Category: Book review

“Little Deaths” By Emma Flint Review

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It’s 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone – a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress – wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy’s body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.’s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth. 

If you been around this website before you would have noticed that I’m a huge fan of Mystery and Thriller books which this book is. But this one didn’t go well with me for whatever reason.

One of my main problems with this book is that the action was too slow. And my second main problem with this book is that the book focuses too much on Ruth being a mistress than Ruth being a mother who’s kids vanished and was later found dead. I picked up this book to read about the mysterious vanishing of someone and not about the main character having drama with her ex husband, going out and party every night  and have sex with different man. Im not into that, let me say that.

I want to sinister vibe, I want the eerie vibe, I want the mystery, I want the investigation but I don’t want to read about the main character having sex with different man and partying while her kids have been murdered and the police doing very bad investigation in the case.

For me the side problems were taking too much space and they were taking our focus onto them and making us sort of look at the murder of two children as a side problem. 

The writing style however was the best part of this book because it really gave the vibe of New York in 1960s. I liked that.

Its important for me to mention this that I’ve DNF-ed this book like 120 pages in because of the points I’ve mentioned above.

I give this point 1 / 5

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” By J.K. Rowling Review

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The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.  As in all wars, life goes on. The Weasley twins expand their business. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate – and lose a few eyebrows in the process. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, through Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

Yet again we are talking about an amazing Harry Potter book. To be hoist I think that’s the best Harry Potter so far. Because the main characters are making a better decisions and are not just the children who can’t make good decisions anymore. Which really annoyed me in the first book.

The characters in this book are just wow. They are so well developed and they feel like really people which I would have no problem being good friends with. The characters in this book really feels much better than in the previous 5 books because we already know so much about them from the past 5 books. 

This book is much darker than the 5 previous books in this series but I’m here for it. Because it makes this series so much fun because it stoped to be this fairy tale like series and it turned in this book to be more like real life story. 

There is a twist at the end of this book which I’m sure everyone knows about but still I won’t say what the twist is in case if there is someone reading this review who haven’t read the books or watched the movies. 

The Death Eaters are more involved in this book which I love because the books should have more about the Death Eaters than they have. Because it makes it more fun. 

The writing style in this book is as amazing as it was in the 5 previous book. The writing style makes it feel like you are seeing the whole story in your head instead of reading it which I always love when it happens. 

The plot itself was probably the best Harry Potter plot so far when it comes to a book for itself instead of looking at it as a whole series. 

We learned more about what Dumbledore been up to and what he really knows about the Voldemort and Harry Potter situation. 

But I still missed seeing more of Slytherin house and seeing more of Snape which I’ve mentioned before in the Harry Potter book review that he is my all time favourite character from the Harry Potter universe. 

I give this book 5 / 5

“Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think” By Hans Rosling Review

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In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

This book is an amazing nonfiction, psychology and science book. Because it is so knowledgeable and there is so much to learn from it. And that’s what books I love the most beside Stephen King’s book. 

This book had opened my eyes that things are actually better than I and many other people think things are. This book not only gives us evidence that things are better but it also explains the evidence in a nice and easy way for everyone to understand it. This book have helped me notice that many things might change in the next decades and that that poor countries might not be poor in couple of decades. 

It doesn’t matter if you have a doctoral degree in psychology or if you have dropped out of high school you will be able to understand this book because it is written in a nice and easy way. And it also explains everything in a nice and easy way as I’ve said above. 

Some people will complain about some term which are used in this book. Terms like “low-income countries”, “primary school” and so on. But just know that this book is written from American and European point of view which means that it is written from a point of view which most people in the west are used to like buying a new phone every 2 year, having an house or apartment, having a good job, having car or cars etc. And all the terms which are used in this book are used from our perspective. 

And this book really shows that the world can be bad and better at the same time. Because things are so much better than they were 50 years ago but still there are some many things which we need to fix. 

The writing style was so amazing that it almost felt like I was having a chat with the author about all these things which are mention in this book. Which I give this book extra point for because I love when it happens. 

I give this book 5 / 5

“Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories” By Kim Young-ha Review

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Diary of a Murderer captivates and provokes in equal measure, exploring what it means to be on the edge—between life and death, good and evil. In the titular novella, a former serial killer suffering from memory loss sets his sights on one final target: his daughter’s boyfriend, who he suspects is also a serial killer. In other stories we witness an affair between two childhood friends that questions the limits of loyalty and love; a family’s disintegration after a baby son is kidnapped and recovered years later; and a wild, erotic ride about pursuing creativity at the expense of everything else.

I gotta admit that this book was the first book I’ve read which as written by a Korean Author. 

There are 4 short stories in this book named “Diary of a murder”, “the origin of life”, “missing child” and the last one is “the writer”. All 4 for these short stories were sort of thriller / mystery stories. But to be fully honest with you guys the only good short story in this book was the first one named “Diary of a murder” and the rest of the stories felt like just a starch to make the book longer. 

The writing style was okay for the most part but there were a lots of times where the writing style could be improved like a lot. And it was clear that these short stories were written by a person who didn’t write a lot of stories before. 

The plots in all these 4 short stories were good enough as when it comes to the book as a whole. But “Diary of a murder” was the best short story in this book because it was very unique because it is a short story about a serial killer how gets dementia. But the rest of the short story just feels like the most generic mystery short stories which you can possible find.

I give this book 2 / 5

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” By J.K. Rowling Review

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There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it’s haunting Harry Pottter’s dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? Harry has a lot on his mind for this, his fifth year at Hogwarts: a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality like poisoned honey; a big surprise on the Gryffindor Quidditch team; and the looming terror of the Ordinary Wizarding Level exams. But all these things pale next to the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named – a threat that neither the magical government nor the authorities at Hogwarts can stop.

Just wow, this book as the entire series is so fucking good that I don’t have words to describe it.

However there is one thing which annoyed me with this book. And that thing is that the main action was left for the last 100 pages of this book and this book is over 800 pages long. And these first 700 pages are mostly about Dolores Umbridge drama and about Harry constantly talking about how he is not involved in anything. Which really annoyed me a lot because who in the right mind would let a 15 year old battle one of the greatest wizards of all time ? Because at the age of 15 you barely know anything at all. 

The writing style here was fucking good. The writing style felt more like a tale told over a fire at a summer camp rather than a 800 + pages book. I truly love when this happens and that’s why mum giving this book extra points for that. 

The characters in my opinion are getting better and better. Because they get more depth in them, they get more unique characters. And in this book we get more interesting characters in this series like Bellatrix Lestrange. The characters in this series feels like real human beings which Im the biggest fan of when it happens in books. 

The fact that we learned more about Professor Snape and about Lily and James Potter really makes this book better and more interesting. Because Snape, Lily and James are these characters in the series which deserve more space than they actually get so far at least. And of course Snape is my favourite character in the whole series makes it even more fun to learn more about his origin story. 

The plot itself here feels for the most part not that interesting as the ending. This is because of what I’ve mentioned before that these first 700 pages are mostly about Dolores Umbridge drama and about Harry constantly talking about how he is not involved in anything.

However the ending is just fucking brilliant and it is the reason why I’ve decided to give this book 5 out of 5 because it was so fucking good. It was so good that it made me forgive it for the death of one of my favourite characters in the series. If you know, you know who im talking about. I won’t say who it is just to not spoil the book for people who haven’t read lot yet but still want to enjoy the book without ay spoilers before they get into it. 

We also learn at the end of the book why Harry needs to go to Dursley’s every summer gives you more insights into how great this whole series actually is. 

I gotta say that I wish to see more of the Slytherins in the next 2 books in this series because I feel like we could have more of them. By the way we are talking about book 5 in the series so I think it’s time to revel which house I would want to belong to because no one can talk about Harry Potter without mentioning this fact. So the house which I would have want to be in is of course Slytherin. 

I give this book 5 / 5

“The Long Take” By Robin Robertson Review

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Walker, a young Canadian recently demobilised after war and his active service in the Normandy landings and subsequent European operations. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and unable to face a return to his family home in rural Nova Scotia, he goes in search of freedom, change, anonymity and repair. We follow Walker through a sequence of poems as he moves through post-war American cities of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

This book is a collection of poems. And as some of you might know I’m not the biggest fan of poems which might be the main reason why I’ve rated this book so low as I’ve did. 

Most of the poems in this book were kind of boring and uninteresting but there were some poems which were interesting and fun to read.

The writing style was okay but nothing to talk about. Because the writing style was the generic writing style which you can see in most poems. 

Some poems are long and some poems are short in this book which might give a bigger picture of this book. 

I give this book 2 / 5

“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” By J.K. Rowling Review

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Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants to find out about the mysterious event that’s supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn’t happened for hundreds of years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he’s not normal – even by wizarding standards.

It seems like the more forward I go into this series the more I enjoy it. And it comes from someone who didn’t like the Harry Potter movies and would rather watch on lope The Simpsons for a year than watch the movies again.

The plot it is the perfect young adult theme which everyone would like. And if I love a Young adult book then it means that everyone would like it. 

The written style in this one is amazing and really brings a lot into this whole series as well as this book. 

The ending in these books are always so damn satisfying. It may have something to do with Harry, Ron and Hermione escaping tragedy and returning to the normal world at the end of each school year. 

The characters here are just brilliant and the character development is very good and very clear to see in every book. Which really makes me glad because who doesn’t love good characters and good character development?

And so far at least in this series it seems like every book has a very good twist at the end which really makes me glad because I love good twists in books. 

And every time I started reading this book it really made it hard to stop reading it because it was so good. 

This book and the series so far is the definition on how Young Adult and fantasy books should be like. 

I give this book 5 / 5

“Breaking Dawn” By Stephenie Meyer Review

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Bella and Edward Cullen get married, leaving behind a heartbroken Jacob. When Bella faces unexpected and life-threatening situations, she willingly risks her human life and possible vampire immortality.

I gotta say that this book was the best book in the twilight series so far. I still got two books to read in this series. And these two books are “Life and Death” and “Midnight Sun”. But so far this was the best book in the series so far at least and im giving this book extra points for that.

However I need to say that I have had less fun with this book than I’ve had with the first book in this series. Because I’m not team Jacob and pregnancy kind of disgust me.

There are some moments in this books which don’t make any sense like Edward having sex with Bella when Bella is still a human and Edward is basically the killing machine which can kill her at any second. Another thing is the pregnancy to Bella. She becomes pregnant and gives birth in less than 3 weeks. I gotta say that, that was the fastest pregnancy in the history of everything. There were more things but these two are the main things which made no sense to me.

The writing style feels like it had run down the hill since the first book in this series, because the writing style in this book was kind of bad but the writing style in the first book was amazing. 

The plot was okay, and for the most part it is what you can expect from twilight and teen book about love and vampires. 

The fact that Jacob and Edward in this book are starting to have a little bromance after 3 books of being in a war with each other also didn’t make much sense to me. But I guess that in young adult books nothing has too make sense as long as there is werewolves, vampires, a shy main character with not much friends and a small town.

I give this book 3 / 5

“A Gentleman in Moscow” By Amor Towles Review

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A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

I gotta say that I’ve had high expectations for this one, but it didn’t live up to these expectations. It means like the higher rating a book has on goodreads the lower my rating becomes for whatever mysterious reason. 

The plot itself is the overall about the Communist Russia where you aren’t allowed to speak about how fucked up Russia is but the main character got out of this trouble quit easily because he is a rich. And he spend the entire book yapping about how the world is unfair because his big apartment got taken away from him and he must live in much smaller apartment. 

The writing style is quit amazing, because it has the old timey vibe to it, but nothing more than this. It could have been much better if the author decided to not use so many words as he did in this book. It really seemed like the author was trying to put every word he knew in this book. 

The sentence structure is just insane in this one. Because it is bloated that it doesn’t even make sense sometimes. And the footnotes here are too many of them in this Novell. 

Everyone talks about how wonderful this novel is but in my opinion this novel is just a boring, stuffy and stodgy novel. 

This novel takes place in a period of 30 years. And there are times where characters disappears for year to just reappear again after like 20 years. This really annoyed me because it like deleting a part of the novel.

This book has talk a decent deal about best wines and best foods. And I don’t care for it. Of course I love food but when I’m picking a book I don’t want to read about how good expensive food and wine is. 

The main characters seemed like caricatures or a parody of a main character. And the amount of wine and other alcohol he drinks in this book is so unbelievable.

The descriptions in this one and the details are too much in this book. There will be couple of times where the author will spend one whole side describing nothing which brings something to the main story. 

The history aspect of this story is that it doesn’t make sense. Because while thousands of people have been killed during the Stalinist rule, our main character done a similar crime to people how have been murdered but he just gets the punishment to be locked in a luxury hotel and drink wine all day and do nothing.

I give this book 1 / 5

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” By J.K. Rowling Review

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When the knight bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it’s the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run – and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry’s tea leaves. But perhaps most terrifying of all are the dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss

I can’t believe how fast I’m going through Harry Potter books, in a little bit over a month I was able to finish 3 Harry Potter books while reading other books on the side. 

I really wish that I’ve read these books when I was in grade school because I would have loved them more than I do now and I would get into reading sooner. 

This book really proves why the Harry Potter series is still one of the best book series which was ever written. It doesn’t matter if you like Young Adult books or not, I promise you that you will like this book and the whole series. Because it isn’t as much Young Adult as fantasy. 

The big twist at the end really blown my mind. I think that most of you know what twist I’m talking about but I won’t say it in case there is someone reading this review who haven’t read this book yet. But I gotta say I truly loved the twist at the end it was so fucking amazing. It was so good that I don’t even have words to describe it. 

The writing style is so good, it really didn’t feel like a Young Adult writing style as much as it felt like a high fantasy writing style. It wasn’t on the level with “A song of ice and fire” but it was very correct writing style for the whole plot in this book and for the theme of the book.

The plot of this book was just wow. I gotta say that the plot have really blown me away. I knew that the books in this series was good but this one have created a new level for this series. 

However I wish that there were more talk about Sirius Black at the beginning and in the middle part of this book. Because this book is supposed to be about him but we don’t get much of him until we are pretty deep into this book. This kind of disappointed me. 

And I gotta say that this book was the first book which made me have some negative thoughts about Professor Snape. As someone of you may know, Professor Snape is my favourite character when it comes to the movies but this book made a huge change because after reading this book my new favourite character is none other than Sirius Black.

I loved also to see Hermione to develop more as a character and not just be the all nerdy school girl made my day. Especially when she gave a knuckle sandwich to Draco’s face.

I give this book 5 / 5