vanishing_librarian's Reviews (464)

 I had high hopes for this. I did enjoy Sour Candy by this author and the premise sounded like it would be a thrilling horror story!

But I must say I was pretty disappointed and it took me quite sometime to actually finish it. It starts off with a really horrific that makes you feel really bad for Claire but after that I just lost all empathy I had for her for some reason. A big reason for it was that it was just too long and the writing style made it had for me to keep up who is who and what their reasons were for decisions they made.

Sadly, I can only give this 2 stars. 

I don't think this author is for me. 

 I really struggled through this book. I mean, the story itself was actually not too bad but I just really had troubles listening to the audio and following along. I just kind of lost my interest in it by the half way point (if not earlier).

In the future, I will definitely try and pick up the physical books by Lucy Foley instead! Overall, I can recommend the story if you like thrillers that make you question the intentions of every single character. For me this was however just a 2,5 star book for the above mentioned reasons. 

 I basically only picked this up because of the good reviews but didn't really expect it to be my thing. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did!

Admittedly, I can imagine that Robin is not the easiest person to be around and the relationship she has with the bride is all kinds of toxic but I still did quite enjoy getting to know the story of how they met and what happened to them in college and after. Still, I think the twist could have been prepared a little better, maybe by showing how superstitious the bride can be or something like that.

Overall, I did really enjoy the story and can really recommend the audiobook - I liked the pacing and the voice telling the story! Usually, I do prefer more action-packed thrillers though, hence I will only rate this with four stars instead of five! 

 
Really liked the way this was told! Even though the story stars a little slow at first, it does pick up after a few chapters!

I quite enjoyed coming up with theories for what was happening but was wrong with everyone of them! The twist was really thought through and was told really well!

Nonetheless, I had a few issues with how this all wrapped up in the end - there could have been more explanation for the last two chapters. But I really enjoyed the writing style and had a good time with this book. Will definitely read more from Alice Feeney in the future!

⭐️ 3,5/5 stars ⭐️ 

I read most of this in October which was the best time to start this in my opinion! All four stories are pretty spooky and I loved the fact that all of them are about books and/or stories.

My favorite of the four stories was definitely the first one. But I also enjoyed the others! Ronald Malfis writing style was also a big plus in this that made me like this anthology as much as I did! I will definitely read more by him as soon as I get the chance!

⭐️ 4/5 stars ⭐️ 

This is the third book in the Grant County series by Karin Slaughter which deals with the suspicious suicides of some university students. When another person gets brutally attacked, solving the case turns personal! 

Usually, I don't read a lot of series anymore because they just get a little more boring with every book in it. However, with this series - I cannot get enough! I read this book in two days because I was so intrigued by it and really wanted to know what would happen in the end! Especially knowing most characters in so much detail by now makes the investigation almost personal for me as well! 

I do have to admit though, that I do not always understand the reasoning for things the characters do - e.g. how Lena deals with her trauma, how Jeffrey deals with Lena's trauma and his relationship with Sara, and how Sara deals with Jeffrey and his way of dealing with all that is happening. 

But still, I do thoroughly enjoy how the stories are told and I am able to empathize with all of the characters mentioned above even though I do not fully understand how they behave sometimes.

This is a story about Merry and her sister Marjorie who have to deal with Marjorie's mental health going downhill quite rapidly. Their father convinces their mother to call in a local priest for help and a production team is involved to film the exorcism they are planning to perform. While her parents try to protect Merry from most of this, they don't succeed in doing so and Merry has to come to terms with all that is happening to her sister and her family.

I was really looking forward to finally reading a book by Paul Tremblay because I was hearing so much praise for him and his novels. However, I think I might have set my expectations too high for this type of story. Usually, I do like books about religious fanatics and ghost stories but this one just didn't really catch me.

For me, it was just too slow-paced and could have done with a few pages less. Maybe the way it was told (especially the present timeline) had something to do with my enjoyment level decreasing throughout the book or maybe the fact that I couldn't really empathize with any of the characters was the cause for it. Also for most of the book, I was a little confused about the stuff the sisters were thinking and/or saying (in the present and the past timeline), which probably also didn't help.

Overall, I was expecting a scary book about an exorcism and complicated family dynamics but what I got was a story that wasn't really scary and characters that confused me throughout most of the story.

I am sure there is an audience for this book - sadly it just is not me. Still, please give this one a try if you're intrigued by the synopsis - you might like it!