Tag: 2 Star Reviews

All 2 Star Reviews In One Place

“The Haunted: One Family’s Nightmare” By Robert Curran & Ed Warren & Lorraine Warren Review

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Jack and Janet Smurl and their family have been victims of abuse – both mental and physical – by inhuman entities that threaten their sanity, and even their lives. Over several years, the Smurls together with numerous other people – neighbours, police, priests, researchers – have witnessed scores of supernatural events at the family house: the ripping out of ceiling fixtures, the levitation and beating of the family dog, Janet’s strangling by unseen hands, the repeated appearance of a black hooded figure – and more. And they can’t escape – the demon even follows them when they leave their house.

To be very honest here my thoughts are all over the place when it comes to this book because I don’t believe in the things in this book is talking about and I treated it like a spooky story you tell over a fire place. 

The beginning of this book was actually pretty good but as you continue to read the book it quickly turns into a big mess and it becomes all over the place. 

I don’t know if it is just me but this entire book is written as a fiction book rather than a nonfiction book of haunting / possessions which allegedly happened in real life. Which really didn’t help me to like this book a lot more.

The writing style in this book wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen in the Ed and Lorraine Warren’s books. If you want me to be really honest I feel like the writing style in this book is the weakest than in any other book written by the Warrens.

This book has some few scary moments here and there, but most of the allegedly ghost / demon / whatever moments which happened in this book doesn’t have any evidence shown and more or less seem like just a tall tale told by someone who wants to cash in on book deals, interviews, movie deals etc.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Ghost Hunters” By Lorraine Warren & Ed Warren &  Robert David Chase Review

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Ghosts know no season, respect no boundaries, and offer no mercy. Ed and Lorraine Warren, the world’s most famous and respected demonologists, have devoted decades to exploring, authenticating, and conclusively documenting countless cases of otherworldly phenomena. From the grounds of the United States military academy at West Point, New York to the backwoods of Tennessee, Ghost Hunters chronicles their first-hand confrontations with the unknown, the unholy, and the unspeakable.

So this is another book about Ed and Lorraine Warren’s cases. And I gotta say that I’m not a big fan of their books but they have some pretty decent good stories.

This book discuss 10 different cases from the Ed and Lorraine Warren’s case file. And I gotta say that they were too short to really get into them and enjoy them. I would say that this book would have been better if it focused on one case rather than 10 cases. Because each case gets like 20 – 30 pages which isn’t a lot to get into them. So you only get a brief introduction to these case rather than taking the deep dive which I wanted to do in this book.

This book doesn’t give you a lot of information about each of the 10 cases in this book which really disappointed me because I wanted to learn more about those cases so its why I purchased and read this book. And this book leads you to do more research about each of the cases because it doesn’t give you that much about them. 

In my opinion this book was all over the place because each case in this book would get very little time and the chapters in this book were short. 

The writing style in this book isn’t the greatest but it is at least much better than in some other books by the Warrens. And because of this I gave this book some extra points for solely this aspect.

At the same time this book isn’t a really a book but rather a collection of case briefs and quotes from the Warrens which in the long run wasn’t that interesting at least not for me personally. Which explains the low rating I gave this book.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Phantom” By Jo Nesbø Review

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When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn’t help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city’s highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.

This book is the 9th book of the “Harry Hole” series by Jo Nesbø. And I gotta say that this book isn’t the greatest in the series in fact it is very far from being it.

My main issue with this book is that this book pushes the boundaries way too far, and because of this this book makes Harry feel like a superhero rather than a police detective. 

This book is a wild ride because it has a tone of twists, unexpected turns in the plot, action and surely way too many characters than it needed to have. Which really made me in a way dislike this book. Because this book is very hard too follow because of all those things I mentioned.

The writing style in this book is meh, to be very honest I feel like the writing style has been worse since “The Snowman” which is the 7th book in this series. In my opinion Jo Nesbø has stopped trying to give us actually a good series and rather focus on the cash he will get after publishing the next book.

The plot is way too much for my liking. Because there is so much happening that you can process it before something new happens in the plot. I personally feel like there was just filed with action just to keep readers not DNF this series because after book 7 this series is going down hill or at least it is doing so for me. 

Characters in this book, there are just too many of them for me and because of this it is hard to keep track of the characters. And because of the quantity of the characters I feel like none of the characters were good it even involves harry which of course is the main character in this whole series.

At the same time in this book Harry starts to become the biggest asshole I have ever heard of which really made me pissed of becomes I love Harry Hole.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Stalking Jack the Ripper” By Kerri Maniscalco Review

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Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

I gotta say that I didn’t know much about this book before reading this book and because of this I didn’t have any expectations for this book. Which I think was a good think when it came down to this book.

This book is played as the book about a girl who searches to find the identity of who Jack the Ripper was. But the investigation in this book is actually not the main topic of this book but rather the main character which is a 17 year old girl in the 1888 spends 50% of this book talking about how shitty it was to be a female in the 1888. I get it, it must have been shitty but still the reason why I picked up this book is to read about the investigation of who Jack the Ripper was not a commentary of 1888 England.

The beginning of this book was actually interesting but the deeper you can into this book the more down hill it began going. The beginning was very intriguing, interesting and enjoyable but it very quickly become boring and uninteresting.

From solely the beginning of this book I was ready to give this book a 5 star review but the further I got into this book the more tired of this book I got. Because there were a lot of moments where I was ready to DNF this book while reading this book. But in the end I read the whole book even thou I should have DNF-ed this book.

This book is a historical fiction book but the moment you start reading this book you can see that this book is heavily targeting young adults and teenagers. In the sense of how it is written, the plot and the characters.

The characters in this book are very weak, they aren’t the greatest. Each of the character in this book have barely a character, each of the character feel in the same character which some rare moments where their personalities begin to shine a little bit. 

I’m writing this review the next day after finishing this book and already now I can tell you that I don’t remember so well the character and I cant tell you much about them. I remember that the father and the uncle of the main character have beef with each other. The main character is very very emotional. The brother of the main character brushes his hair every 5 minutes. The guy the main character falls in love with is like the modern-day high school jock who tries to pretend that he is Sherlock Holmes. And the rest of the characters in this book I just completely forgot.

The plot here is very weak. The plot summary of the book on the back of this book tells us that it is a jack the ripper investigation but the majority of this book isn’t about the jack the ripper investigation. 

The writing style of this book, is very heavily targeting young adult and teenagers readers. Its very simple and easy so that teenagers would have fun with this book. The writing style wasn’t greatest to put it very simple way.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Ghost Tracks: Case Files of Ed & Lorraine Warren” By Cheryl A. Wicks Review

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For more than fifty years, Lorraine Warren-a validated clairvoyant-and her husband Ed Warren-a respected demonologist-have been tracking paranormal phenomena around the world. Ghost Tracks pulls together five decades of field research experience, along with historic, scientific, and religious perspectives to reveal that even the paranormal have predictable patterns of behavior. These patterns enable the Warrens to discern what is happening and why. Lectures and selected case studies and letters demonstrate what it is like to live with, investigate, and resolve the mystery of ghosts, poltergeist, and evil infestations. Ghost Tracks has a refreshing style making it an easy read, entertaining as well as informative.

And yet again we are talking about another book coming from the Warrens. But its important to say this book wasn’t written by the Warren but its instead about the cases of the Warrens. It doesn’t talk about all of their cases instead it talks about 9 of the Warrens cases.

This book is on the short side and I’ve read it in 2 days. We get 9 different cases to read about in this book but we also get a introduced to the warrens and they answer questions like who are Ed and Lorraine Warren ? and  How they got into ghost busting ? 

Its important to say that I don’t believe in the things Warrens claims are real but I still like reading their books since I treat them like ghost stories you would see in Hollywood films. 

This book isn’t as much a book as it is a transcript of various Warren lectures they gave in their time. So of course the topics may jump around a lot and switch to different things. So it doesn’t feel as a proper book.

But we also get some short case studies the Warrens had in this book. One of which is the 112 Ocean Avenue which is the The Amityville Murder House which there are countless horror movies and books about but also which the Warrens investigated in their time.

Its important to say that each case study isn’t super long, each case study is around 15 pages long. So we don’t get a lot of insight into them but we get some at the very least.

I found this book to be interesting and enjoyable at times which really made me give this book some extra points here and there. But for the most part this book wasn’t the interesting one. But it had some of those moments.

The writing style in this book aren’t as good as the writing style used by the Warrens in their own books, but its still okay in this book. Even thou I didnt like it was much.

I Give This Book 2 / 5