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natreviews's Reviews (445)
I had first discovered this story when scrolling through Netflix and saw the movie. Let me get this straight, the first half of the book is better, the second half isnt.
The first half is an interesting surivival horror, where the gang is lost in the woods, with something maybe hunting them down. The second half turns into a random cult run by 3 teenagers. The book really slows down in the second half.
I would say this book is more of a psychological horror, allowing you to put yourself in the characters situation... well, at least the first half. To be quite honest, if you are going to read this book, just read the first half. Thats the best part of the story. Read the first half, watch the movie. I find the movie had a way better second half than the book. Honestly, once the story is really only told from Lukes perspective, all of the forest horror stops, and it becomes more of a people are scary book. I dont know... honestly if I couldve I would have given it 2.5 stars. But, Im giving it the benefit of 3 rather than 2, because the first half is well executed.
The first half is an interesting surivival horror, where the gang is lost in the woods, with something maybe hunting them down. The second half turns into a random cult run by 3 teenagers. The book really slows down in the second half.
I would say this book is more of a psychological horror, allowing you to put yourself in the characters situation... well, at least the first half. To be quite honest, if you are going to read this book, just read the first half. Thats the best part of the story. Read the first half, watch the movie. I find the movie had a way better second half than the book. Honestly, once the story is really only told from Lukes perspective, all of the forest horror stops, and it becomes more of a people are scary book. I dont know... honestly if I couldve I would have given it 2.5 stars. But, Im giving it the benefit of 3 rather than 2, because the first half is well executed.
Honestly... just go read the book. Its amazing how I grew up when reconciliation was implimented in schools in Canada, and I never knew the majority of things this book talks about (graduated HS in 2017). Honestly, every person should read this, especially in the wake of the BLM movement in the US from the death of George Floyd, and all of the protest that are happening. Canada is racist. Educate yourself. This book is a great place to start. It even has a appendix all about classroom activities, discussion guide, and additional reading for all of you who are teachers, or want to have a discussion with your kids.
What to say about this book without spoiling it... It’s better than the movie. Sure, let’s compare the two. Movie Amy is smarter, but less realistic. Book Amy is still smart, not as smart as Movie Amy, but realistic. Book ending is also way better.
I understand why people really enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed reading it. It took the question “What if your wife framed you for murder?” And made a reality of it. “What if you studied for a year a whole bunch of true crime, could you get away with it?” These are intersting questions that the book dives into.
It also leaves off on a note that makes sense for the characters. The last sentence sums up the entire thing basically.
Honestly, I’d probably give this book a 4.5/5, but it’s leaning more to the 5 than the 4, so that’s why I rated it as I did.
I understand why people really enjoyed this book. I really enjoyed reading it. It took the question “What if your wife framed you for murder?” And made a reality of it. “What if you studied for a year a whole bunch of true crime, could you get away with it?” These are intersting questions that the book dives into.
It also leaves off on a note that makes sense for the characters. The last sentence sums up the entire thing basically.
Honestly, I’d probably give this book a 4.5/5, but it’s leaning more to the 5 than the 4, so that’s why I rated it as I did.
You Can Do All Things: Drawings, Affirmations and Mindfulness to Help with Anxiety and Depression
Honestly, I've never been a big fan of books about anxiety and depression (two things which I have). This is the best self help book I've come across. Quick read, cute images, and some tips that aren't the normal ones you hear over and over and over again. Love it, never list it.
Better than The Shining. Better worded and paced. Didn't find it scary. The epilogue was written really well and I kind of want to know what happens. Stephen King's writing has never been as scary as people say it is to me. Do I regret reading it? No, but I won't be reading it again. He also bends some lore to fit his needs. Kind of takes the main supernatural elements name and nothing that is connected to the supernatural element itself. A real shame.
Want to save some money? Look up inspirational things on google or justgirlythings on tumblr, and you have this book.
It’s like the publisher said “Okay, I like what you have going, but we need to meet a number of pages. Just write some bullshit young teens will find ‘deep’ and we’ll throw in some stock images.” Then, the publisher put the poems out of order and called it a day. Literally. It’s exactly that.
See, this book has so much potential. Add some dates as to when the poems were written. Boom, solves the issue of the poems not really making sense in the order they are in. There are a handful of poems I actually liked (saving this book from being a 1 star), but the stock images kill this book for me. There’s a way to do images artfully, but this isn’t it. Like, on page 181 I don’t think anyone noticed that the model isn’t wearing any pants. Which would be fine, but it doesn’t fit with the poem it’s paired with, plus I could go to pexels and probably find the image. None of the images are made specifically for the book. I’d expect this from a ebook being sold by the author, but not a book I can find at popular retailers like Chapters.
Not to mention, they try to be artsy by putting some of the poems in cursive. Again, it’s an interesting idea, but when all of the “s” look like “y” you fucked up. Like, I read one of the poems as “She way the dream I had been yearching for, the one to wake me up.” I honest to god thought it was just a typo somehow, but it took me till almost the end of the book to realize that they are ‘s’ instead of ‘y’.
It’s dissapointing. I’ve read poetry that I haven’t found good, but at least it sounded like an actual person with feelings wrote it. The majority of poems are straight out of some inspirational quotes generator like “Live life like death is tomorrow”. Like... what?? I expect to see that on a tumblr page or on a poster being sold for less than $5, not in a book of poetry written by an author who had a previous success. I haven’t read his other books, and based off of this one... I don’t know if I will.
It’s like the publisher said “Okay, I like what you have going, but we need to meet a number of pages. Just write some bullshit young teens will find ‘deep’ and we’ll throw in some stock images.” Then, the publisher put the poems out of order and called it a day. Literally. It’s exactly that.
See, this book has so much potential. Add some dates as to when the poems were written. Boom, solves the issue of the poems not really making sense in the order they are in. There are a handful of poems I actually liked (saving this book from being a 1 star), but the stock images kill this book for me. There’s a way to do images artfully, but this isn’t it. Like, on page 181 I don’t think anyone noticed that the model isn’t wearing any pants. Which would be fine, but it doesn’t fit with the poem it’s paired with, plus I could go to pexels and probably find the image. None of the images are made specifically for the book. I’d expect this from a ebook being sold by the author, but not a book I can find at popular retailers like Chapters.
Not to mention, they try to be artsy by putting some of the poems in cursive. Again, it’s an interesting idea, but when all of the “s” look like “y” you fucked up. Like, I read one of the poems as “She way the dream I had been yearching for, the one to wake me up.” I honest to god thought it was just a typo somehow, but it took me till almost the end of the book to realize that they are ‘s’ instead of ‘y’.
It’s dissapointing. I’ve read poetry that I haven’t found good, but at least it sounded like an actual person with feelings wrote it. The majority of poems are straight out of some inspirational quotes generator like “Live life like death is tomorrow”. Like... what?? I expect to see that on a tumblr page or on a poster being sold for less than $5, not in a book of poetry written by an author who had a previous success. I haven’t read his other books, and based off of this one... I don’t know if I will.
As a person who isn’t new to true crime I found this book wasn’t written for me. Don’t get me wrong, I learned more about the case than I originally knew, but it’s written in a way that seems like a person who is interested in true crime for the first time would like.
I did like how the chapters were short, but that doesn’t mean they are always to the point.
The book does mainly focus on The Boy in the Box, but has chapters (mainly 18, 19, and 35) diverge. Some of the stories that are mentioned are brought back in later chapters a lot, but some are throw away sentences.
In the end, this book could have been many chapters shorter if they just wanted to focus on this one case. OR, in my opinion, should have focused on multiple cases of America’s Unknown Children.
This leads me to the title. Written very much for a person experiencing true crime for the first time. The Boy In The Box. Gets to what the case is. I think a better fit for the title would have been “Fragile: Handle With Care, The Unsolved Case of America’s Uknown Child”. Especially with how the book diverts to other cases about people murdering children or other unsolved cases involving children that have no identity.
The last thing I will point out is the fact that it is dramatized. Every true crime book to some extent is. When you point this fact out, it makes me second guess what’s dramatized and what isn’t? Where the thoughts dramatized, or some of the story elements? This fact is pointed out at the beginning of the book. What isn’t though is if you may have any leads on the case where to direct them to. Yes, the case happened in 1957, but the book makes a HUGE point that we shouldn’t forget cases like these. I believe another book I’ve reviewed “The Forest City Killer” does have a place to contact, even if that’s just the local police department. Those cases happened in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Still, it seems weird not to have anything about it. I also wasn’t comfortable seeing crime scene photos and photos of the boy dressed up (if you read the book you will know what I mean). You don’t have to show those. The poster is fine (since it was super crucial to the story), the shots of the area are fine, but I don’t need to see the photos of the boy on the autopsy table. It’s distasteful to me. In another book I read about the women who followed Charles Manson they also included photos, but NEVER of the victims or the crime scene. I think that’s why seeing the photos of the dead child upset me. I’d be fine seeing the death cast, but I don’t want to see the body of the child.
Will I read this book again? No. Would I recommend this book to a person really into true crime? No. Would I recommend this book to a person who wants to be introduced into the genre, but doesn’t know where to start? Yes, yes I would.
I did like how the chapters were short, but that doesn’t mean they are always to the point.
The book does mainly focus on The Boy in the Box, but has chapters (mainly 18, 19, and 35) diverge. Some of the stories that are mentioned are brought back in later chapters a lot, but some are throw away sentences.
In the end, this book could have been many chapters shorter if they just wanted to focus on this one case. OR, in my opinion, should have focused on multiple cases of America’s Unknown Children.
This leads me to the title. Written very much for a person experiencing true crime for the first time. The Boy In The Box. Gets to what the case is. I think a better fit for the title would have been “Fragile: Handle With Care, The Unsolved Case of America’s Uknown Child”. Especially with how the book diverts to other cases about people murdering children or other unsolved cases involving children that have no identity.
The last thing I will point out is the fact that it is dramatized. Every true crime book to some extent is. When you point this fact out, it makes me second guess what’s dramatized and what isn’t? Where the thoughts dramatized, or some of the story elements? This fact is pointed out at the beginning of the book. What isn’t though is if you may have any leads on the case where to direct them to. Yes, the case happened in 1957, but the book makes a HUGE point that we shouldn’t forget cases like these. I believe another book I’ve reviewed “The Forest City Killer” does have a place to contact, even if that’s just the local police department. Those cases happened in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Still, it seems weird not to have anything about it. I also wasn’t comfortable seeing crime scene photos and photos of the boy dressed up (if you read the book you will know what I mean). You don’t have to show those. The poster is fine (since it was super crucial to the story), the shots of the area are fine, but I don’t need to see the photos of the boy on the autopsy table. It’s distasteful to me. In another book I read about the women who followed Charles Manson they also included photos, but NEVER of the victims or the crime scene. I think that’s why seeing the photos of the dead child upset me. I’d be fine seeing the death cast, but I don’t want to see the body of the child.
Will I read this book again? No. Would I recommend this book to a person really into true crime? No. Would I recommend this book to a person who wants to be introduced into the genre, but doesn’t know where to start? Yes, yes I would.
You know, this book reminds me a lot of Stephen King's writing... and not in a good way. The idea is really good, and the tense writing that is featured in the prologue and in a couple of other chapters will put you on edge, but overall I would say the read is not worth it.
Aaron Mahnke is an excellent story teller as showcased on his podcast Lore (which I do highly recommend), but his fiction writing leaves much to be desired. The writing is very tell don't show, and the dialogue leaves much to be desired.
The creature that he chose doesn't 100% match what is true to legend, as well as it felt rushed. We learn what the creature actually is three chapters before the book ends, leaving the ending lack luster. The epilogue does have a cool twist and could lead to a second novel.
Another thing that I have read a lot is the spelling and grammar errors littered throughout the book. I didn't really mind them though. The majority was either the same word written twice, or the wrong characters name being written (which I have seen in other, more known books). This is probably due to the fact that the book is more than likely self-published.
Overall, I would say that you can skip this read. It does have some shining moments, but overall it isn't worth it. Which is a shame. I do have to say if you want to hear amazing storytelling based on true stories and legends please check out Lore. That's where Aaron truly shines.
Aaron Mahnke is an excellent story teller as showcased on his podcast Lore (which I do highly recommend), but his fiction writing leaves much to be desired. The writing is very tell don't show, and the dialogue leaves much to be desired.
The creature that he chose doesn't 100% match what is true to legend, as well as it felt rushed. We learn what the creature actually is three chapters before the book ends, leaving the ending lack luster. The epilogue does have a cool twist and could lead to a second novel.
Another thing that I have read a lot is the spelling and grammar errors littered throughout the book. I didn't really mind them though. The majority was either the same word written twice, or the wrong characters name being written (which I have seen in other, more known books). This is probably due to the fact that the book is more than likely self-published.
Overall, I would say that you can skip this read. It does have some shining moments, but overall it isn't worth it. Which is a shame. I do have to say if you want to hear amazing storytelling based on true stories and legends please check out Lore. That's where Aaron truly shines.
