Book Review: Yrsa Sigurðardóttir - The Doll (translated in 2021)

 

I had a hard time deciding on my rating for THE DOLL. There are elements to this novel I adored and there are plenty of things I did not enjoy so much. It's a hard book to recommend to others, that's for sure. 

The story is about a mother and daughter who find a destroyed doll in the ocean. The child wants to take the doll home even though it's an unsightly thing. The mother reluctantly agrees. Not soon after the mother dies. 

Years later a boy contacts the authorities about the fact that he was abused by a guardian from the state. This gets immediate attention. Huldar, a police office and Freyja, a child psychologist have to work together to interview all the kids that the accused was a guardian for. In the trail they find out that the little girl who spoke out as a witness in the case, is the same girl who found the doll on the bottom of the ocean. Could this be related? 

It's a slow-burning thriller. I don't think this book is over 400 pages, but it felt much longer. That having been said, Yrsa's writing style really works for me. The way she describes scenes and thoughts of characters are so incredibly realistic I really enjoyed myself. I can tell she's an incredibly adept writer. I liked how things, like the snake in Freyja's apartment, made a comeback in the most interesting ways. 

I did actually expect a bit of a more horrific thriller. The start is pretty rough and the ending is as well, everything in between is a bit more like a police procedural where witnesses are interviewed and wit is sharpened. I wish it would've been more terrifying. 

The way the author ties everything together in the end once again shows her superior writing skills. I don't know if I really liked the ending though, but I think that's a matter of taste. 

All-in-all, I liked the way the novel was written. I even liked the qualities of the characters, they felt real. I liked the plot, up until the ending. It was just a bit too slow in my opinion, and not horrific and terrifying enough. I will look for future and past releases of this author though. 

Many thanks to the publisher Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!

Book Review: Clare Mackintosh - Hostage (Published in 2021)

 

Some books are harder to review than others. That's when I know I have to stick with my first thoughts. I do know that I will look upon this book way more favourably in the future than I am now, because the things that will stick are the things I loved from this novel.

HOSTAGE is a claustrophobic thriller set partly on one twenty hour airplane flight from London to Sydney. Mina is trying to focus on het job as a flight attendant, not on the problems of her five-year-old daughter and the disintegration of her marriage back home. Her attention is pulled into the plane when she receives a note from someone in the cabin who is intent on ensuring the plane will never reach its destination. However, Mina will have to help and the note explains her exactly why.

I'm absolutely there for the premise. The second half of the novel delivers exactly what the premise promises. I couldn't put the book down from that point onward. The first half is an incredibly slow burn with (sorry to say) fleshed out but uninteresting characters. The fact that everyone has ab satisfying story arc at the end does redeem a big part of that.

The danger with a slow start is that if this would not have been an advanced reader copy, I might have put it away. I just couldn't get into it. I didn't feel any fear, danger, just annoyance with what was happening to the characters and their thought processes. If you're thinking the same thing, believe me continue reading because CLARE MACKINTOSH does make good on it.

Pre-corona I travelled (read by plane) 8 times per year. I have seen the insides of a plane for 1.5 years, next week is the first time I'll be flying again and I have to say the events in this book have me a bit spooked which is a big compliment!

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy!