book.

The ending in this book was okay but it wasn’t something which would be satisfying for reading over 600 page long book. But at the same time the books build onto the big ending of this book which really didn’t happen.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Rewizja” By Remigiusz Mróz Review

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Żona i córka robotnika z Ursynowa giną tragicznie w niewyjaśnionych okolicznościach. Ich polisa na życie jest tak duża, że towarzystwo ubezpieczeniowe nie spieszy się z jej wypłaceniem. Pogrążony w żałobie mężczyzna spodziewa się problemów, ale to, co go spotyka, przechodzi jego najśmielsze obawy. Ubezpieczyciel odmawia wypłaty, twierdząc, że to robotnik zamordował rodzinę. Zaraz potem prokuratura stawia mu zarzuty, a on rozpoczyna walkę o uniewinnienie i własny honor. Pomaga mu prawniczka, która niedawno pogrzebała całą swoją karierę.

At the time of writing this book this book is available in Polish and Ukrainian.

This book is the third book in the book series “Chyłka & Zordon” and I got to be hones there and say that this book was less impressive and much more less fun than the first two books in this series.

This book is the longest book in this series so far, so I was expecting more action and more juicy crime investigation from the main characters. But we didn’t get it. 

80% of this book the main characters doesn’t talk with each other since at the end of the second book they had a big argument and Chyłka left the law firm named “Żelazny & McVay” which to this point was the firm where the two main characters were working at. 

If you loved the first book in this series as much as I do, then you will get surprised and excited for during reading this book since one of the main characters from book one will have a huge comeback in this book.

The plot here was really dragged out at times, and because of this aspect this book would have been so much better if it was shorted down to like 450 – 500 pages rather than being over 600 pages long.

There are quite a few events in this book which doesn’t lead us anywhere. I don’t know why does events were in the book, since they leave you thinking “why did this happen if it just irrelevant for the plot as a whole?”.

There is also a huge “What The Fuck?” moment in this book which have something to do with one of the side characters which I love as much as the main character. Which of course is Kormak. 

The writing style is as amazing as in the first two books in this series. Its like the author know what words to use to completely grab your attention and not let it go until the very end of this book.  Which I personally love when it happens in this book and its a easy way for me to give the book some extra points. 

The characters here are as good as they were in the first two books. Of course we don’t see a lot of progress in the relationship between Chyłka  and Zordon. Because as I’ve said before they spend 80% of this book not on speaking terms nor do they see each other or try to contact each other.

However there were couple of times were I would get angry at Chyłka during this book, because in this book her alcohol problem gets way bigger and way out of hands and she makes the stupidest decisions ever like drinking vodka during the break of a court session. 

There were also times were I would get pissed of at Zordon, because he would be like the most career driven asshole as I have seen in my life. And he would like do the most dick head moves towards Chyłka. 

However the ending is very good, because the end is where Zordon decides to be the good guy and decides to not play along being the bad guy and teams up with Chyłka again. Which really made me happy.

The main case of this book was okay, but it wasn’t as interesting, intriguing and mysterious as the cases from the two previous books. I like the case in this book but I wasn’t impressed and intrigued by it as I was in the previous two books of this series.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival (Jewish Lives)” By Thomas Toivi Blatt Review

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Blatt’s account of his childhood in Izbica provides a fascinating glimpse of Jewish life in Poland after the German invasion and during the period of mass deportations of Jews to the camps. Blatt’s tale of escape, and of the five horrifying years spent eluding both the Nazis and later anti-Semitic Polish nationalists, is a firsthand account of one of the most terrifying and savage events of human history.

I had a lot of expectations for this book since I like a lot holocaust books especially  about people telling their tell of how it was surviving the holocaust but this book didn’t live up to my expectations.

I don’t know what it is about this book but I couldn’t finish it because it was so torturous for me to read it.

The writing style was very off-putting because it was like very very heavy even for a book about the holocaust. Even the school books have better writing style than this book. 

The plot here is all over the place in this book. Because first its talking about the main character being a jew and hiding the fact and working at a warehouse where German officers would store their motorcycles and then the next second the plot is talking about the person’s penis swelling up. Like were is the connection there ?

This book is very uninteresting and boring. And if you are looking fir a good holocaust book then this book isn’t for you.

Well I don’t want to be too harsh about this book because its a Memoir about someone’s experience under the holocaust. So this review will be very short 

I Give This Book 1 / 5

“Ted Bundy. Umysł mordercy” By Max Czornyj Review

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Ted Bundy. Najsłynniejszy współczesny seryjny morderca. Dokonywał masakr. Ukrywał ciała ofiar i pozował je niczym kukły. Odgrywał z nimi makabryczne sceny. A to tylko początek nieprawdopodobnej historii. Rzeczywistość przerosła najbardziej przerażającą fikcję. Nigdy nie obcowaliście z tak czystym złem. Niepowtarzalna narracja pierwszoosobowa przyprawia o dreszcze. Jestem całkowicie instynktem i popędem. Drapieżnikiem, myśliwym, łowcą. Jestem miłosierny. Wybieram kłamstwo.

At the time of writing this review, this book is only available in Polish so keep that in mind.

This book is about no other than Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial killer of all time. And he doesn’t need a lot of expiation since I’m sure that everyone knows who Ted Bundy is.

This book is really weird because it was written from Ted Bundy’s perspective even thou the author have never talked or even meet Ted Bundy. Its important to say that the author was born 8 months after Ted Bundy was executed, so the author had no possible way to talk or meet Ted Bundy.

This book doesn’t bring anything new to the Ted Bundy case, it rather repeats all the facts we already know about Ted Bundy’s killing, escapes from prisons and his lies. But this book does do it in very unique way since it does it from Ted Bundy’s perspective which I haven’t come across before this book.

This book is a very quick read. Because its very short, the chapters are very short and it uses the larger fonts.

Its important to say that this book wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. And its not as enjoyable as I wanted it to be. But it is not boring which I take as a positive thing with this book.

The ending was dragging a lot and I think that the ending could have been much shorter and not involve Ted Bundy’s schemes he had before his execution to expand his life even for a few days with giving falls info about were he buried his victims.

The writing style in this book wasn’t great. The writing style felt like the author wanted to be done with this book as fast as possible without going into details so much as other books about Ted Bundy do.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Book Thief” By Markus Zusak Review

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It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still. By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

To be very honest here I had a lot of expectations for this book, because I’ve heard a lot of good about it. After reading this book, or I should say trying to read this book I just don’t understand the hype with this book because in my opinion this book isn’t as good as people claim it to be.

The plot is about Nazi Germany and I tend to love books set in that time period but this book is bad. Because the more you read the more boring and uninteresting this book becomes.

The narrator of this book is Death itself. Which might work for some books but it didn’t work fir this book. Having a narrator doesn’t work for this book because the entire book we follow the same character and we see everything from the main characters perspective. So you don’t think about the narrator telling the story unless the narrator makes a comment outside the main story which makes you remember that there is a narrator in this book which isn’t the main character. 

At the same time the narrator use very nonsensical language. Which really bugged me a lot because it would just paused me for a short time every once and a while.

The beginning of this book was actually interesting but the further you get into this book the more and more boring and uninteresting it becomes.

Its important to say that I DNF-ed this book after having read like 52% of this book. Because reading this book was a torture to me since it irritated me and bored me so much that I just couldn’t handle to finish this book. But at the same time I’m not a fan of historical fiction books especially if they are about nazi Germany and the holocaust because its a very dark time in human history.

This book was very anti-climatic because the narrator would tell us what would happen next before it actually happened. And I really hate it whenever this happen because I don’t like someone telling me what will happen next in a book / show / movie before I see it for myself.

During my time reading this book I started to think that the author was more interesting about marketing this book rather than actually giving us a good book.

The writing style of this book because it was 100% telling-without-showing anything to us. Which I find every single time to be very boring and so off-putting. But the same time the writing style in this book is very weak, and it was like the author didnt even care about giving us a good book but rather cared about the paycheck he would get after finishing and publishing this book.

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to like this book so much because it had a very good premise but after trying to read it, I dislike it so much. 

One of the many reasons why I dislike this book as much as I do is that it is very repetitive. The book uses the same phrases, events etc all the time in this book and it like the author doesn’t know when enough is enough with being repetitive.

The characters in this book are so all over the place. The main character is a young girl, and really I don’t know what to think about here. Since at times she makes hard decisions like an adult but other times she just makes the stupidest decisions ever. The adoptive mother of the main character is a mean asshole for no reason to the little girl. And the adoptive father of the main character is a people pleaser, he just cant say no to his adoptive daughter nor to his wife so he ends up being the d-bag when the mother says something else.

I Give This Book 1 / 5