“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins Book Review

The final book in the ground-breaking HUNGER GAMES trilogy, this new foiled edition of MOCKINGJAY is available for a limited period of time. Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12 

This is the third book in the “Hunger games” trilogy. And by far it is the second best.

This book is good at pointing out wise things about propaganda, grief, war, trauma and power of healing. But of course it is a fictional book so these things are good enough for a fictional story which in the end doesn’t mean anything.

It is a YA book, and I know that not everyone is the biggest fan of these kind of books. So keep that in mind.

The characters, are almost the same persons as they were in the first book. So the character growth is very poor in this book. There are some annoying characters, and almost all characters take very stupid decisions. The only character in this book who is reasonable and thinks logically is Gale and the rest of the characters have lost their brains somewhere. The descriptions of the characters isn’t better. 

This book is a good example that the author put quantity over quality. This book would be so much better if it had less characters and if these characters who were in this book would have more depth. 

The writing style in this book is more or less decent and nothing to really be hyped with. Writing style is on the level with something a high school student would write. 

There is a huge drag in the middle of this book, which really brings this book down. And it feels like the author tries to drag out this book for so long as it is possible. 

The ending wasn’t satisfying or at least it wasn’t for me. The ending we got wasn’t something good. It was for the most part disappointing and boring.

Plot holes are very relevant in this book. Probably the most important thing in this book wasn’t shown to us, I’m talking about the trail of Katniss. We only got shown the days before and after the trail. 

Katniss in this book, felt like she forgot everything she been through in the past 2 books. And in this book she turned into a very boring and annoying character. 

The PTSD in this book was so poorly done, it basically felt like someone was just sad after failing an exam. 

However I need to say that this book was probably the best book of the whole trilogy. 

I give this book 3 / 5

“The Turn Of The Key” by Ruth Ware Book Review

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant. 

The whole plot that the big and isolated mansion which might be haunted together with the concept of a new nanny coming to this house to work there is brilliant. The thing that the nanny is left alone with kids without any adults around expect of the handyman for weeks at a time makes this plot and story more interesting.

There is one plot hole which I at least have noticed while reading this book. But I won’t say what the plot whole is because I don’t want to spoil the book for you. However this plot hole isn’t that big that it will destroy your experience with the book. 

The whole story is dark, it involves a lot of deaths and if you get triggered by child death or death in general then maybe you shouldn’t read this book. But if you have no problem in deaths in fictional books then I guess that you won’t be disappointed in this book. 

For the most part this book is creepy, atmospheric and it has a creepy mood to it. This book reminded me at the beginning of the “The Haunting of Bly Manor”. This book makes you question if there is actually something paranormal involved in it or if it is just the kids doing pranks on the new nanny. This book also makes you think if the new nanny is overreacting some stuff or if her behavior is on point. 

The whole book have sort of an old timely hasted mansion to it with the modern technology which is smart house and a Tesla model X in the background. 

The characters are pretty good. There feel some how realistic, there are only few of them and two of them are in this book briefly. For the most part in this book we have only 2 adult characters and 4 child characters. Characters in this book are well written and also very well described. Every character here feels like she / he have it own soul and they are for the most part different from each other. 

It is important to say that the format of this book is through letters of the nanny’s writing to a lawyer from prison. In these letters she is describing what had happened since day 1 and why she is innocent. So there is no chapters in this book, the chapters in this book are in the form of a new letter being written to the lawyer. And we get to know this story through what the main character written in the letters. 

The ending comes with a twist in it, which maybe will surprise you because we get to know what really happened and why the nanny decided to take the job opportunity at Heatherbrae House. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of the twist but I had appreciated it because it was for the most part okay. 

However this book doesn’t have any scary parts, but it doesn’t fail to keep you on the edge of your seat. If you are looking for a scary book then pick something different. 

If you are looking for a decent and quick read, then this book is for you. I think that if you enjoyed “The Haunting of Bly Manor” series you will also enjoy this book. And of course if you are a big fan of Ruth Ware then I will also recommend this book to you.

I give this book 3 / 5

“Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins Review

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol – a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create. Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying. Katniss is about to be tested as never before.

The second book in “The Hunger Games” trilogy. And its getting downhill.

There were obvious that this book was heavily targeting toward the Twilight crowd. And it is also a sign that you should stop here and don’t read the last book.

The characters are even more annoying than in the first book. like Katniss was in this book a huge dick and she was selfish. Katniss and Peeta feels almost too perfect for the games. Katniss is the perfect hunter and Peeta is the perfect person to get people on his side. You know what I mean?

In the end this book lacks charm, engagement and the unique part. This book is a typical book written just for the cash.

This book would be much better if it went deeper, explaining a little more about the history of the games etc. And basically it would be better if this book was adding more to the story, not just telling what had happened after the events of the first book and nothing more than that.

The beginning was some kind of fine and similar to the first book in the trilogy but after that the book goes downhill. And it basically ends up with Katniss being an asshole at the end.

Once again the author fails to explain more about the hunger game itself which Katniss and Peeta are in. This annoy me because the author spends 80 pages talking about what costumes Katniss and Peeta got but when it comes to the game itself the author uses like 10 pages on it and after that it is all over.

The writing style and descriptions in this book are better than in the first book. But still it wasn’t on the level with Stephen King or Dan Brown. There are a lots of missing things which could improve the writing in this book. When it comes to the twist in the middle, was kind of a drag and lazy.

 I give this book 1 / 5

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins Review

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.

Let me just start this review by saying that this whole series or at least the first book is way overhyped.  And I personally wouldn’t recommend this series to anyone who is over the age of 20.

It is an enjoyable read, but there are a lot of stuff missing. There were a lot of silly and cringe parts.

The characters are okay. Katinss is okay as a main character but she is also annoying at time. She annoying by acting like a 5-year-old at times. However we need to appreciate her ruthlessness and that she wanted to protect her sister. But in the end that Suzanne Collins could use some more effort to creating these characters. Because we just cant care about the characters in this book.

The writing style is okay for the most parts. I mean this wasn’t something to brag about because we can read it but no one said that we will enjoy it.  It felt sometimes that the writing was something a teen in high school had written for an boring assignment.

However the dystopian setting together with the rebellions rising up makes this whole franchise more interesting.

I give this book 2 / 5

“Misery” By Stephen King Review

93Paul Sheldon. He’s a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader – she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Another classic horror novel written by Stephen King.

The story in this book is marvelous, and its defiantly interesting. The whole story is told from an author’s POV.

The writing style is of course typical Stephen King. Which more or less means that it was good. But in the end it could have been better, because there were parts in this book which could have been cut out. And the action could have happened faster, because there were chapters which felt like a huge stretch of time.

The characters here are meh. Annie was brilliant and Paul was annoying at times. Annie is sort of a Norman Bates gone completely wild. There were times when Paul makes some really dumb decisions, which felt like a 10-year-old would take smarter decisions.

The writing style is of course typical Stephen King. But, which for me personally was a huge waste of story because the whole story could have been written from Annie’s perspective and at the end we could shift to Paul’s perspective. But that’s just my opinion.

This book isn’t scary, it is rather unsettling and have some strange vibe to us that makes us think that there are a lot of strange people in the world.

I give this book 3 / 5

“A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success” by Maye Musk Book Review

When Maye Musk decided to make gray hair glamorous, she became an international supermodel and worldwide speaker in her sixties – a far cry from the young divorcée living in Durban trying to make ends meet to provide for her three children. Things have not always been easy for the mother of South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk. She struggled emotionally and financially as a single mother to Elon, Kimbal and Tosca, battled weight issues and had to restart her life and her practice as a dietician in numerous cities over and again. In her compelling memoir, Maye shares hard-earned wisdom and frank, practical advice on careers, health, adventure, and more.

This book is a biography book, but this book would be better under the category of advice book or self-help book. This book is sort of a mix between memoir book and a self-help book. So it is kind of hard to pin it down to a specific genre or field.Because Maye Musk gives us succinct and practical advice from her life so that we may avoid some situation which she been through. 

Maybe Musk shows us that she have been through some shit in her life and she is trying in this book to show us that there are always a solution to every bad situation we get into. She are showing us in this book that there are always we can do in a negative point we get into to make it out of it and make our lives to some kind of better. 

By telling us all the shit she been through, Maye is trying to show us that we need to open out eyes fast and trying everything we can to get out of it. 

This book might be a little bit over hyped but it doesn’t make it to a good book which many woman might enjoy.

This book begins with Maye Musk introducing us to her current day career which she haves and her opinion about aging which a lot of people are afraid of. Then the book goes to a brief summery of her life and what she been through in both a abuse marriage and in her career. She also gives us a lot of advices on that we can’t accept negative situation and make them to our day to day life.

We also get in this book a brief summery on how she was raised by her parents and how she raised her own kids which of course are Tosca, Kimbal and Elon Musk. She describes in this book her approach to parenting, instilling autonomy and allowing them to pursue their own interests. She tells us how she raised her kids in an abuse marriage and how she was trying to make things work.

She is telling us how she get out of some very dark points in her life and how she was capable of move to new countries and new cities.

She is telling us how many times she was rejected in different fields but it didn’t never stop her to trying to get what she wants. 

Chapters in this book are very short, every chapter isn’t longer than 10 pages. Which makes it very fun and quick read if you looking for something which you may read in one or two sittings. There are also several pictures in this book which makes the chapters even shorter.

The writing style is pretty okay, it almost seems like the writing style was chosen specifically for people who are learning English. Because the language is very basic and everyone who is learning English will be able to understand. The writing style feels like she is talking to you or like you are listening to a very chill podcast.

The plot is great. It is a little bit different than other biographies / autobiographies out there. Because she is only giving us the brief summery of her life and career. And she isn’t going deep into her life experience and everything which she was doing. 

This book would be great for you if you are looking for a short read or if you want to get to know Maye Musk in a brief summary without worrying if the thing you are reading on wikipedia is bull shit or not. 

There is something missing in this book. The thing which the book is missing is that Maye Musk could have explained more her life and not just give us a brief summary of everything. 

There were times where this book was more or less like “42 years of age this happened, 45 years of age that happened, 69 years of age cover girl etc”. There were times where this book felt like she was listing everything which she have achieved throughout the years. 

However this book is aiming at showing woman that they are worth more than they think they are. But also showing woman that they need to take care of themselves and not care about what some toxic people have to say about them. She is showing us in this book that our health is much more important than some of us may think and that we need to take care of our health everyday. 

Maye Musk is showing us in this book that not everything is glamorous in your personal life or in your career life. She also doesn’t fail to show us that woman shouldn’t beg man to be in their life. Maye Musk is showing us that woman shouldn’t be with a person who isn’t treating them good enough and give them the respect they need. 

I give this book 3 / 5

“Rescued By Ghosts: A True Inspirational Survivor Story of Child Abuse, Bullying, a Radical Ultra-Fundamentalist Religion, Ghosts, and Supernatural Events” by Timothy L. Drobnick Sr. Book Review

Why was the ghost pointing at a chair in the church? Most people never escape religions with cultish control because the brainwashing is virtually impossible to break so how did these ghosts rescue him from this control? This church had many cult elements and produced Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, plus Jonestown, Guyana cult leader & mass murderer Jim Jones and controlled thousands of people with fear. Why was the tiny child required to warn bullies three times? Written in story form to inspire you, make you laugh, cry, and think.

This book came out on August 2nd 2020, and there isn’t a lot of people who read this book. I personally don’t know why because it is actually a good and fun read. This is sort of giving me personally the “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover vibe.

This book is super realistic in the way how organizations / religions / cults like Peoples Temple brainwash their members and how they isolate their members from people outside of the cult / religion. This book was also amazing at showing the abuse which takes place at home which a lot of children go through. 

The whole plot of this book is interesting, sad, inspiring and captivating. However if you are like me (which means that you’re not into any religion and basically you think that every religion is more or less BS) you will find it hard to relate to this book because of the religions undertone to it. But I think that you will at least enjoy the process of character growth which the main character have in this book. 

Characters in this book are very different from each other, but there are times when it feels like every character are just there to make the life of the main character miserable and depressing. The main character is very relatable because everyone or most of the people felt sadness, depression, etc at some point in their life. 

The fact that this book is a nonfiction and a Memoir book, makes this whole story more relatable. There are a lot of parts in this book where you will feel sad for the author and be angry at his mother for the way she have treated him.

I need to also point out that the author shows uncommon and huge bravery in the way of getting out of the cult but also in the way of sharing his story with the world. 

The writing style is good for the most part but it could have been better at some points during in this book. For the most part the writing style was decadent and good. 

I give this book 3 / 5

“The Phantom of the Opera” By Gaston Leroux Review

95First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous ‘ghost’ of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.

One of these famous classics from way back in the day. There are a lot of good things about this book out on the internet and they aren’t wrong.

This book has around 360 pages, which are pretty much readable in around 3 days.

The old timely language makes reading this book to a pleasure, and it takes it to a whole another level. And together with the setting of the story is just priceless, and it is definitely a must read. The whole mystery of Opera Ghost who lurks in the shadows of an opera is amazing.

When you first begin to read this book a chilling paranormal tale with an element of friendship in it. In the end this book is a dark tale of a man’s descent into violence and madness, and the woman who forms the obsession at the centre of his life.

If you want to read a book about greatest tragedy in life then consider reading this book. Because this book is a fantastic ghostly tale of love with so much more depth and evilness to the storyline than you almost cant forget about it when you read it.

Most of these characters in this book felt like they were overdramatic but they are likeable and fun to follow throughout the story.

However if you decide to read this book then be prepared for murder by hanging and a lots of cries of terror from death in this book.

I give this book 3 / 5

“Talking with Serial Killers – A chilling study of the world’s most evil people” By Christopher Berry-Dee Review

97An investigative criminologist, Christopher Berry-Dee is a man who talks to serial killers. Their pursuit of horror and violence is described in their own words, transcribed from audio and videotape interviews conducted deep inside some of the toughest prisons in the world. Berry-Dee describes the circumstances of his meetings with some of the world’s most evil men and reproduces, verbatim, their very words as they describe their crimes and discuss their remorse — or lack of it. This work offers a penetrating insight into the workings of the criminal mind.

This book is said to be a book where the author is talking with serial killers but in my opinion this book isn’t about talking with serial killer as much as it was talking about the serial killers.

This book would be better if the author would have given us information about these serial killers or the crime scenes which we couldn’t find anywhere on the internet. But the author gives us the same fucking information which we can find on Wikipedia or somewhere else on the internet

This book is not as much about the interviews which the author has with the serial killers in this book than it is about the author telling us about them. The author could have at least given us some fragments of the interviews at least.

This book isn’t good nor bad, it is pretty much up to you to decide it. But the same information which the author is telling us in this book can be found on the internet for free and it will only take 3 seconds to find it.

There were chapters where the author basically went like “he / she did this, then that and she / he drove somewhere”. There were also moments where it seemed that the author tried to write fiction but without any success. Because every time it was feeling like this the chapter was going down hill.

There are some confusing involving this book. Because there is some small distinction between confessions, real facts, reliable, the logical and the pure form of speculation.

The writing style is pretty poor. There are couple of grammatical errors in the book and there are times where the author goes tells us over and over again something similar to “he / she did this, then that and she / he drove somewhere”.

I will say that you are not missing out on anything if you don’t read this book.

I give this book 2 / 5

“The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow Review

96The most fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself, once the province of philosophy, now occupy the territory where scientists, philosophers, and theologians meet—if only to disagree. In their new book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. In The Grand Design they explain that according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history, but rather that every possible history of the universe exists simultaneously. When applied to the universe as a whole, this idea calls into question the very notion of cause and effect.

If you are just freshly starting with being interested in how universe works and all that, then this book is for you. Even if you are someone who knows a lot about the universe, then you should also read it. Because you never know what you may learn from one of the smartest people who ever lived aka Stephen Hawking.

This book is a nonfiction and a science book which makes it easier for people to understand how universe works and how very complicated stuff in science works. But of course this book requires knowing a little bit about universe and it also requires you being interested in the topic. Because if you are not interested in universe it will be a torture to read this book.

In this book both Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow shows amazing writing skills together with some huge explanatory skills. I personally learned a lot of things from this book.

The whole M-theory which Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow presents in this book, in my opinion doesn’t fully work. But what do I know right?

This book explains in an easy way to understand a little bit how M-theory and universe works. Of course it isn’t so easy that a 7 year old would understand, but it is easy so that a 16 year old would understand. This book unpacks the universe a little bit and explain to us in basics how they work.

We have illustrations in this book which makes it easier for us to keep track of what we are reading in this book.

I give this book 5 / 5