Tag: 2 Star Reviews

All 2 Star Reviews In One Place

“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

“Satan’s Harvest” By Ed Warren & Lorraine Warren Review

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The shocking true case of demonic possession from the reporters who first covered it in the Boston Herald. The case was discussed and you can watch the real exorcism footage in the blockbuster horror film The Conjuring. When terrifying, bizarre things kept happening to a hard-working Massachusetts farmer, he did what anyone would do.

This book is the 6th book in the book series of Ed and Lorraine Warren paranormal cases. And I gotta say the more books I read about them and about their cases the more I think that their whole persona of being “ghost hunters” is baloney.

This book contains very few photos of the priest and bishop who worked with the Warrens at some point, Ed and Lorraine at their museum, of the two victims of the “demonic” possession which this book talks about and the house belonging to the victims. But what the photos in this book doesn’t shows are the “paranormal” events taking place according to the Warrens.

If you have watched the The Nun 1 and The Nun 2, then you will know the guy which this book is about. And this guy is of course Frenchie Theriault. And let me tell you that this book is very different than The Nuns movies, since there is no Nun / Valak in this book but rather a unnamed “entity” hunting the shit out of Frenchie Theriault and his close once.

There are a lots of moments while reading this book were I got the impression that Ed and Lorraine were huge jerks. Because the way they said things in this book which really gave me the feeling of them being jerks.

This book is a very short read, my edition of this book has only 301 pages and I read this book in one day. And the way this book is written makes it every easy to read in a day.

Of course the entire book is written from eyewitness personative, in this book we have the statements from the Warrens, the possession victims, neighbors, friends, family and police officers who supposedly saw shit going down hill. 

My main issue with the eyewitnesses presented in this book are that we only hear their stories in this book and there is no video interviews of them and we cant rally hear and see how they tell their stories. We need to relay on what the Warrens tell us in this book. Which really is the main reason why I don’t believe the Warrens cases in this book series 

The writing style is very fun and easy to read. I gotta say that Ed warren is a very good writer because he has the ability to use the correct words to make people the entire book in a very short time. And actually make them interested in finishing the book.

I was interested in what we would read about in this book even thou I don’t believe in the events which allegedly happened in this book or in the other books of the Warrens. 

I still enjoyed this book a little bit so thats why I gave this book some extra points for doing this.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Under the Dome” By Stephen King Review

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Under the Dome is the story of the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine which is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. No one can get in and no one can get out. When food, electricity and water run short, the normal rules of society are changed. A new and more sinister social order develops, Dale Barbara, a young Iraq veteran, teams up with a handful of intrepid citizens to fight against the corruption that is sweeping through the town and to try to discover the source of the Dome before it is too late.

I gotta say that I had quite a few expectations for this book since its a Stephen King book. But this book didn’t live up to my expectations.

The plot in this book isn’t as much “horror” as it is “fantasy”, of course there are some pretty violent moments like a female getting raped, murder, raids etc. But to me it feels more like a dark fantasy rather than horror.

The plot had a very interesting premise but the way it was presented as and written made me bored for almost the entire read of this book. But there were some good moments here and there in this book which I liked a lot, but for the most part I was just thinking when I will be done with this book.

The ending in this book wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen by Stephen King, at first the ending is okay but the more you think about it the more lame the ending seems. Or it just could be me who found the ending in this book to be lame. 

The beginning of this book was very good and it really quickly got me interested in the plot and what will happen next. But the more I read of this book the more and more disappointed I got and the more my dislike began to grow for this book.

There was a lot of action in this book, a lot of things happening and because of this I gave this book few extra points for this. But for the most part all action ending pretty quickly. And there were some things happening which really could be the whole chapter but Stephen King have forced it to be just couple of pages long. Which really annoyed me.

The characters here weren’t the greatest, I found them to be annoying and if I met them in real life and had a short conversation with them I would bit the shit out of them because there were so annoying. At the same time the characters in this book seemed to not be thinking but rather have 5 years old who would get angry if they weren’t allowed to do what they wanted to do.

To be very honest with you, this book was way too long than it needed to be. Because you could easily delete the half of this book and it would have been better than it is with the full 1000+ pages we get in this book.

There are some moments in this book which drag for far too long, and at times because of these moments I wanted to just DNF this book. 

The writing style here was very good, you could easily tell that it was written by the master of horror himself. The writing style was very interesting and enjoyable. And in a way it made this book so much better than it would have been if it had writing style Which really made me give this book some extra points.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Queen’s Shadow” By E.K. Johnston Review

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When Padmé Naberrie, “Queen Amidala” of Naboo, steps down from her position, she is asked by the newly-elected queen to become Naboo’s representative in the Galactic Senate. Padmé is unsure about taking on the new role, but cannot turn down the request to serve her people. Together with her most loyal handmaidens, Padmé must figure out how to navigate the treacherous waters of politics and forge a new identity beyond the queen’s shadow.

This book is the first book in the Padmé  book trilogy. And I gotta say that I didn’t like this gook as much as I liked the second book in this trilogy. And yes I began reading this trilogy from the second book and then jumped back to the first book.

Of course this book fills in the gaps which the movies had, in the timeline of before, during and after The Phantom Menace movie. But it filled in the gaps in a very boring way and mostly very very slow way.

It could be just me, but I felt like this book was going much slower than it needed to. It would have chapters about insignificant things which wouldn’t even matter in the following chapter. 

The writing style was okay in this book, but it was very very far away from the best writing style in the galaxy of Star Wars.

My edition of this book is 345 pages long, and there is no action (battle, or anytime of fighting) until the page 320. Which really speaks for itself at this point.

The this book as this whole trilogy takes place in any less favorite era of star wars which is between the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Which I was never a big fan. So the reason it may be reason why I give this book so low rating. 

Characters here are very good, and I liked Padmé much better in this book than while watching her in the movies. Because in this book she shows much more personality than in the movies. But also this book shows us her struggle and that she constantly needed to prove herself to other people to be taken seriously and not as a kid.

When it comes to the other characters, they were as good as Padmé, there weren’t any character I didn’t like in this book. Because they all had a lot of personalities to them and it was almost impossible for me to not like the characters. Because in real life I would not have any problems becoming friends with them.

The plot in this book is about the transition from being a queen to being galactic senator which Padmé went through. And I personally liked the fact that she didn’t transition in one day but rather used to entire book and the fact that she needed to prove herself that she could be as good of a senator as she was a queen.

I like this book a fair share but since it is a star wars book and there was almost no action in it until the 2 last chapters made me very disappointed in this book just as the whole era to be honest. So it is the reason behind the low rating. 

But at the same time the mix between almost no action and the slow pace of this book really made me not appreciate this book as I wanted to do.

I Give This Book 2 / 5