roadtripreader's Reviews (357)

UPDATED REVIEW:

After 24 hours, I've digested this book and come away realizing it really was not enjoyable. I had to get to the very last quarter of the book to even begin to find the story. And honestly, Tilly was just unnecessary to the whole plot.

Spoiler

She could have appeared as a good samaritan to save Tracy and

there was no need to delve into her whole psyche and the whole stairway to memory loss. There are just so many threads flapping in the wind and the last chapters do little to crochet them into a neat and appealing tea cozy.

OLD REVIEW: Started out not giving a toss about any of the characters and I was a little exhausted with the hundreds of smaller stories that were off-shoots from the action taking place:

Example:

Tracy was taking Courtney to the park. They had "fun" and so naturally I would want to read more about this but to get to the point of their outing I needed to read through an epic internal dialogue about Tracy's past and her trip with her parents and cold-boiled eggs which her father would swallow whole. I felt like a lot of the author's background stories were basically in parenthesis and I would have loved to just gloss over it and move on but that would have left me with about 20 or 30 pages of the actual book.

But, and there is a but. By the time I got to page 226, I was onboard for the rest of the story and I had already pieced together what had happened so there really wasn't a "Great Reveal" at the end for me.

A Palette cleanser. Quick and easy to read with zero mental effort required.

This was a welcome light read outside of my "comfort genres" and between my heavier more atmospheric and thought-provoking book choices for the month it really helped to put my previous books of the month into perspective. The Road Trip is chaotic fun and if you've been on a road trip with family or friends or colleagues - it can be quite the experience.

I had heard of the author via the TV series Flatshare which I must confess I could not finish (I believe I ended on episode 3 or barely started the episode, I can't be bothered with tv at the moment so I've given up on watching any for the foreseeable future) still, I remember thinking it would make a great book. Well, turns out it was already a book and there were more books including this one.

I decided to start with this book as opposed to reading "The Flatshare" because I think I'd rather forget the tv show first and then read that book. I enjoy O'Leary's writing style. It is very contemporary or rather colloquially rooted in the here and now so it really feels like you're on location, in the car with the occupants and listening to all the madness. It manages to bring 21st century London and surrounds to life. The French countryside comes to life in flashbacks aptly titled "Then" It's got everything, some tears, some laughs, some sappy moments and feels like an actual road trip; and, I tell you something for nothing: a road trip in a mini is just asking for trouble.

I would recommend this book for people who are venturing into reading for the first time in ages or who are looking for a light read. Some of the comedy might not land exactly but it is a great Sunday picnic in the garden on a spring day kind of book. It's also a good pick if you're not really a romance reader and looking for less melodrama and more realistic "achey-breaky" stories.

I remember reading this book as a teen and it changed my view of vampires from would-be-frightening to downright enigmatic. This was also around the time when I moved away from the tween series and into more YA. I found this book in the library and just thought it fell into the YA genre. It did not, it was way beyond my years and now that I'm rereading this book, I have a deeper appreciation for how it changed my literary platter and veered me into mystery, sweeping beauty, prose and ultimately awakened my ability to actually visualize things beyond my comprehension.

I am excited to be going through the series once more.

This book will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first book that I finished after almost seven years of not reading. The last book I read was Good Omens, Teri Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 2017.

I wanted to love this book wholeheartedly and up until the part where Atticus Pund is putting the pieces together to formulate his solution to the crimes - I loved the book. I honestly lost interest when we reverted back to Susan Ryeland's story. I felt like it was just unnecessary and I figured out a whole lot of the plot before I turned the pages. I want to love this Susan Ryeland series but I just don't. Worse of all, I tried to watch the tv show just to see if it was what I had imagined - I couldn't even finish the first episode. I stopped at the fight scene between Mary and Robert Blakiston. The pacing is just off and the narration seems so grandiose.

On a brighter note, I do still love Horowitz's other work. I'm just not a fan of this introduction to the Susan Ryeland series at all.

I was too young to understand the gravity of what I was reading. I was barely 14 years old and let loose in the grand old national library in the city center. We would go there twice a week and I would read this book every time I took a break from doing homework. The librarian didn't care what the tweens and teens did as long as we weren't making a ruckus and skateboarding through the aisles. And so, more often than not, I read books at least a decade beyond me.

What I loved was the prose, the way the author could describe a blue sky but make you feel like maybe it was a blue sky hidden in luxurious blue silk in the soft hands of a beautiful, tragic character. And really it was just blue sky.

I was to young to understand the gravity of the ending, the final act between the twins. Yeah, now that I am rereading many of the books that I was just too young to read and really shouldn't have read them - I am seeing the tales in a more appreciative light, with impact.

This series is really an unexpected delight to the senses. I found it whilst scrolling though scribd and actually registered for a trial month just to be able to read this book.

What I found a littler tiresome

1. The view of Clothilde as a moodly teenager as seen through the main narrator, her ghostly pal, a man, ghost at the age of 35. The descripters constantly used by the author, translated through this male protagonist were harping on at the same old tired stereotypes about teenagers and in particular, teenage girls..

What I loved:

1. The story set in France, in Toulouse - refreshing place for a mystery.
2. The fleshing out of the "living characters" as seen through their ability to sense the other world...specifically the ghostly realm. I noted that people who were sensitive were not good or bad, just highly attuned but none more so than Emeline.
3. I enjoyed the build up to the final conflict from car tailing right though to the gunshot. Something amazing happens close to the end - read it to enjoy this addition to ghost lore.

I am onboard for the next journey and I might even take a gander at all the short stories that came before the books.

Break in Fiction: Afternoon Coffee, pastries and Someone else's Therapy

I picked this one up whilst milling about the bookstore after breakfast this morning.
I saw the cover and thought it would be a quick and undemanding reading break from the list I had created for my 100books52weeks challenge, My April challenge is quite ambitious. So, here I am, on chapter 3 and I have to say, I was right. Easy quick read.

More to come ...

So, the cases presented are harrowing and sometimes the author lets her own beliefs slip into her narrative. But for the most part, I feel like she really does champion each patient and their journey through therapy. Peter and Danny's stories are just crushing. I am conflicted about Laura, she still seems emotionally damaged no matter how successful she went on to become. How can she look at Tracy's life trajectory and not belief in

Spoiler

the child molestation accusation leveled at that deadbeat father who also clearly murdered her mother and stepmother.

As the opening case, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I questioned the therapists definition of "hero" which she uses frequently to describe the "successful" patients journey through therapy.

All in all, it was a read and although it set out to inspire the reader I suppose it did to a certain extent.

Awful characters and one of them calls everyone "chick" and the more likeable granmama (Marion) calls everyone "pet". The first term grates my nerves.

Just the bottom of the barrel. I think Betsy doesn't like old people and that's annoying; why bother to right about them if each page littered in "the aging couple" this and "the pensioner" that. To be honest I had gone into this book thinking the characters would be in their late 20s and possibly late 30s - the cover just eluded to that. Still, I can read about middle age and older people BUT when you make every character a hellspawn brimming with bile ... kinda hard to enjoy the book.

What did I like...what did I like...let's see

1. It was short, I don't think I would have continued if the end wasn't comfortably in the horizon.

2. I guess I liked the food littered throughout the pages. People were cooking sphagetti Bolognese on one page and devouring chocolate cake on another. There was roast beef, sizzling steak and Dominos Pizza. Some sandwiches had cameo appearences and chocolate had a recurring role.

3. The case had potential to be really good but even the police department was packed to the rafters with jackasses with the exception of Emily Hale or is her name Elly or Ella - see what I mean? Was it Elly Parker? I can't be bothered.
I mean as murder mysteries go this one was NOT average - I literally hated everyone I was meant to care about. Maybe Amy was bearable.

Meh...I'd chuck it in the fire but I'm a sucker for punishment. When I need a dose of completely unlikeable characters, I'll read the second book in this series and rail against them. One hopes they will be an improvement but one doesn't hold one's breath.

Such an easy, no muss no fuss read. You know, I hadn't realised I was in need of a fast paced, period mystery, semi-light hearted fantasy until I started reading this. There are quite a bit of ethical conundrums presented which an academic such as myself loved. I found myself putting down the book and researching monsters in literature and how many of them were women. It has found a place beside some of my favorite series. Theodora Goss manages to weave a wonderous tale of intrigue with witty banter and a deep dive into the monsters of old that my parents grew up reading about and I in turn grew up watching on tv. Think of Frankenstein and Dracula's Renfield, to name a few.

I started the book a day before finishing it and had I not had three puppies aged 4 months, prone to wreaking havoc all over the house, I would have finished it in one sitting. I was probably well primed for this time of adventure after reading a great paranomal detective mystery by another writer. I am enjoying exploring a genre I would not normally read, specifically the retelling of folklore/legends/myths in this way.

Give the book a chance, by Chapter 5, it really becomes one of those stories with tiny jigsaw pieces and you're out there trying to piece everything together not too intricately.

BONUS: I went into this book not knowing a single thing about it (I had refused to read the little summary or blurbs) So when I saw multiple narrators, I had a field day trying to figure out if the plurality of the narrators was real or presenting the mind of a multiple personality disordered narrator. It was a treat. I think I'll dive head first into more books without reading the blurps or previews - what absolute fun!

REAL Rating: -0.00

Honestly, I only have myself to blame for starting this book. My habit of picking random books by title or cover really bit me right in the keister. I hadn't realized this was Anne Rice. I preferred Jeanne Kalogridis over Anne Rice in the world of Vampires.

Saw this title, thought it was a Dark retelling, like an anthology series or something.
Trigger warnings up the wazoo

I was traumatized by the 3rd chapter and just couldn't stomach finishing this abomination. It is just an atrocious reimagining of the story - and I've read the CJ Roberts Dark Fairytales Anthologies collection. I understand there is an underlysing sexual tone to the initial Grimm Fairytales, like yes, Aurora awakes because of True Love's first kiss, and of course the original version/s were gruesome. BUT....this...I cant even put it into words.

I hate this book.

Thanks for reminding me why I need to read the blurbs as much as the damned title and book cover.