Tag: Fiction Book Review

Frankie Gibbs, an unambitious adolescent on Universal Credit, wants nothing more than to keep his brother Dazzler out of the North Wales care system. Poverty isn’t Frankie’s only obstacle, as their boozing, coke-head single-parent father, Guy Gibbs, heaps misery on their plight through systematic abuse and never-ending wild parties.

Before we start this review I need to be hones there and confess that I struggled a lot to finish this book. Because I had a lot problems with staying engaged in the plot of this book. With that being said lets get into the review without making the intro longer than it needs to be.

The first thing I want to say about this book is that this book makes it clear that the author has a lot of talent for immersive storytelling, but this book felt to me like some weird line of consciousness rather than being a well structured book. And this is the main reason why I found this book to be so difficult to stay engaged in.

The characters in this book are okay, they have a fair share of personalities to them. But I personally couldn’t find in me the strength to actually like them because of this I just couldn’t bring myself to give this book a good rating as I wanted to when I started reading this book. 

But the thing I liked the most about this book is that it talks about a pretty seriously and dark subject, which I always like when it happens. But unfortunately that was the only thing I liked about this book.

The main thing about this book which I didnt like about this book is the amount of “Fuck”s this book has. I personally dont mind swear words (I use them too often to mind) but this book felt like it was trying to set the word record on how many “Fuck”s it contains. 

I Give This Book 2 / 5

A young governess arrives at Bly, a country home in Essex, England, to care for Miles and Flora, two precocious and pure children. But as ghostly visions take shape, the obsessively protective governess soon fears for the safety of her wards – only to wonder if these hauntings are a conjuring of her own imagination.

I need to be honest here and say that I’m very torn on this book, because on one side I really liked this book but on the other side I didn’t. But lets start this review and unpack this book and my opinions about this book. 

This book has some very good horror moments, but those moments are very rare at least in my opinion. And the time between those good horror moments is very long and that as good.

The writing style in this book could have been better, because the sentence structure in this book is very long. There are times were a sentence in this book can be close 200 words long, which in my opinion its too long for one single sentence.

However this book has a nice gothic vibe to it which I always love as you might know if you have read my previous reviews. And the battle between evil and innocence in this book is pretty okay even thou I didn’t like it quiet so much as I wanted because I felt like there was something missing in this aspect at least. 

The beginning of this book was very good in my opinion but the further I got into this book, I began to less and less enjoy it. 

The story here is okay, it reminded me of “The Haunting of Hill House” but written poorly. Which pretty much gives you a good summary of I think about this book. 

The majority of the characters in this book were pretty shallow. I just couldn’t bring myself to like the majority of characters in this book, thou I did like a lot the main character. There was something in the main character which really made me feel like me and the main character could easily be friends.

In my opinion this book is pretty overrated, because a lot of people say that this book is very good but after I read this one for myself I need to say that I have different opinions about it. I personally wouldn’t say that this book is “very good”, what I would say about this book is that it is pretty average.

This book had a very good and scary vibe to it, which really made me give this book some extra points for having. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

River steamboat captain Charles Marlow has set forth on the Congo in Africa to find the enigmatic European trader Mr. Kurtz. Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in “one of the darkest places on earth.” Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.

I need to admit here that this book might be a little overrated by a lot of people, because I’ve heard a lot of good things about this book, but after actually reading this book I need to be honest here and say that it isn’t as good as people claim it is. But at the same time I need to give this book some credit because this book has a few things I really liked about this book. But lets talk all about those things in this review. 

The first thing I really liked about this book was that out was very well written, it was like the author knew what kind of words to use to complete grab my attention and not let it go until the very end of this book even thou I wasn’t that interested in the plot. 

But at the same time the writing style could have been better on few fronts here, one of the issues I had with the writing style in this book was the fact that the paragraphs are very long and dense, which really made it hard for me to really enjoy the book and give it a good rating.

The last thing I need to mention about the writing style is that it is full of those four-dollar words which in my opinion would very quickly get boring and uninteresting. 

Another thing which I didn’t like that much about this book is the fact that it uses endless metaphors and the rare dialogs we do get in this book end up being those very big and bulky paragraphs of one character’s monolog before the other character starts his / her’s monolog.

Another things which I really didn’t like about this book is the fact that the author was jumping from one topic to the next constantly and in the blink of an eye. Which really made it hard to get invested in the plot of this book because the topics would constantly change. At times I felt like the author was on cocaine or heroine and was just rambling about stuff without knowing about it because of how often and quickly the damn topics changed in this book.

But at the same time this book had some good moments, because it touches onto some topics I found interesting, and when the characters doesn’t go onto those very long monologues, I actually liked this book a lot even thou I wont probably read this book again nor recommend it to anyone.

The characters in this book were okay for the most part when they weren’t doing those very energy draining monologs which I really hated. But I gotta say that I liked them because they weren’t too complex but they still had that unique thing which made them feel like real human beings rather than characters on a piece of paper. 

The plot in this book is pretty much all over the place. Because as I’ve said before, the author dumps from topic to topic in seconds in this book, which is really hard to follow the main plot in this book without getting confused and wonder what the fuck is happening.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

On a drowsy afternoon by a riverbank, a young and distracted Alice follows a rabbit into a fantastical underground world that grows curiouser and curiouser. Dared, insulted, amused, and threatened by a succession of anthropomorphic creatures, the indomitable Alice falls deeper into a swirl of the imagination where logic has no place.

I gotta say that this book had disappointed me, since I was expecting to love this book. Because I remember watching the Alice in Wonderland movie with Johnny Deep and Alan Rickman when I was 8 years old (yes I am a 2002 kid) and completely loving that movie, So I was expecting to also love this book. But oh boy was I wrong on this one ? But enough of chit chat, lets get into the review. 

I gotta say that I love the plot, because it is filled with crazy surprises, amazing adventures, very rational beheadings and tea parties. Whats there not to love about this plot right ? 

I feel like the narrative this book, makes the entire plot feel less fun like it tries to hard to contain the plot and make it seem realistic. But then again it could be just me here, wouldn’t be the first time I had a controversial take on a book. 

For some reason this book took me very long to finish because I needed to take breaks from this book as I was reading it because I would get tired and bored off this book in a way. But in the end I finished this book, which I am really happy that I did. 

To be honest here if I didn’t know the basic plot of this book from the 2010 movie of Alice in wonderland and pop culture, I wouldn’t like this book as much as I did. Because I found it very hard to actually focus long enough on this book to get into the plot.

The characters here were okay, but we don’t get to know them a lot in this book. Because this book does have a lot of characters in this book and we simply don’t get enough time to get to know them on deeper level as I wanted to.

The writing style in this book wasn’t that good as I expected it to be. Because it is very simplistic, in my opinion way too simplistic for even children which is primarily who this book is aimed towards. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus’s Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an oblique self-portrait of the young James Joyce and a universal testament to the artist’s ‘eternal imagination’. Both an insight into Joyce’s life and childhood, and a unique work of modernist fiction, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a novel of sexual awakening, religious rebellion and the essential search for voice and meaning that every nascent artist must face in order to blossom fully into themselves.

I gotta admit that this book was much better than I expected it to be, because I had expected to not like this book and give it a 2 star rating at tops before I got into the book. But after reading this book I need to admit that I liked this book much more than I expected even thou I didn’t quite love it, but I still like it.

The plot in this book is very interesting and enjoyable. And I had a lot of fun with this book as I was reading it. The plot in this book talks about reflecting on life experience to and your coming of age story which I liked a fair share, because I personally like a lot the coming of age books. Which easily made me give this book some extra points for doing.

The narrative of this book is very basic, as I said the book has very promising aspect but the way it is gives us makes it feel like a generic college novel about the main character trying to find himself and what he wants to do in life which we all face at some point in our lives.

But at the same time I found this book to get very repetitive at times and some of the descriptions and moments in this book would get pretty wordy. Which made me bored of this book a few times as I was reading this book. I personally think that at least 100 pages could have been cut out of this book making this book better, which really shows how many repetitive it was and how unnecessarily long the descriptions were at times in this book.

The characters in this book were okay, we don’t get a lot of characters in this book but those characters we actually got in this book were pretty okay. I personally didn’t have a lot of strong feelings about the characters in this book because I didn’t care about them or hate them. Yes the characters could have been better in this book but they were for the most part bearable unlike characters in other books which I really hated.

The writing style was okay for the most past, but as I’ve said above it gets pretty receptive and the descriptions get way out of hands very quickly in this book. I don’t know if it typical of this author because this book is the first book I’ve read from James Joyce, but if his writing style is the same in his other books as in this one, I think I will have to pass his other books.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

This extraordinary historical French gothic novel, set in Medieval Paris under the twin towers of its greatest structure and supreme symbol, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the disabled bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, as he struggles to stand up to his ableist guardian Claude Frollo, who also wants to commit genocide against Paris’ Romani population.

I need to be honest here and admit that when I was getting into reading this book, I was fully prepared to not like this book because I felt like it wasn’t one of the books I typically love to read. But now that I have finally read this one, I gotta say that I love this book a lot. But as always I will explain everything in this review. 

First of all the story in this book is very very good. It has the gothic vibe to it which I always cant help myself but love, and we also get French in the 1480s which also made me like this book more. 

There is something about the story which really made it very fun and interesting for me to read it even thou this book isn’t one of the books I typically love. The story has an amazing gothic atmosphere and the story is like a bitter sweet tragedy themed. 

The story is very tragedy, but it doesn’t fail to be interesting, enjoyable and very attention grabbing. While I was reading this book I couldn’t stop reading it and if I wasn’t reading this book I just couldn’t stop thinking about this book and what would happen next in the story.

The characters in this book are so very well made. Which really made me give this book some extra points for doing that. Every character in this book has a lot of personality to them which I personally like I lot and it makes me always give the book extra points for. 

The main character is so amazing. He’s very different from the typical main character I’ve got to know in other books. The main character struggles with good and bad a lot, and he is disabled. He is also half-blind and almost completely deaf which isn’t the dream life we image our typical main character to have in the end. 

But at the same time the main character but also the rest of the characters in this book are very complex which make them feel like real human beings rather than fictional characters in a book which were written a very long time ago 

The narrative of this book is very very good. Because it sucks you right into the plot and it doesn’t let your attention and interest go until the very end of this book.  Which for me personally doesn’t happen a lot. 

The ending of this book is very powerful and just wow. I cant say much about it without spoiling the ending for those of you who haven’t read the book yet but are interested in doing so. But let me tell you that the ending is very tragic but at the same time very good which makes worth reading this book which is over 550+ pages long (or at least the edition of this book I got was over 550+ long).

The writing style which this book got is very good, and it makes the the whole story and characters feel more time era appropriate. Since this book has a lot of old English writing in it which for me is either a hit or a miss, but in this book it was a big hit for me personally. 

I Give This Book 4 / 5

Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survival. Can he rise above his enemies and become the master of his realm once again?

Let me start this review by saying that I love books where an animal is the main character. And this book delivers why I love books with this topic. 

I gotta say that this book was very depressing for me to read because of how people treat this dog who is the main character of this book. Buck gets kidnapped, beaten, forced to be a sledge dog in a harsh cold Yukon. I mean you get possible get more cruel than this to a cute dog. 

I need to admit there were a lot of time where I wanted to beat the shit out of the people who were monsters to Buck because like I don’t understand how fucked up of a person you have to be, to be so cruel to an animal. 

Because of the fact that this book was able to get such emotions from me, means that I was very invested in the story and in this book. 

The story of this book was very good, interesting, enjoyable and it grabs your attention and doesn’t let it go until the very end of the book.  Yes the story has some very heavy topics but at the same time thats the reason why I liked this book so much as I do after reading it. 

The characters here are very good, because they have a lot of personality and feel like real human beings even thou I wanted to murder most of them over how they treated Buck in this book. 

Buck is an amazing main character, and I really wish that we would get more characters like Buck in books. Where the main character is a animal and goes through a lot of shit in their lives. Because thats the recipe of how to get my attention and truly like the book.

The writing style, is pretty old English since it was published over 110 years ago, but in my opinion this book is one of the books where the old English only helps the book to be better rather than making the entire book feel like torture as you read it. 

This book is also very good read for all ages not only for adults, because I watched a movie adaptions of this book when I was a kid and I remember loving the movie. And after finally reading the book, I gotta say that I love this book much more than I loved the movie based of this book which I watched when I was a kid.

I Give This Book 4 / 5

Swindled out of his inheritance, recently orphaned David Balfour finds himself kidnapped and aboard a slave ship bound for the Carolinas shortly after the Jacobite rising of 1745. A shipwreck leads to a chance encounter and an unlikely rescuer. Highland rebel and suspected assassin Alan Breck Stewart. An incredible friendship blossoms between the two young men, who occupy opposite ends of the political and religious spectra. Together they return to the mainland, outwit many murderous foes and schemers, and attempt to restore David to his rightful fortune.

I gotta admit that this book is slightly overhyped on the internet. I read this book since I’ve read on internet that this book was very good, but after having actually read this book I need to say that this book is so much less impressive as people on the internet claim it to be. 

This book had a intriguing and good premise for a plot since we follow a 17-year-old named David Balfour, who is alone in the world of 1751 Scotland. I gotta admit that if I was him in that scenario I would be very fucked. 

The plot here is very sad because the main characters seems to be followed by a dark cloud of betrayal and danger while he is trying to search for his own identity after his father dies. 

I gotta admit that I liked the rich historical context this book has, and at the same time I also liked a lot this book’s backdrop of 18th-century Scotland. I found both of those aspects in this book to be very fun, interesting and intriguing and thats why I said above that this book had a intriguing and good premise for a plot.

The author is able to capture the landscape and cultural tensions of the time in which the plot of this book takes place in. Which in a way gives us a vivid sense of place. 

But there are a lot of times where this book drags a lot which made it difficult to say interesting and engaged in the book as I was reading it.

The main character here was okay for the most part. He begins as a very reliable protagonist for this book but the deeper we get into this book the more the main character’s journey begins to lack a form of depth to it which made it difficult for me at least to connect with him the deeper I went into this book. 

When it comes to the side characters of this book, they feel very one-dimensional and gave me the impression that the author didn’t really care about the side characters but needed them to connect the dots for the plot to be complete. 

The writing style in this book is fun because for the most part it is very rich, descriptive and it sets a very nice tone to the plot. But at times the writing style uses way too many words about situations or things which could have been explained in one sentence. And in a way this affects the action happening in this book, because the moment something interesting begins to happen the writing style uses way too many words to describe what is happening that it distracts you from the actual action happening.

I Give This Book 2 / 5

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

I gotta say that this book surprised me a lot because its the only Colleen Hoover book I’ve read so far that I actually liked. But before we get into this review I gotta give you a warning that this book talks about abuse and have some very hard moments like pushing someone down the stairs or rape attempt. 

The plot in this book is very interesting which really surprised me because the books I’ve read in the past by Colleen Hoover were pure torture for me. But this book and the plot of this book is actually interesting and somehow good written.

If you have read some of my past reviews of Colleen Hoover’s books you might know that she is the author I hate the most because of how bad her books are. And I don’t understand why her books are so overhyped while being so trash as they are. But this book made me think more lightly about Colleen Hoover, and that maybe I’m being to harsh on her other books.

This book turned out to be very quick read for me because of how interesting it was for me. I personally didn’t expect this book to be so interesting because of my experiences with Colleen Hoover’s books. 

The characters in this book were actually pretty good and I liked them a lot. The characters in this book are very well written and are very decent characters to follow for the entire book.

The ending was very good as well. At the same time it is very satisfying and really makes this book a little bit better.

I Give This Book 3 / 5