“Sharp Objects” By Gillian Flynn Review

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

I gotta say that this book really surprised me, because it has a disturbing plot as well as disturbing characters and it doesn’t fail to make you feel very uncomfortable while reading it.

I personally didn’t love this book but it was the best thriller book I’ve read last year (2023).

This book took me a very long time to really get into it. Because I found it very hard to like the characters at the beginning and the beginning was all over the place for me personally.

However I find it really hard to write this review because I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one had I know this book is a bestseller and on the other hand the more I think about this book the less I like it.

The writing style in this book was defiantly good when you look at the fact that this book was the debut novel by Gilliam Flynn.

This book involves a lot of dark topics which may trigger some people. Some off the dark topics are self-harm, child abuse, druging children,  sexualization of children, murder of young children amid couple of other things which I can’t say because they will be seen as spoilers.

This entire book is from a journalist perspective who was more or less forced by her employer to return to her own town to investigate the murders of children there. Which I personally found to be very boring.

The big twist at the end, wasn’t truly a twist because we were getting small hints of the ending from the beginning of this book.

The characters in this book were pretty flat and uninteresting. However the main character had some really good moments here and there throughout this book but I found it very hard to like her because she was such a weak character who wasn’t suited to be a crime journalist.

The rest of the characters were almost as flat as the main character. The mother of the main character is an abusive b-word, which really made me hate her a lot.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“White Nights” By Fyodor Dostoevsky Review

White Nights is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky that was published in 1848. Set in St. Petersburg, it is the story of a young man fighting his inner restlessness. A light and tender narrative, it delves into the torment and guilt of unrequited love. Both protagonists suffer from a deep sense of alienation that initially brings them together. A blend of romanticism and realism, the story appeals gently to the senses and feelings.

To be honest this book really surprised me because I was expecting to suffer through this book as I did while reading “Crime And Punishment”. 

This short story ab out a man who falls in love with a stranger she swore to not fall in love with.

This book had few good moments, but other than that I found it uninteresting. Yes ive enjoyed reading this book, but I didn’t like it as much. 

There were times while reading this book that I needed to remind myself when it was written because some of the things in this book are very outdated.

I personally found the narrator in this book to be annoying at times. And there were times where I thought that the narrator was highly depressed due to the phrasing the narrator used.

Nastenka is a 17 year old who is very manipulative. Which really made me hate her very fast.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Return: Midnight” By L.J. Smith Review

The devil you know. With the help of charming and devious Damon, Elena rescued her vampire love, Stefan, from the depths of the Dark Dimension. But neither brother returned unscathed. Stefan is weak from his long imprisonment and needs more blood than Elena alone can give him, while a strange magic has turned Damon into a human. Savage and desperate, Damon will do anything to become a vampire again, even travel back to hell. But what will happen when he accidentally takes Bonnie with him?

I need to say that this book is far from the best book in this series. The ending was very good but the rest of the book was much weaker.

Elena, is such a d-bag. She is the most selfish thoughtless character I’ve ever read about (so far at least). There is one point in this book where she gets jealous when Damon takes Bonnie instead of her to a upside down version of the world. Even thou she spent the previous 5 books telling us how much she loves Stefan and how much she hates Damon.

When it comes to Stefan, he would be a very good character if he wasn’t acting like a child who is blind with love for Elena. And makes every possible excuse for her mistakes.

Bonnie is a very weak, helpless and dumb character. She basically is like a 6 year old girl not a teenager.

The only character who is interesting in this entire book is Meredith however we don’t get to learn a lot about her because this book focuses on the love triangle between Elena, Stefan and Damon.

The plot in this book was boring and uninteresting. And after reading this book, I couldn’t believe that this series was the motivation of the TV show which I really enjoyed.

The other thing about this plot is that this book is the 3 book about the gang fighting the kitsune and his sibling.  It’s like this series can’t move past this, and stretches a very boring topic endlessly.

The writing style here was very good, it was easily the best thing about this book, and it played a role in me giving a higher rating than I wanted to.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Death of Ivan Ilych” By Leo Tolstoy Review

Hailed as one of the world’s supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his dying so much as a passing thought. But one day, death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise, he is brought face to face with his own mortality.  How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

This book is my second book written by Leo Tolstoy and so far my liking of his work haven’t been so high. It might be something to do with me not seeing the beauty with classics which aren’t horror books.

This is book is very short because it has around 100 pages which of course depends on what copy of this book you get. 

The main plot in this book is about the suffering and death of a successful judge named Ivan Ilyich. Which makes this book to a very grim, dark and sad book. 

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this book before I started reading it and I didn’t know anything about this book before I started reading it. And in my case it was the best solution because I didn’t end up getting disappointed.

The main character here, which of course is Ivan Ilyich is painful average person which only rotates between work and his home. And I had super hard time trying to like him or relate to him.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“More Tales to Chill Your Bones” By Alvin Schwartz Review

Storytellers know — just as they have for hundreds and hundreds of years — that everyone enjoys a good, scary story! Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories 3 joins his other popular collections of scary folklore, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark and More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, to give readers spooky, funny and fantastic tales guaranteed to raise goose bumps.

This book is the third book in the “scary stories to tell in the dark” trilogy which is a collection of short horror stories for children. 

To be honest this book was much better than the first and second book in this trilogy. Because there were even more of the good short horror stories.

To be fully honest here the majority of the short stories in this book are very boring and uninteresting. They are also very short which really makes it hard to actually get into them .However at the same time few short stories in this book was interesting, fun and super enjoyable to read. 

The illustrations here are very good and I loved looking at them while reading this book. Because in a way they have added more eerie feeling to this book.

The writing style here was very simple and easy. And from the writing style, it is clear that it is meant for children because the writing style is too simple and too easy.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” By Alvin Schwartz Review

All those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz’s first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic. Is it possible to die — and not know it? What if a person is buried too soon? What happens to a thief foolish enough to rob a corpse, or to a murderer whose victim returns from the grave? Read about these terrifying predicaments as well as what happens when practical jokes produce gruesome consequences and initiations go awry. Stephen Gammell’s splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories — and even a scary song — all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark. If You Dare!

This book is the second book in the “scary stories to tell in the dark” trilogy which is a collection of short horror stories for children. 

To be honest this book was much better than the first book in this trilogy. Because there were more of the good short horror stories.

To be fully honest here the majority of the short stories in this book are very boring and uninteresting. They are also very short which really makes it hard to actually get into them. However at the same time some of the short stories in this book was interesting and fun to read. 

The illustrations here are very good and I loved looking at them while reading this book. Because in a way they have added more eerie feeling to this book.

The writing style here was very simple and easy. And from the writing style, it is clear that it is meant for children because the writing style is too simple and too easy.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” By Alvin Schwartz Review

This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz’s popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright. There is a story here for everyone—skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where every night a bloody head falls down the chimney.

This book is a collection of short horror stories for children. 

To be fully honest here the majority of the short stories in this book are very boring and uninteresting. They are also very short which really makes it hard to actually get into them.

The illustrations here are very good and I loved looking at them while reading this book. Because in a way they have added more eerie feeling to this book.

The beginning of this book was pretty good with 2 okay horror stories. But after that it went down the hill.

The writing style here was very simple and easy. And from the writing style, it is clear that it is meant for children because the writing style is too simple and too easy.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Monster Blood” By R.L. Stine Review

Evan visits an eerie old toy store and buys a dusty can of Monster Blood. But then he notices something weird about the slimy green ooze. It keeps growing. And growing. And growing. And all that growing has given the Monster Blood a monstrous appetite.

To be fully honest here, this has to be the weakest goosebumps books so far. But of course I only read 10 of them so far so a lot of things can happen until I finish all 62 books in the goosebumps book series. 

The plot in this book wasn’t a masterpiece, but I know that if I read this book and this entire series as a child it would have given me some very good scares and probably some nightmares.

The characters here were really annoying in my opinion, there really weren’t anything good to say about the characters in this book.

I really were bored throughout this book. It was interesting at times but I really struggled to keep my attention while reading this book.

But reading this book as an adult is less impressive, and less scary. Because if you read this book and the series as an adult you won’t be scared but you will for sure love this book and series for other reasons especially if you grow up while watching the Goosebumps TV show as I’ve did.

However this book has a little twist at the end, which really made me give this book some extra points because I wasn’t expecting the twist to come. 

This book has a huge nostalgia, because it reminded me of the OG tv shows I grow up watching. And of course the OG tv shows I’m talking about are “are you afraid of the dark?”, “Goosebumps” and “tales from the crypt”.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Say Cheese and Die!” By R.L. Stine Review

Greg thinks there is something wrong with the old camera he found. The photos keep turning out different. When Greg takes a picture of his father’s brand-new car, it’s wrecked in the photo. And then his dad crashes the car. It’s like the camera can tell the future–or worse. Maybe it makes the future! 

The entire plot in this book is about a polaroid camera and when you take a picture of someone with this camera then this person will disappear or die. And to be fully honest here I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book.

The plot in this book wasn’t a masterpiece, but I know that if I read this book and this entire series as a child it would have given me some very good scares and probably some nightmares.

The characters here were meh. To be fully honest here. I just didn’t care for any of them. Which really made me take away some points from this book.

But reading this book as an adult is less impressive, and less scary. Because if you read this book and the series as an adult you won’t be scared but you will for sure love this book and series for other reasons especially if you grow up while watching the Goosebumps TV show as I’ve did.

This book has a huge nostalgia, because it reminded me of the OG tv shows I grow up watching. And of course the OG tv shows I’m talking about are “are you afraid of the dark?”, “Goosebumps” and “tales from the crypt”.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“To Kill a Mockingbird” By Harper Lee Review

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, “To Kill A Mockingbird” takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

Ive heard a lot about this book so I have finally decide to read it. And I gotta say that I really disappointed be very much.

The plot here makes some good points about human behaviour. But other than that the plot for me personally was super boring and I really didn’t care for the plot. And I just ended up DNF-ing this book after having read over 60% of it.  The plot here have taken me back to high school and reminded me why I hated school so much because it felt like it a super boring and extremely long psychology lesson. 

The characters here feels like they were taken out of like 1920s and I just couldn’t find anything I could relate them with. They all felt like they were two characters split into many characters. 

There is a lot of use of the “N word”. And I just think it was way overused of that “N word”. To be honest it really made me annoyed with this book with that overusing of this single word. 

The writing here is okay for the most part. But the edition I got is filled with old English and I found it super annoying in this book. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5