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inkandplasma
The end of the world is a fairly comforting concept, because – in theory – we wouldn’t have to survive it. Maybe what’s been fucking us up, more than anything, hasn’t been finding a way to cope with the world ending but finding a way to cope with the fact that it didn’t.
Rating: 5 stars
This isn't usually my kind of book, but I'm making an effort to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to books lately, and it is seriously paying off with six 5* books in as many months. I don't usually read this kind of book, with apocalypse stories not really appealing to me. After how much I enjoyed this book, honestly I'm willing to rethink the whole genre.
The Last is written from the perspective of a historian who is keeping a record of his experiences in the Hotel Sixieme after a nuclear apocalypse shuts society down completely. What this creates is an intriguing thriller based around a murder, but much more than that it's an amazing study on the collapse of society and the way that human nature might respond to pressures and stressors. I don't usually read books without a happy ending guaranteed, but this book was set after the worst things imaginable had already happened, so I knew there was no perfect ending coming. Still, I hoped, and that's kind of the message of this book, that no matter what happens we must keep hope.
Jon Keller is a flawed narrator, but at least he acknowledges that he's flawed, and admits to as many faults as he can bring himself to face. This makes him fairly charming, in his own way, and each of the other characters is equally interesting, with their own histories and flaws that come out in Jon's stories- people have less to hide when everything's already gone wrong.
The ending of this book surprised me too, but I found it satisfying, despite the lack of a 'happy ending'. It was a new beginning, and I liked that.
Rating: 5 stars
This isn't usually my kind of book, but I'm making an effort to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to books lately, and it is seriously paying off with six 5* books in as many months. I don't usually read this kind of book, with apocalypse stories not really appealing to me. After how much I enjoyed this book, honestly I'm willing to rethink the whole genre.
The Last is written from the perspective of a historian who is keeping a record of his experiences in the Hotel Sixieme after a nuclear apocalypse shuts society down completely. What this creates is an intriguing thriller based around a murder, but much more than that it's an amazing study on the collapse of society and the way that human nature might respond to pressures and stressors. I don't usually read books without a happy ending guaranteed, but this book was set after the worst things imaginable had already happened, so I knew there was no perfect ending coming. Still, I hoped, and that's kind of the message of this book, that no matter what happens we must keep hope.
Jon Keller is a flawed narrator, but at least he acknowledges that he's flawed, and admits to as many faults as he can bring himself to face. This makes him fairly charming, in his own way, and each of the other characters is equally interesting, with their own histories and flaws that come out in Jon's stories- people have less to hide when everything's already gone wrong.
The ending of this book surprised me too, but I found it satisfying, despite the lack of a 'happy ending'. It was a new beginning, and I liked that.
Rating: 2.5 to 3 stars. I'm bumping it up to 3 on GR because of the last thirty percent of this book which was a crazy rollercoaster.
I liked this book, it was an engaging read, and I was drawn into the story from the start, but I think I was ultimately a little disappointed, mostly because I wanted something darker. I was expecting much more dark horror from the reveal of The Secret, and the secret I got was sad but not necessarily that horrifying. The situation was horrifying, sure, and I felt for the characters when they were young, but later in life they still seemed to have this fourteen year old perspective of it all, and after being fed tiny breadcrumbs for the first half of the book, I was expecting something more.
The end of this book was wild, though, with plot twists and chaos at every page-turn, and that redeemed the book to a certain degree for me, even if the promise itself was anti-climactic.
I liked this book, it was an engaging read, and I was drawn into the story from the start, but I think I was ultimately a little disappointed, mostly because I wanted something darker. I was expecting much more dark horror from the reveal of The Secret, and the secret I got was sad but not necessarily that horrifying. The situation was horrifying, sure, and I felt for the characters when they were young, but later in life they still seemed to have this fourteen year old perspective of it all, and after being fed tiny breadcrumbs for the first half of the book, I was expecting something more.
The end of this book was wild, though, with plot twists and chaos at every page-turn, and that redeemed the book to a certain degree for me, even if the promise itself was anti-climactic.
“Gold don't come off. What's good stays good no matter how much of a beating it takes.”
Rating: 4.5 stars.
I read this as part of my attempt to read some more horror/thriller type novels. I'm attempting to make myself less of a scaredy cat. My biggest complaint about this book is the fact that the library sent me a HUGE hardback copy of this book with a slippy dustcover that I couldn't take off, and the behemoth was a pain in the arse to read. I hate hardback books, even if they're usually prettier than paperbacks.
NOS4R2 is such an engaging read. NOS4R2 is the vanity plate on Charlie Manx's car. Manx is a hero, saving children from abusive homes and a terrible fate and taking them to Christmasland where everything is happy forever! Or so he thinks. Vic McQueen can find things that are lost, through the use of a magic bridge that comes to her when she needs it to the most, and she finds Manx first and manages to escape - the only child ever to escape Christmasland. Later, she has to use the bridge she tried to forget to find her lost son when Manx comes back with a vengeance to take him away too.
This book is so good, the perfect balance of creepy and fun and paced so well that 700 pages just absolutely flew by. The inscapes idea was built out so well, and made me wanna know more about the people we never met who could also manipulate this crazy thought world, especially because every character in the book was so vivid and well fleshed out. There was a little slow patch just before the climax of the novel, but honestly that might just be because I was desperate to get a look at Christmasland and didn't wanna hang around in the middle section waiting!
I will definitely read more of Hill's novels, because his writing style is engaging and I found the ending of this so satisfying. On googling, I found out that the first episode of the TV show premiered today (spooky) and I can't wait til it's available in the UK because this book is PERFECT for a TV show, and the way it's written is made to be cut like that. I have a strange fondness too for the way that it would cut to a new chapter mid-sentence to set the scene. It stood out to me as something different and fun.
Rating: 4.5 stars.
I read this as part of my attempt to read some more horror/thriller type novels. I'm attempting to make myself less of a scaredy cat. My biggest complaint about this book is the fact that the library sent me a HUGE hardback copy of this book with a slippy dustcover that I couldn't take off, and the behemoth was a pain in the arse to read. I hate hardback books, even if they're usually prettier than paperbacks.
NOS4R2 is such an engaging read. NOS4R2 is the vanity plate on Charlie Manx's car. Manx is a hero, saving children from abusive homes and a terrible fate and taking them to Christmasland where everything is happy forever! Or so he thinks. Vic McQueen can find things that are lost, through the use of a magic bridge that comes to her when she needs it to the most, and she finds Manx first and manages to escape - the only child ever to escape Christmasland. Later, she has to use the bridge she tried to forget to find her lost son when Manx comes back with a vengeance to take him away too.
This book is so good, the perfect balance of creepy and fun and paced so well that 700 pages just absolutely flew by. The inscapes idea was built out so well, and made me wanna know more about the people we never met who could also manipulate this crazy thought world, especially because every character in the book was so vivid and well fleshed out. There was a little slow patch just before the climax of the novel, but honestly that might just be because I was desperate to get a look at Christmasland and didn't wanna hang around in the middle section waiting!
I will definitely read more of Hill's novels, because his writing style is engaging and I found the ending of this so satisfying. On googling, I found out that the first episode of the TV show premiered today (spooky) and I can't wait til it's available in the UK because this book is PERFECT for a TV show, and the way it's written is made to be cut like that. I have a strange fondness too for the way that it would cut to a new chapter mid-sentence to set the scene. It stood out to me as something different and fun.
They never stop, these Stepford wives. They work like robots all their lives.
Rating: 3.5 stars
This book was massively unnerving. Unnerving enough that I finished the last page and immediately handed it to my housemate to read. Sitting at only 116 pages, it wasn't a particularly long read, concise and quick but still powerful. I think the fact that it was so short was part of what made it so unnerving. A lot was left unsaid, a lot left to the reader's imagination, which I liked as it made it easy to get inside Joanna's head. She was having to make as many assumptions as I was as a reader to try and find out what was happening in this crazy little neighbourhood she'd moved into. I made a note, while reading, of one particular quote, '[He's] a pretty wonderful guy, and I've been lazy and selfish.', because this is the exact line where I got the uncanny valley feeling of something isn't right here. It's hard to discuss this novel without spoilers, but it's safe to say that this was a rollercoaster of a read, and well worth its short length, if only for the sense of absolute horror that started to creep in in the latter half of the novel.
As a woman, this novel was particularly frustrating, but not because it was badly written, or even as the female characters were hard to relate to. Considering that this was a novel written in 1972 by a male author, Joanna is relatable even today, and what made me so frustrated and angry at points was the way that she was faced by cookie cutter perfect women at every turn, and the implication that she should behave like that too. I wasn't angry about Joanna, I was angry for her, and I loved it. This book is wild, and everyone should spend an hour or two reading it.
Rating: 3.5 stars
This book was massively unnerving. Unnerving enough that I finished the last page and immediately handed it to my housemate to read. Sitting at only 116 pages, it wasn't a particularly long read, concise and quick but still powerful. I think the fact that it was so short was part of what made it so unnerving. A lot was left unsaid, a lot left to the reader's imagination, which I liked as it made it easy to get inside Joanna's head. She was having to make as many assumptions as I was as a reader to try and find out what was happening in this crazy little neighbourhood she'd moved into. I made a note, while reading, of one particular quote, '[He's] a pretty wonderful guy, and I've been lazy and selfish.', because this is the exact line where I got the uncanny valley feeling of something isn't right here. It's hard to discuss this novel without spoilers, but it's safe to say that this was a rollercoaster of a read, and well worth its short length, if only for the sense of absolute horror that started to creep in in the latter half of the novel.
As a woman, this novel was particularly frustrating, but not because it was badly written, or even as the female characters were hard to relate to. Considering that this was a novel written in 1972 by a male author, Joanna is relatable even today, and what made me so frustrated and angry at points was the way that she was faced by cookie cutter perfect women at every turn, and the implication that she should behave like that too. I wasn't angry about Joanna, I was angry for her, and I loved it. This book is wild, and everyone should spend an hour or two reading it.
Not the kind of book I usually read but this honestly creeped me out so much. Very cleverly written and an intense page turner.
My first night on holiday and I've stayed up until 2am to finish it. Not sure I can leave a coherent review right now, but I'm so utterly in love with this book and every character
