Karin Slaughter is just as good as everyone says. This was my first of her books and I'm hooked. I can imagine that she will very quickly become an author I regularly buy and get from the library. I already own the second in the Will Trent series and I'm itching to pick it up, which I'll probably do as soon as I finish writing this review.

To start with a quick warning, this is a dark, gritty book. From what I've heard of Karin Slaughter, that's not uncommon, but I read a lot of thrillers and she's definitely grittier than the norm for the genre. She goes out of her way to make the reader feel uncomfortable with slurs and prejudice and graphic descriptions of violence, in particular sexual violence. I actually enjoyed that, but I know it's not for everyone.

This book had me entranced from the beginning. I think I was fifty pages in before I even looked up once. The story was well told and the characters were so three dimensional, in all the worst and best ways. She's fantastic at writing from the perspective of characters who are terrible human beings, some in big "evil" ways and others who are just run of the mill bullies. I loved it.

This book also got me with the most unexpected plot twist I've read in years. I don't get got easy on plot twists. For the most part, I find them rather predictable and I'm okay with that. This actually made me angry by how much it came out of left field. I spent about thirty minutes rereading just to see what I had missed. It was fantastic.

I think in terms of flaws, the main detective was a big one for me. I didn't like Will Trent, who is the lead for this who series. It wasn't that I disliked him, I was just kind of disinterested. Part of that is definitely because he didn't become important until about halfway through the book, but even then I couldn't bring myself to be invested in his backstory. I'm hoping that will change as the series goes along because while liking the main detective isn't necessary for procedural cop books, it's definitely a plus.

I was also not the biggest fan of the last third of the book. At a point, you figure out the whodunit aspect and the book becomes suspenseful in terms of how he's going to get caught and what the ending will be. Which is fine, but it felt like I eventually realized how the book had to end and was kind of just waiting for it to get there. It wasn't bad, but it did drag a bit because of that and I think it could have been a bit shorter.

I think the structure of the book was both good and bad for me. The title "Triptych" refers to the three parts the story is told in, Michael's, then John's, then Will's. They obviously go together and overlap, but they're told out of order with missing information. I liked that, but it was also a bit irritating to get super invested in one character and their story, and then to switch to someone new and not even mention that first character for a hundred pages. I'm just a very linear person and while she did it well, I do prefer a single consistent story line.

But all in all, this is probably the best procedural cop thriller and I've ever read and honestly makes it to my favorite thrillers of all time. I briefly considered giving it a full five stars, which I've so far never done for any thriller. I'm so excited to continue on in the series and then read other Karin Slaughter books as well. If the rest of her work is anything like this, I've found a new favorite author.

My second Karin Slaughter was just as good as the first. While this one didn't get me as hard on any plot twists, I did really enjoy the linear storytelling compared to the first. I was fascinated by this story and read it just as quickly.

A lot of my overall thoughts are the same. Great storytelling. Still not in love with the main detective Will Trent, but I don't dislike him either and there are enough characters that it doesn't really matter. I did quite enjoy the new character of Faith Mitchell and I'm interested to see how her character plays out if she's in later books.

I found this story a little more predictable than the first. There weren't as many big shocks, but I think I enjoyed the characters in this more. I was more invested in the psychological state of the victims and for me, that matters at least as much as the story. I loved that she actually went into a bit of what the victims suffered, even though this book is very much about the cop aspect of solving the case.

I also appreciate the discussion on adult literacy in this series as a whole. It was a big factor in this book and it's something I don't see often in books, especially in terms of the main characters. I'm not educated enough to know how well it's done, but it certainly comes across as a good portrayal.

I will say, it's fading very fast. That might be because I've read three Karin Slaughter cop thrillers in as many days or just that cop thrillers in general have very little lasting power, but I'm writing this review a day after finishing the book and I'm struggling to come up with many specifics. That's okay, though. I don't read these books because I want to be thinking about them for weeks. I read them for entertainment and fun, and they absolutely are. I never wanted to put it down.

Overall, I recommend for anyone who's interested in dark, gritty thrillers (because extra warning, these are very graphic). This is the second in the series and it does help a little to read them in order, but it's not necessary. They function fine as standalones if you don't care much about following the personal lives of the detectives across stories.

This is my third Karin Slaughter book in as many days, so I guess I was bound to find one I wasn't absolutely in love with. Which is not to say I thought this book was any worse than the ones in the Will Trent series, but it definitely wasn't for me.

My biggest problem was the historical fiction aspect. This was set in a police department in 1974. Lots of racism. Lots of sexism. Lots of homophobia. Lots of antisemitism. Lots of just about any kind of prejudice you can imagine. It was aggressive and constant and graphic. And I'm in no way blaming Karin Slaughter for that. She was capturing what it was like during the time, but I read thrillers for fun. I want them to be fun, and the constant onslaught of aggressive prejudice in this book made it kind of unpleasant. When I read books that heavily focus on prejudice, I prefer them to be more in the literary fiction/drama categories rather than thriller/mystery. So this whole paragraph is basically just me saying the book wasn't for me, but not because it was doing anything wrong.

I think I also wasn't quite as interested in the story. So much of the book focused on specifically the prejudice the two main female cops experienced. There was a serial killer who was killing cops, but the two kind of shared spaced 50/50 instead of being mostly about the killer with the prejudice as a backdrop. I wasn't the biggest fan of that partially because of my reason above, but also because the killer story line just felt weaker overall. I didn't care that much about it. I'd half figured it out and when it was revealed, it just felt a little like a letdown. Not terrible, just kind of meh alright.

But that isn't to say I didn't enjoy this book. Three stars is honestly what I give most cop thrillers. It was entertaining. I still finished it in a day because I was so invested, and I'm still planning to immediately pick up another Karin Slaughter book. What she does so well is capture characters and their perspectives, especially when those perspectives are prejudiced or kind of crappy. She loves to write characters who are bullies and I love reading it from her. This book just wasn't the book for me.

Overall, I'd recommend if you're specifically interested in reading about cop prejudice in the 70s. She captures it graphically and it was a main focus of the story, so I think people who want that would probably love this book. But it wasn't what I was really looking for. Still a decent book, though. I still think Karin Slaughter is great.

Another great Karin Slaughter book. This is the one everyone recommended and I can definitely see why. It was fun and twisty with great characters and a good mixture of past and present.

I will admit that I called the big plot twist from the beginning, which was a little disappointing to me. Maybe it came from reading several Slaughter books in one weekend and getting a solid feel for her story telling. I don't mind guessing the twists and turns at some point in the story, but when it was as early as it was here, it does take away a little from the overall book.

But it didn't take away too much. There was a lot to the story beyond just the twist, which is what I love to see in thrillers. Sure I guessed the twist, but seeing all the events play out was wonderful and suspenseful. I'm not usually big on flashbacks, but the different perspectives of the same events was fascinating to read.

I also really like books that take place after the trauma, and this hit on that so well. You get to see Charlie deal with what happened to her mother and sister, and what happened to her, how it affects her as an adult. I was riveted by this book.

I don't think it was my favorite of Slaughter's (I am partial to the Will Trent series), but this is definitely a top thriller for me. Definitely worth all the hype.

I might be getting a little tired of binge reading Karin Slaughter, which is my fault not hers. It's hard to read five thrillers by one author in such a short time. I returned to the Will Trent series, but didn't love this one quite as much as the first two. Which isn't to say anything bad about this book, I still gave it four stars which is still really high for me. I rate cop thrillers around 3 stars on average, but Karin Slaughter has only had one book dip below 4 for me.

This book felt a little bit less like a whodunit and more just like it was exploring trauma suffered by the victims and the main characters. There definitely was a mystery (who is kidnapping, mutilating, and killing women???), but I just didn't care about it the same way I've cared about the cases in her other books.

I'm also still not the biggest fan of Will Trent the character. There's something about him that I just don't enjoy reading from his perspective. I still really like the discussion on literacy and reading disabilities in adults, but beyond that, he just kind of bores me. And I liked Faith Mitchell in the previous book, but not so much here. This book just felt a little bit less interesting in every way.

But I still loved it. Karin Slaughter just has this way of drawing you into a story and making you care. I cared intensely. Maybe not quite as intensely as her other books, but if I take the comparison to her books away, this is still a great thriller. It's gritty and fascinating and still so painfully dark. I love following her characters as they investigate these horrific crimes. And I loved this book.

Additional note: At this point, the Will Trent series starts spoiling the Grant County series. You don't need to read the Grant County series to understand the relation here, but I figure it's nice to have a heads up if you care to read things in order.

Karin Slaughter is, apparently, just an automatic 4 star author for me. This book in particular I thought was wonderful. If you're looking for a place to start and don't care about picking up in the middle of a series (or in the middle of two series, as this book straddles both the Grant County and Will Trent books), I think this is a solid place to start.

On the negative side, this is probably my least favorite of all her cases. The murders that happen in this book don't hold my attention. I didn't care about them much during the book, and I didn't care much about the resolution. It never felt like it had much interest or depth. My least favorite part was the climax just because it almost doesn't matter.

However, I adore the characters and their relationships in this book. I don't care that the actual murders aren't interesting because the case within the police station is what takes precedence. A suspect kills himself in custody, there's cop corruption, there's a lot of bad things going on in general. And the people make this story so fantastic for me.

One thing that has been great about Slaughter in general is her ability to capture different perspectives. She does it to some degree in every book, but I feel like it was at the forefront here. We have Sara, who immediately sees a corrupt cop who's killed yet another man, then there's Lena, who admits she takes shortcuts but believes in everything she's doing. And of course Will Trent, the main character who is investigating everything. It's so fascinating to see characters who have completely opposite perspectives and both firmly believe they're not wrong. It was so well done and so fascinating.

I also really like her exploration of corruption in the police force. She's done it in nearly every book, but it's interesting to read about the system breaking down and the justifications of the officers breaking the law.

The one thing I really take away from this book is that people don't often see themselves as in the wrong. There's justification for every action. Karin Slaughter captures that so well. Highly recommend Slaughter in general and this book in particular.

I didn't dislike this book, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it either. It's described as a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway and to a degree it kind of is, but it covers so many characters that I wouldn't even consider Mrs. Dalloway to be the main character. It was just a bunch of characters who had thoughts and memories throughout the day. It covered mundane life, but without the cohesive narrative of a single character that I would have preferred.

I think it gives kind of an interesting insight on life at the time. I did actually enjoy learning about what people went through and just what normal life was like. Mrs. Dalloway herself is a wealthy woman, but there's also a soldier who came back from the war with PTSD and a man who works in India and an Italian immigrant. It sounds like it should have been an interesting cast of characters, and they all were individually, but it didn't feel like there was anything that connected the different story threads together. I can see why someone would enjoy those aspects, but I didn't appreciate the execution.

I also quite liked some of the writing. She has incredibly long sentences that took a while to get into, but by the end of the book they flowed really well for me. They were almost circular in nature, going on for so long that they eventually came back to the original idea of the sentence. They left me feeling that while this book wasn't for me, I'd be down to try more of her work in the future.

I think overall the scope of this book was much to wide. I really enjoyed the beginning when I thought it would center around Mrs. Dalloway, and I enjoyed returning to her, but there was just so much else that went on that it felt kind of meaningless. It didn't feel like a novel so much as a collection of shorts.

I felt bored and disinterested through most of this book. Part of that I take the blame for. Usually I prefer reading books in large chunks over short periods of time and this took almost a month (unrelated health reasons mainly), but even then, I never felt like picking this up. I read this with a friend and usually I'm itching to read faster than the pace we set, but this time I was struggling to keep up. It wasn't that I disliked this book. I just didn't care. Reading it felt like a chore with very little reward, apart from some lovely writing and insights into Mrs. Dalloway's character.

Small note, but I also found the change of POV a little annoying. Pronouns were used frequently instead of names, and sometimes because it switched around to so many different people I would have to reread back a few paragraphs or pages to figure out who was speaking. It wasn't a huge deal, but just a constant minor irritation.

Just in general, not the book for me, which is disappointing because I normally adore books that are "a day in the life." I guess I can see why some people like this and I'm not disappointed I read it, but I hope the rest of Woolf's works are better for me.

This was a book of two halves for me. I read the first 400 pages early in the month and the last 400 pages right at the end. I loved the first half. I thought it was fascinating and fantastic and was almost considering giving this book five stars. But when I came back after taking almost two weeks off from reading (unrelated health reasons), I struggled a lot more. The second half didn't grab me in the same way. I'm not sure how much of it was that the book itself changed (which it did in some ways- I was less interested in the art theft and criminal underworld than just Theo's dysfunctional life) and how much was that I felt disconnected after taking a break from it. It's hard to place blame on the book entirely when I know I prefer reading books in short spans of time.

This is definitely not a book for everyone. It's painfully slow and unnecessarily wordy, but I'm such a sucker for books like that. I love when everything is drawn out and you get every single detail of their lives. This book covered almost twenty years, and so much of that was included. There were only a couple moments that were skipped over, and I was honestly a bit disappointed in those. It could have been longer, which is a little ridiculous to say since it was almost 800 pages long, but it's true.

I did almost give this book three stars, but how much I loved the first half really pushed it up to four stars. The second half dragged a lot for me. I didn't like the main plot of the story. Once it got into the meat of why Donna Tartt was writing this book, I lost interest. The criminal underworld and art theft and con artists didn't interest me. I loved the beginning, which was rather pointless and meandering, but just the story of this kid who lost his mother and didn't have anyone else in the world. That grabbed me. The art aspects not so much.

There were a lot of weird writing style aspects that I didn't mind in the first half but really irritated me in the second. For starters, there was so much dialogue. Just paragraphs and paragraphs of long explanations or inane conversation or backstory. I much prefer more narration in my books. Tartt also included a fair amount in other languages that was rarely translated. It probably wasn't anything important, but I don't enjoy when additional languages are included but not translated. Even if it's just a footnote, I want to know what the random Russian or Dutch or French was. It bugged me not to know.

There were also a lot of things included that didn't make sense in context. Small things mostly, but enough that my suspension of disbelief was constantly questioned. At the beginning of the book, there's a bombing in a museum where the main character is with his mother. The mother dies and the MC survives, injured, and leaves the building. He's 13 years old and manages to walk out past all the first responders and bystanders and media and all the way back to his apartment without being stopped, despite being obviously not right (he's covered in blood from another victim and is obviously concussed). I just don't buy that not one person stopped to help him. It doesn't make sense. Alone it didn't bother me too much, but there were a number of similar things that were just unbelievable enough that it made buying into the story as a whole more difficult.

I found Boris's character annoying. To a degree you were definitely meant to, but I didn't like reading about him and I was always relieved when he left. I think that was me responding to that entire story line with the criminal underworld and art theft. I wasn't interested in that and I liked this book better when it was just a kind of boring account of this kid's unhappy life. I love that kind of boring.

All in all, I did give this a bit of a generous rating. I can see why some people love it and I definitely loved aspects, but it was just too much for me. I'm very excited to read more from Tartt and I recommend this if you like the slowest of slow books that are mostly just dysfunctional dramas. I'm very glad I read it.

I've read this book so many times and I absolutely adore it. It's a wonderful middle grade contemporary about a young girl with synesthesia. I will say right off the bat, I've heard this is not good representation of synesthesia. I don't know for sure since I have no experience with it, but that seems to be the general consensus. It doesn't negate enjoyment of the book for me, but it's definitely important to acknowledge that.

I almost gave this book four stars, but with how hard I cry for the final section, I can't justify less than five. It hits me so hard emotionally and this is why I generally avoid books that heavily feature animals. I was very grateful for my cat cuddling me. There aren't many books that make me cry this hard, especially considering how many times I've read this book.

But onto the negatives. The writing itself is a little too simplistic for my tastes. This might also have to do with the fact that the last two books I read were a classic and a literary fiction, so it was a bit of an adjustment to shift back into middle grade. I didn't mind it too much, but it was something I noticed a lot more as an adult than I did reading this book at 13. Can't really hold that against the book, though, since it's aimed at a younger audience.

I also think it's paced too quickly. The book covers a period of a few months, but it feels like it takes place in just a couple weeks. Everything is so sped up and happens in a rush. I wish it was slowed down a little, maybe even if some aspects were cut. It felt like there wasn't quite enough time dedicated to everything.

And as an adult, the bit where the 13 year old goes to an acupuncturist without her parents' knowledge/permission makes me incredibly uncomfortable. I don't think it's handled in a bad way, just man, it's so irresponsible of all the adults involved. Mia knows she's breaking the rules, but she should have been stopped. That even made me uncomfortable as a kid. I don't think I would have known how to fill out doctor's forms by myself at that age.

But all that being said, this book is lovely. The emotions hit me so hard and when I cry (sob) for the last 60 pages, it doesn't really matter if I have some minor critiques of the writing style. It's the kind of cry I really appreciate sometimes. This book touches my heart. If you enjoy heartwarming middle grade contemporaries, I can't recommend it enough (with the caveat about the synesthesia rep). It's one I've reread every couple of years since I was a kid and will probably continue to do so.

I've been trying to get into more science fiction this year, and after watching the show adaption of this series with my boyfriend, decided to pick this up. I really enjoyed it. This is my first space opera (not including the poem Aniara, which I don't think I understood enough to count), so definitely take that into consideration with this review.

I really enjoyed this. It was an interesting story with a great cast of characters that had me going for all nearly 600 pages. Reading this didn't necessarily feel groundbreaking in any way, but it was so much fun and such a well crafted story.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the short chapters. Each chapter alternates POV between James Holden, XO of a water freighter, and Joseph Miller, a cop on Ceres. They tend to average somewhere around 15 pages and I just found the constant flipping back and forth a little frustrating. It wasn't anything terrible, just a minor annoyance.

Also, the authors tried to end nearly every chapter on a dramatic note. I understand that writing technique and it can work, but it was a little over the top when there were so many chapters and so many things happening. It felt forced and trying too hard. Again, not terrible, just another minor annoyance.

After around the halfway point, it started getting a little tedious to read. I think part of it was because I don't enjoy reading action sequences. They bore me. So that's just something that's not too my tastes. And also since I've seen the show, I knew pretty exactly what was going to happen and I think that made it a little worse. I had to push myself to keep reading. In general I'm very glad I watched the show first because I think it helped me visualize a lot of the sci-fi elements I'm not familiar with, but the show is very close to the same story.

I really enjoyed the way gravity played a part in the story. There were big changes, like the physical bodies of the people who'd grown up on the Asteroid Belt, creating almost a new species (doesn't feel like the right word, but I don't know how else to phrase it) of human, but there were small things too. It changed the way they behaved in action scenes. It changed the way medicine was dealt with. It just seemed really well thought out.

I also loved the characters and their relationships. I think a few of them were a bit more minor than I originally expected (coming from the show where there was a bit more characterization in the rest of the cast), but the main characters were so well done. At the beginning I was concerned they're be flat archetypes. Holden was the righteous captain who always does the right thing, and Miller is the jaded, cynical cop. They fit exactly into those cliches, but there's so much depth to them that it doesn't matter. It's such a good example of how you can use cliches well. I will admit I'm not entirely sold on the romance yet, but I'll wait until the next book to make a call on that.

I don't know if I'll be in this series for the long haul. Having watched all three seasons of the show and then reading the first book, it gives me kind of an idea of the trajectory of the series, and I don't know if it will be to my tastes. Book two is a definite and three is a probability, but beyond that, I'm unsure. I'm more interested in the politics aspects of the story which were more prominent in the show, and I'm not sure how much they will feature in the series beyond book two. But maybe I will be surprised.

All in all, I really enjoyed this experience. It's definitely outside my comfort zone, but in a fun way. I'd definitely recommend this series. I thought it was incredibly interesting and well done. Really looking forward to the second book which I'll hopefully pick up this month.