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“Sunrise on the Reaping” By Suzanne Collins Review

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As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

I need to admit here that I wanted to read it since this book was announced to be publish, and now I finally did. Without making the intro longer than it needs to be, lets get into the review.

I need to mention here because I was kind of disappoint in this book because after reading “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in 2022, I was expected to love this book as much as I did “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”. But I cant say that I did. Yes I liked this book a lot but I didn’t love it. 

The plot here was very good here, but there were times I felt like this book was dragging a little bit especially at the beginning of this book which really made uninterested in this book. Since it took so damn long to give us the action here. But overall I had a lot of fun reading this book because it was interesting and enjoyable.

At the same time the action we actually got in this book felt at times very unrealistic. Before you comment that it is a fictional book, yes am aware of this. But I personally prefer the fantasy, utopia books to be at least somehow realistic. And as I’ve said, there are a handful of moments where this book abandoned all logic and realism. 

The characters in this book, were pretty okay. I really loved Haymitch in this book because he is an incredible character in this book and it really gives us more of his background and why he is such an underrated character in the main trilogy of the hunger games books. President Snow was also an incredible character in this book because we learn more about him after the events of becoming the president but before the first book in the original trilogy of hunger games.

I need to say that Haymitch didn’t feel like the same character we see in the original hunger games trilogy. Because he is very stand-offish and very calculated in this book  which I don’t remember about him from the original hunger games trilogy. It can be just my faulty memory when it comes to books I’ve read 5 ish years ago because in the 5 years time period since I read the original hunger games books, I have read a lot of books and because of this my memory can get a little blurry on some details.

When it comes to the rest of the characters I gotta say that they didn’t land well with me personally. Because I felt like they didn’t have a lot of personalities to them. I felt like the only reason why the side characters existed was to either die in the hunger games or be side characters no one really cared about. Of course it can be just me being too harsh on the side characters but thats just my thoughts which I had about the characters in this book. 

The writing style was pretty good, not as good as it was in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, but it still was pretty good. The writing style plays well with the storyline of this book which I really like. 

I gotta admit that the story has some very tragic moments which will live rent free in my head for a while because of how fucked up they were. I really linked a lot those tragic moments because it gave this book another depth if you will. But they also show how fucked up President Snow is and I personally have a love and hate relationship with President Snow. Because on one side I really love him because he is a very good and memorable character but on the other side I really hate him because of all the fucked up things he have done.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“This Poison Heart” By Kalynn Bayron Review

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Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch. When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.

I gotta admit here that the only reason why I read this book is because I loved the previous book I’ve read from this author so I decided to give her other books a go to see if they are just as good as “Cinderella is dead” which I already talked about on this website a few months back. But without making this intro longer, lets get into this review.

I personally didn’t have a lot of hopes or exceptions for this book or the plot in this book. But I gotta admit that the plot is pretty good and interesting. The plot is actually pretty unique, very enjoyable and very interesting. It had unique premise and I personally had a lot of fun with the plot.

But at the same time the plot has some moments where the plot starts rolling down hill very fast. One of those things is the author trying to squeeze as many black culture things into the book that it became very stereotypical and cringy. A good example of this is where Bri would say the most black phrases you ever heard in conversation where it made no sense at all for Bri to say those phrases. Which made me personally feel like the author was forcing the book to have as much of black culture and black phrases / sayings that it really took the whole book down a lot for me at least. 

The second things which annoyed me a lot of this book is that the book is 350+ pages long and the action is very minimal. Because around 30% of this book is about nothing relating to the main plot, it was the main character exploring the town she moved into, making new friends for it to turn to point where the new friends and the places she been to in the town being forgotten in the next chapter. I personally don’t understand it when authors introduce places or characters in their books to completely forget about those places and characters for the rest of the book.  

When it comes to the characters in this book, they were pretty good. I really liked the main character in this book and I also liked the main character’s parents. Because they have very good relationship with each other and you could very easily see how much the main character’s parents really cared about their daughter. 

When it comes to the rest of the characters, I didn’t like them that much. Because for me they felt very shallow and they had very minimal personalities / character. Which really disappointed me, because a lot of this side characters had the potential to be as amazing as the main character and her parents. But in the end the side characters were very forgettable and the majority of the side characters were introduced to be forgotten later on in this book.

The writing style in this book was very good. Because it was simple and it played very well with the plot in this book. The writting style was just like the author knew exactly what words to use to completely grab my attention and to not let it go until the very end of this book. Which of course made me give this book some extra points for doing.

The ending of this book leaves us as a big cliffhanger, which really made me want to read the second book in this series. Which of course I’m gonna read at some point in the near future.  

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” By Robert B. Cialdini Review

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In the new edition of this highly acclaimed bestseller, Robert Cialdini—New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy. With Cialdini as a guide, you don’t have to be a scientist to learn how to use this science.

I gotta admit that this book did surprise me a lot, because I was ready to not like it since I thought this book would be very university psychology text book like. But I need to admit I was wrong here and this book is actually very good. 

Reading this book have opened my eyes at how stores, sales people and fundraiser use psychology to get people to either buy something they might never need or sign up for some random shit which wont improve your life at the slightest.

I like this book a lot since it actually shows us real life tactics which so many people actually misuse now on days. And reading this book will actually open your eyes and make you aware how you might be manipulated to buy something or sign up for some random shit. 

This book talks about some heavy things in psychology, but it does it in a very interesting and fun way. Which doesn’t feel like reading a psychology textbook but rather it feels like reading a transcript of one of those very well done psychology YouTube videos. 

The writing style in this book is very easy and simple.  Which really made me give this book some extra points for doing. Because in a way the writing style makes it feel like having a long chat with the author because how easy and down to earth the writing style was even thou the author is a very educated man. 

This book gives us a lot of examples which we can see the tactics in action. I personally think that the majority of the examples used in this book could have been removes, or cut short. Because I found them to be not that great and very uninteresting to read.

The length of this book is pretty major, I personally read the new expended version of this book. I strongly believe that this book could have been cut short because there are times where it stretches point out of proportion and makes it boring.

But if you are like me and you have read some business books before reading this one, you will notice that this book repeats a lot of the same things from the majority of business books I’ve read. This book makes better points about some things than the business books I’ve read, but there is also times where this books makes worse points about some things than the business books I’ve read.

For me personally this book was very interesting and enjoyable to read, of course it could just be me because I enjoy reading psychology and business books. But there is something which really makes this book very relatable and easy to understand. Unlike some of the psychology books I’ve read in my time. 

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“THE SECRET – Book 1: Mind Magic” By Katrina Kahler & Kaz Campbell Review

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When 12-year-old Tessa moves with her family to a new neighborhood, she attempts to befriend her neighbor, a boy she discovers isn’t very popular at school. When the cool group tries to lead her astray, Tessa has other ideas, and she steps in to defend her friend. A series of bullying incidents take place, and a hidden power comes to the fore.

I need to make an confession here and say that I read this book back in March, the some moment I read over 800+ comic books. So the only reason why I read this book was because I wanted to read something light and without an heavy plot after reading so many comic books in one month. But without making the intro longer than it needs to be.

The story here was okay for the most part. If a child between ages of 9 and 12 read this book, I think they wouldn’t have any problems with the plot but reading this book as an adult I gotta say that the plot wasn’t the best. As I was reading this book, the story felt at times very incoherent because it would skip through some events for the plot to return to those events later on. 

The story itself wasn’t bad, it was easy to read and you don’t need any brain power to enjoy the story which this book has to offer. 

The writing style in this book is very simple and straightforwards. And of course since it is meant for 9 to 12 year old, it uses very simple words and short sentences. Which I really liked because it really makes this book very quick to read. 

The characters in this book were pretty okay. I didn’t like any of the characters in this book because they were very forgettable for me personally but once again I’m 22-years-old and this book is meant for 9 to 12 years old. So I’m pretty far from the category of people which this book is meant for

I personally think that 9 to 12 year old really like this book a lot because it has a unique premise, and it is fantasy book involving school drama and magic. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Traitors: The Interactive Game Book” By Alan Connor Review

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I need to admit something here before we start this review. I hate reality shows, and “The Traitors” is the only reality shows I actually enjoyed and watched front to back. And when I saw that this book being released in knew I had to buy and read this book. With that being said, lets review this book.

I had a a fair share of fun with this book, even thou I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book. Because the reality that I’m the type of person who hates reality shows really quickly caught up to me when I was reading this book. And I would get bored and uninterested with this book as I was reading it. Which of course didn’t surprised me because I don’t know what I was expecting getting into this book knowing my hate towards anything involving reality shows. 

This book is very faithful to the main reality show, but I personally had hard time following which who the characters were and remembering who was who in this book. Because I really didn’t give a shit about the other characters in this book which more or less made this book less fun in a way. 

In this book we get those generic reality shows characters, the old retired lady, the jock, the plastic barbie with no brain cells, the smart girl, the introvert girl, the motorcycle guy, the freelance guy, you know the rest pretty much. As I’ve said above I had a hard time remember who was who in this book because I didn’t remember the names but rather used the nicknames I had for them. 

I had a really hard time remembering who I had conversions with in this book, and who did what in this book. Because this book didn’t gives us the big suspense or the bond to other players which the show did, which was the main disappointment I had about this book.

However this book gives the psychological warfare which I really liked, because you have to think what to need to chose to not get kicked out off the game or not bet murdered by the traitors or not get suspected by the faithful if you are the traitor. I personally love the psychological aspect of mystery / horror of novels / shows / movies which of course made me like this book more for that aspect of this book. 

But I need to admit that it took a awhile to finish this book because I would take those long breaks from it since there were many times where I would get bored of this book. And I really didn’t want to DNF it so I just waited a few days before getting back to the book to continue reading it.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life” By Mark Manson Review

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Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—”not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.” Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

I wanted to read this book for a while, because Ive heard a lot of good about this book and after reading this book I need to admit that this book is very good. But of course I will explain everything in this review, so lets get started on this review.

First of all which is important to mention about this book is that it is very well written. The writing style makes this book very easy and quick to read. The writing style doesn’t make this book feel heavy with making this book feel like a heavy school textbook.

Even thou this book is a non-fiction book it doesn’t feel like it, since there are many times where the author says something funny and makes a joke in this book. Which really makes you feel like you have simple taking a chat with the author over coffee rather than reading a non-fiction book. I of course gave this book some point for the humor this book has.

This book makes some very good points about how you can get your shit together and have a better life. All the points this books makes are really easy to go through with unlike the some self help books who talk about making those big life changes which are very unrealistic to achieve. The points with this book makes, are very simple and the author explains how to achieve the result you want. 

In this book we also get examples from the author’s life, who has also struggles with a lot of things a lot of people struggle with. The author gives us the examples from his own life and how he used the points which this book talks about to achieve a better life. 

This book is very interesting and enjoyable. Which really made me give this book some extra points for that. Because I personally was very clued to this book as I was reading it and I just couldn’t put it down, thats how interesting I found this book to be. I personally read this book in one sitting, which really says something to how interested I was in this book.

The author talks about some very important issues and he shows us how easily we can fix the things we don’t like in out lives like quitting smoking, using less social media and your phone and all the other stuff you might not like in your life which you want to change.

All the solutions the author gives us in this book, are very simple and realistic to achieve. Which I already said a few times in this review. The solution which this book provided are like this quote from this book „Don’t just sit there. Do something. The answers will follow.“ It sounds easy and achievable right ? This book shows us that you don’t have to have all the answers straight away, but the moment you start doing something, fixing something your brain will start working and before you notice it the answers will come to you. 

I Give This Book 5 / 5

“Self-Discipline: Everyday Habits to Build Willpower and Achieve Success” By Luke Thybulle Review

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Unlock your potential and learn how to navigate life’s challenges with this powerful book about Self-Discipline and Willpower. You’ll discover the tools and everyday habits that you need to build confidence and self-belief, stay motivated, and break through any adversity.

I gotta admit that this book isn’t the best self help book I’ve read in my time. And this review will explain what I say that, so lets get into the review.

First of all the writing style feels like it was written by ChatGPT, because it bombards us with information without showing any examples. In a way reading this book felt worse than reading a high school textbook which really says something. 

At the same time this books gives us the some very stupid sentences like “Successful people are aware that time does not carve itself”, “Waiting pays off, as they say”  or “Should you decide to accept it, the objective is to enter a flow state, which is a state in which you are “in the flow”.

Everything this books says feels like it was written by either a toddler or the worst AI from 1970s (a metaphor).

The only good thing about this book is that it is a quick read. I personally read it in one sitting on a rainy Sunday.

If you are looking for a very bad self help book, then this one takes the number one place in my opinion because I haven’t read worse self help book so far at least in my life.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“Beowulf” By Unknown Review

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Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel’s mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the “four-squareness of the utterance” in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.

I gotta admit that before I got into this book, I was ready to not like this book since I though that it was one of those very overhyped shitty books and I’ve read a few of them at this point. But after reading this book I need to admit that I’m very happy that I actually read this book. But lets get into the review without making the intro way longer than it needs to be 

The plot in this book is so good. It talks about heroism, loyalty as well as the enter struggle between evil and good. I really couldn’t stop reading this book and when I wasn’t reading this book I was thinking about what would happen next in the story. Which really says something because this doesn’t happen often for me. 

The thing I loved the most about this book is that this book combines perfectly the elements of mythology, history, and moral lessons. All of those things explored what it tales to be a hero in the society. 

I also loved the vivid imagery and use of alliteration this book has which brings the entire plot of this book to life in a way even over a century after it was first written. 

The descriptions of the confrontation with a dragon and other important moments in this book were so interesting and amazing for me personally. 

The thing which I didn’t like about this book was that the pacing of this book seemed very uneven to me, particularly at the end of this book which is the reason why I give this book 4 starts instead of 5. 

In my opinion the monologues in this book are way too long than what they needed to be, but that can just be me because in general I am not a fan of monologues in books and movies. The long monologues in this book was very distracting and boring for me personally.

The old English writing in this book, only helped the book to be more fun and interesting in my opinion. Because it really set the mood and vibe nicely which made this book feel like the action in this book happened a long time ago which it did. 

The writing style in this book was very good, because it really helped the plot in this book shine. And it was like the author knew what words to use to completely grab my attention and to not let it go until the very end of this book.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

“The Thirst” By Jo Nesbø Review

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Harry Hole returns in the eleventh installment of the author’s best-selling, electrifying crime fiction series—published in 48 languages, more than 30 million copies sold worldwide. In Police—the last novel featuring Jo Nesbø’s hard-bitten, maverick Oslo detective—a killer wreaking revenge on the police had Harry Hole fighting for the safety of the people closest to him. Now, in The Thirst, the story continues as Harry is inextricably drawn back into the Oslo police force. A serial murderer has begun targeting Tinder daters—a murderer whose MO reignites Harry’s hunt for a nemesis of his past.

This book is the 11th book in the “Harry Hole” series, and at the time of the writing this review there are 2 more books in this series I need to read before I am officially or temporarily finished with this series. 

This book was a real disappointment for me, because as I was reading this book it felt like it would never end. In my opinion this book way too long then it needed to be, and it has a lot of moments where they don’t lead the plot anywhere.

I don’t know if it is just me being too harsh about the latest books in this series book I think that at least the 2 previous book are about the same thing as this one. Here I mean that Harry is the edge of demise, on the edge of losing his job but then he miraculously find the solution who the killer is and doest meet his demise at the end of the book. I don’t know if Jo Nesbø meant for Harry Hole to be find himself in a corner and make him grasp for outrageous solutions to dig him out of the trouble. Or if it its Jo Nesbø who is tried of the series and doesn’t have any more ideas of unique plots for the new books and instead uses the themes and solutions which worked in previous Harry Hole books.

The plot in this book isn’t the best and it isn’t unique because I have read a books or watch a movies / shows with identical plot. Which really pissed me of because I really started to think that this series is starting to go down heal. At the same time, there is too much happening in this book in my opinion. Which really makes it hard and confusing to follow everything which happens in this book. The author could easily split this book in 2 shorter books which would only make the story better. 

The characters in this book aren’t the great as they were in the previous books in this series. Ever since the first book I’ve read in this series, I always loved Harry Hole as the main character. But in this book he doesn’t feel like the same character from earlier in this series. In this book Harry feels very wrong and he makes the worst and most stupid decisions ever. Its like he is actively trying to fuck up his life just for shit and giggles.

The writing style in this book was very good, which was the best thing about this book in my opinion. Because in a way it is much better than what it was in the previous books in this series.

I don’t know if it is just me, but I felt like women in this book was shitty described. Since this book makes it seem like what defines a women’s worth is her looks and nothing else. Which really didn’t sit well with me because you can use the same argument against men too which this book didn’t.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

“The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star” By Nikki Sixx Review

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Set against the frenzied world of heavy metal superstardom, the co-founder of Motley Crue offers an unflinching and gripping look at his own descent into drug addiction. It follows him during the year he plunged to rock bottom and his courageous decision to pick himself up and start living again.

As some of you might know, I am the biggest Motley Crue fan even thou I wasn’t around when they were the biggest in late 80s and 90s. And I need to admit that Nikki Sixx in his 20s and 30s was my all time biggest crush growing up. With that being said lets get into this review.

I always knew that Nikki Sixx went through some very big shit in his life to overdosing multiple times and he struggled with alcohol, cocaine, acid and heroine but them this big was a very big eye opener. Since fuck this book is very dark, depressing and it really shows us how much shit he went through.

One of the things this book make me think as I was reading this book was “How the fuck is this guy still alive?”. Its a big miracle that we still have Nikki Sixx around, because if I did so much drugs as Nikki did, I would have died in the first week. And he lived like this for years.

This book is Nikki diary entires in 1987 right before he overdosed and died for 2 minutes. And I need to say that this book is very heavy, I really think that this book will really stick with me for the rest of my life just because how heavy and dark it was but also because how much of a difficult time I had reading this book. 

To be honest here, after reading this book I became even bigger fan and fan girl of Nikki Sixx. Because damn, he went through very dark times which almost no one else will go through in their lives. 

If you are looking for a very heavy and dark nonfiction book then this book is a perfect go-to book. If you are a fan of motley crue or music in general you really should read this book. Because it truly shows how dark the world of musicians can get and that it is not only the glitch and glamour of earning a load of cash and almost everyone on earth knowing your name. 

After reading this book I need to be honest here and admit that this book is easily the best book and the most heartbreaking book I ever read in my life. And I will for sure re-read this book countless of times in the future. 

I Give This Book 5 / 5