Book Review: Catherine Ryan Howard - Run Time (published in 2022)

 

I really enjoy CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD's writing. She writes great characters who have solid streams-of-thought, so even now that she has written about a woman who second-guesses everything and as such creates her own mystery (one of my most hated thriller tropes), I don't mind it. 

Adele is a has-been actor. She's faced something in her career in Ireland, which meant that she had to flee the country in order to try to still get a job in her profession. However, it's not as easy as it might seem to get a job in Hollywood. One day she gets a call from a director in Ireland who is looking for someone to star in his horror film. The condition is that filming starts tomorrow and that she can't talk to anyone about it. 

Adele decides to jump on the opportunity, even though she hasn't even read the script. What she finds when she travels to remote cabin is a tiny crew with only men of sometimes questionable morals. When scenes that are occuring in the script are starting to happen in real life, Adele doesn't know what to believe anymore. 

I didn't like the subject matter as much as I like NOTHING MAN. I don't necessarily like novels about actors and film productions. However, it did keep me on the edge of my seat, because what was happening seemed real to me even if things were explained away pretty easily I bought into Adele's fears. 

The structure of the novel is a movie script inside the story which tells the story of the movie that is being filmed. Inside the movie script there's a book that does the same thing. Does that make sense? Unfortunately the ending was a bit too far-fetched for me. I would've liked it if there wouldn't have been quite so many surprises, I think the story was suspenseful enough with the first couple of reveals. 

I will certainly keep reading Catherine Ryan Howard's novels though, and I'm giving this one 3.5 stars. 

Book Review: Megan Goldin - Stay Awake (published in 2022)

 

For some reason Megan Goldin's books read as realistic crime fiction or contemporary novels. I haven't read Escape Room yet but Night Swim definitely had the same characteristics as her latest novel and I'm there for it. 

This time we're following Liv Reese. A woman who wakes up in a taxi with a bloody knife and no memory what has happened. It turns out two years have passed since her latest memory. As she roams around the streets of New York looking for old friends and acquaintances she's able to piece together what has happened to her. That is... until she falls asleep again when all memories of the time before she fell asleep are lost. 

Megan Goldin has done a great job in making this story realistic. It's not necessarily thrilling, but it kept me on the edge of my seat to figure out what happened in the time Liv's memories were gone. Who can she trust? What's clever about the writing is that the reader does retain the memory of Liv, but the storystelling never become repetitive. Liv's path is straight forward to a conclusion and it's a logical path. 

We don't just follow Liv in the current time and two years before when she had her last memories. We also follow Halliday who is an NYPD officer who investigates the murder of a man together with her partner Lavelle. The way they were written is really realistic as well. 

The only reason why I would give it 4.5 stars instead of the full 5 is because I didn't like the reveal. It was very well written and it made sense. It just wasn't as complex as I was hoping for, which is just my personal taste. 

Book Review: Silvia Moreno-Garcia - The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (published in 2022)

 

It's interesting to see that so many people labelled this book as Horror on Goodreads. It is not. Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes a lot of different genres and she's really good at that. 

THE DAUGHTER OF DOCTOR MOREAU is a retelling. I would class this as historical fiction or science fiction, because it takes place in the 1800s in Mexico and it reads like a Victorian novel but it contains scientific experiments.

I think many people are aware of Dr. Moreau's (fictional) work. H.G. WELLS is the one that invented him. He lives on an island far away from civilization and he does tests on animals and humans to see if he can combine animal DNA with humans to make them stronger. 

In this retelling we follow Carlota, Moreau's daughter and Montgomery, a Englishman who joins the family as mayordomo. He's hunter and caretaker of the hybrids that Moreau has created. It's very character-driven. We follow the emotional state of these two main characters and through their eyes we find out how others feel about there lives in the estate. 

Moreau is indebted to the Lizaldes who finance the estate they live on. One day, Lizalde's son and cousin come to visit their house and the son falls in love with Carlota.  Things spiral from there. 

The only thing I didn't enjoy were the fight scenes. It was easy to lose track of what was happening, but other than that the human (and hybrid) aspect was very well-fleshed out and I was rooting for the main protagonists throughout. I can really recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Victorian novels with a character driven story and a bit of suspense. 

Book Review: Lesley Kara - The Apartment Upstairs (published in 2022)

 I read THE DARE by KARA last year and I liked it a bit more than THE APARTMENT UPSTAIRS as this novel is called in the UK. The ending was a bit more satisfying, whereas it left me unimpressed this time around.

We're following Scarlett and Dee. Scarlett's aunt was murdered in the apartment upstairs in a murder-suicide by her boyfriend. Dee has a funeral service together with her best friend, so they get hired to arrange Scarlett's aunt's funeral. However, Dee and her friend know the aunt. She was a substitute teacher and for some reason she might even have a bit more of a connection with their friend Gina who has disappeared ten years ago.

Slowly the plot unfolds, which is fun. Kara's writing is really relaxed and enjoyable. I was never bored and I got the feeling that I got to know the whole cast of characters well, which is why when the ending kicked in I couldn't really believe what I read anymore. There were a bit too many coincidences at the end.

It was still an OK read for me, so I will definitely check out more books by this author in the future.

Book Review: Jason Rekulak - Hidden Pictures (published in 2022)

 

This whole time I was thinking I would give this book a decent four stars. Then the ending blew me away. The way everything connects was well-done in my view and I think everything wraps up perfectly (including the one thing that doesn't wrap up at all, which I found entertaining).

This story is about a recovering addict Mallory. She's 18 months sober and is looking for a summer job. She's finds this with the help of her sponsor with a family who is looking for an in-house babysitter for their child Teddy. Teddy warms to Mallory immediately and he draws her many pictures. There's something off about the pictures though, they start transforming into more sinister images and who is this woman Teddy is talking to in his room during Quiet Time? 

This book could touch upon one of my major tropes in thrillers when female protagonists are projected as weak. It does not however. Mallory has been written as a decent female protagonist (even though she does somethings that made me shout out in frustration), and the plot evolves in a very interesting manner. It's certainly something I didn't really expect even though I had a bit of an inkling. 

It's a very entertaining read, and I'm looking forward to more books from this author in the future. 

Book Review: Darcy Coates - From Below (published in 2022)

 

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!

I did not like the ending of DARCY COATES' latest horror novel, but there's a big but coming: I loved how it wrapped up all elements of the story so nicely. Nothing is left hanging. All plot points I could think of have a nice ribbon tied around them. 

I read THE WHISPERING DEAD by Coates recently and I enjoyed it, but it was slightly bland. This is not that. The pacing of FROM BELOW is a bit slow. It's not 400 pages but it felt like more, and it didn't really need to be. It nail-bitingly creepy though. I've not read many horror books lately that contain real suspenseful horrific scenes and this one does. 

The story is about an expedition to a sunken ship. No one knows why it sunk back in the day, so a film crew is out to capture footage of the vessel to see if they can uncover more information. And that they do. 

The characters are all interesting and well-fleshed out. It's easy to understand all their motives. Expeditions and explorations where horrific scenes are found are a favourite thing of mine in books, so it has all the elements for me to love. If the pacing wouldn't have been off and if the thing that happened at the end wouldn't have happened it would've been five stars. 

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

Book Review: Emily Henry - Book Lovers (published in 2022)

This book ticked all the right boxes for me. EMILY HENRY can write such good characters and dialogues it's difficult to think they only exist on the pages of a book. 

BOOK LOVERS felt like a suspense novel for me. I've never been so invested in love story as the one between Nora and Charlie. She's a literary agent living in New York. The men she has dated have almost all had small town flings and have left her. She's living in a romance novel, only she is at the wrong end of it. Charlie is an editor. He also lives in New York. They meet, argue and hate each other. 

Nora's sister Libby has a great idea for her. They have to live the small town life that Nora's exes have done. Who knows, maybe Nora will run into the love of her life there? They move to a small town which was the setting of one of Nora's client's books. There she runs in to Charlie of all people. 

I'm going to leave you there, just know that when you read this book you should be ready for realistic and laugh-out-loud dialogues between the characters; a real heartfelt story; and I can't promise you you won't cry.