Book Review: A.S. King - Switch (published in 2021)

I was surprised by how easily I understood what was written and in general how easy it was to be swept away by the writing in this book. I'm not normally one to like "experimental" writing like this. I prefer an author who writes like a real person does, rather than a poetic interpretation. 

That having been said, A.S. KING does a great job in making her writing incredibly accessible. The narrative flows like poetry on the pages, but it remains understandable. 

Tru Beck is a teenager in a world where time has stopped. This happened a few days after her mother left her father and her father lost her job. She's been trying to deal with this new reality for over nine months, and everyone around her has slowly settled in to the fact that there is no such thing as time anymore. 

There's a switch in her house but she doesn't know what it does, because her father has constructed boxes around it to protect the switch. Not only that, the layout of her house shifts around at the whims of her father as well. 

There's quite a lot going on in this short novel. A lot of topics are addressed, but the message always remains clear. The parallel that teenagers kind of have to deal with a similar situation today (in COVID times) makes the overall meaning of this book even stronger. 

I would certainly recommend this novel even if you're not a fan of magical realism or poetical writing, I think you might still enjoy it.

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

4 stars

Book Review: Sebastian Fitzek - The Soul Breaker (Translated in 2021)

 

In my opinion, this novel is trying to do a bit too much. I was thrilled but also confused and sometimes a little bit bored which isn't the greatest combination in a suspenseful thriller. 

SEBASTIAN FITZEK has written and published this book back in 2008 in German. It has now been translated to English. I think that's a clever call, because it's essentially a good book, about a topic I've not seen in thrillers very often. 

The story is about the Soul Breaker. A serial "killer" who doesn't kill their victims. They paralyse their victim leaving them stuck in their own body. They have a note in their hand. Then one day a man shows up in a remote clinic with no memory of his past and who he is. Then due to bad weather, the clinic becomes shut off from the world and when a woman ends up paralysed in the bath tub with a note in her hand, it's very likely the Soul Breaker in in there with them. 

There's a bit of a story in a story narrative which I liked. The main story is read by students who are participating in a psychology trial. This give the story a bit more of a twist. In the end though, I was left wanting more and at the same time less. 

The last thirty or so pages are dedicated to explaining everything that happened. I didn't think that was necessary. Also, the scenes inside the clinic became a bit confusing at times. 

All-in-all I enjoyed myself and I'm curious to read more of Fitzek's more recent work. 

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

Book Review: Megan Abbott - The Turnout (published in 2021)

 

I have seen that MEGAN ABBOTT has a tendency to gather both negative and positive reviews for her books. I have never read her previous releases so THE TURNOUT is my first foray into her writing. 

I can tell why this book has mixed reviews. The way she has constructed the novel will work for some people but not for all. It didn't work for me. 

There were parts I did enjoy/was horrified by. The language is dark. I got a grim feeling from everything on these pages. It's incredibly tense, even though it's hard to tell (until the ending) why it would be. I don't know much about ballet, but the way Abbott tackles the challenges of this "sport" gave me a good idea about it. I will never look at those shoes in the same way. 

The novel is about two sisters Marie and Dara who have inherited a ballet school from their parents with they run with Charlie who was kind of part of their family since a young age. We follow Dara who has married Charlie and who is struggling with her slightly more enigmatic sister Marie. One day there's a fire in one of the ballet studios, right before the school starts their rehearsals for The Nut Cracker, which is when everything starts to unravel. 

I'm in the middle of renovating an apartment, so I was horrified by some of the scenes in this novel when the contractor Derek starts working on the project. That's beside the point though. 

Like I mentioned the novel is taut with suspense and dread, but at the same time I felt it didn't really deliver. I feel that Abbott creates a distance between the reader and Dara, which results in the shrugging of shoulders when we reach the ending. 

In summary, I did enjoy the language and in a way the writing style but the fact that it didn't deliver means it fell flat for me. I don't think this book will stick with me. If you enjoy slow-burning novels that centre on family dynamics and deal with ballet, you might really like this. Don't just take my word for it, do check out different reviews if you're in doubt. 

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!

Book Review: Taylor Adams - Hairpin Bridge (published in 2021)

 There are certain authors whose books I look forward to every year. Taylor Adams (maybe strangely for people who are not familiar with his writing is one of them). I fell in love with <b>No Exit</b> two years ago and his release this year is almost equally thrilling and captivating. 

<b>Hairpin Bridge</b> is about Lena Nguyen who is investigating her sister's alleged suicide on the titular bridge. She thinks there was foul play and she invites Corporal Raymond Raycevic who found her sister to tell her more about it on the isolated location. 

What follows is a thrilling and quite suspenseful (for Taylor Adams' standard) back-and-forth between the two characters. <b>No Exit</b> did not tone done the action, and neither does <b>Hairpin Bridge</b>. The action is non-stop. I love reading his novels, but I would love to see them on the big screen as well. 

There are elements to the story I didn't find necessary. First of all, the blog posts and other media may have been limited but it took away from the action. Secondly, it may have been a little bit longer than necessary. I would rate this book 4.5 stars, but looking at all other books I read this year I rounded it up to 5 stars. 

What I loved about his writing is mainly the knowledge he pours into the pages when he's describing a scene. It's so visceral it's almost like you're there and he's teaching you things about the attributes and tactics. It reminds me a little bit of how <b>Lee Child</b> writes. I've already mentioned the action-packed scenes. I liked the conversations between the main characters. The dynamics are insane and I was on the edge of my seat to find out what would happen next. The fact that it once again takes place on an isolated location is a big plus. 

Taylor Adams' latest release is a real ride and I can't wait to see what he comes out with next!

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

5 stars

Book Review: Alex Michaelides - The Maidens (published in 2021)

 

My review for <b>The Silent Patient</b> actually still holds true. I think that means that Alex Michaelides is a very consistent author. 

I couldn't stop reading the books, because I wanted to know who was responsible for it all. I was quite shocked by the ending. I don't think everyone will like it, but I thought it was an enjoyable twist. 

The story is about Mariana, who travels back to Cambridge to console her niece whose best friend was murdered. Mariana is a group therapist and from the get-go she is convinced Edward Fosca, a charismatic professor with a group of "followers" aka Maidens aka secret society, plays a role in the murder. 

She decides to stick around, to help the police. 

I disliked a lot of this book, but keep reading because there's a positive twist as well. There is one narrator I thought was too presumptuous because he's the self-proclaimed "villain" of the story. I thought Mariana's involvement in everything was a bit ridiculous and the way she prosecutes people is outrageous. The characters weren't very strongly build and there are a lot of instances where I wish the author would've decided to show rather than tell. Mariana makes a lot of conclusions about people's emotions because she is a therapist, I found it hard to correlate those emotions with what I was reading. In other words, I didn't really believe her when she described a person. 

There are so many elements flowing through the pages that I did like though, and if they speak to you you should check this novel out as well. There's Greek Mythology and Greek Tragedy seeping through the pages and the narrative. Guessing how these elements play a role is fun. Secret societies with charismatic leaders are awesome. The mentions of Alfred Tennyson are also nicely tucked into the narrative. 

I thought the ending was surprising. I forget a lot of books I've read but The Silent Patient's conclusion is one that etched in my brain. I think The Maidens will have the same faith. As such I can recommend it to people who enjoyed Michaelides' previous novel or for fans of Greek tragedy/mythology. 

Many thanks to the publisher Orion Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy.