mh_books's Reviews (1.12k)

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman

4.5

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

How to Write Horror Fiction

William F. Nolan

4.5

informative inspiring medium-paced

I really enjoyed this.

How to write Horror Fiction was written in 1991, which is at the very end of the Heyday of the 1970 and 80's mass-produced horror paperbacks. Think of the early works of Stephen King, Anne Rice, Frank Herbert, et al from this period. Aren't they some of their best works?

So it was really interesting to read William F. Nolan's (author of Logan's run) opinions on what this horror was, and how it works.

I would recommend this to readers (almost certainly inspired by Grady Hendrix Paperbacks from Hell) of 1980's horror novels - who would like to understand more about what makes these books tick. As well as a new writer thinking about going into creating darker speculative fiction. To be honest 95% of what he has written still holds true today.

Now I am going to see if I can find a portable cassette recorder to take notes on as he recommends :)

PS some of the attitudes, toward authors that are not white males, and also toward mental health issues, come straight from 1991 - interesting in themselves!

The Twisted Tree

Rachel Burge

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Death of a Dreamer

M.C. Beaton

3.5

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Death of a Bore

M.C. Beaton

4.0

dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The Whistling

Rebecca Netley

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I Can Make You Thin: The Revolutionary System Used by More Than 3 Million People (Book and CD)

Paul McKenna, Mike Osborne

5.0

hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced

The Estate

Liza Costello

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

When I began this I was expecting more of a character study written in a thriller style. It wasn’t quite that? Maybe Chic Lit written in a thriller style?

Overall a very entertaining, quick read. The central “thriller mystery” took a rapid turn about 75 pages from the end which somehow I feel is jarring. The “chic lit” mystery is fairly obvious all the way through. Yet it kept me turning the pages. This is definitely one of those stories that needs Netflix to turn it into a two-part series or something.

Recommended for a Buddy read - it would be fun to try and guess what it is about with another person.

Content Warnings