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karen.d

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Everything posted by karen.d

  1. I hope so too! It's annoying when you invest time in a series and the ending is rubbish!
  2. 'The Twelve' by Justin Cronin This book is the second in a trilogy and, because I really enjoyed the first book, I was excited to read this installment. The first 200 pages of this book were just as gripping as the first one. I liked how we got a different perspective of the events in the original book and the characters were believable. There was a long of action and kept me on the edge of my seat. However, after 200 pages, the thread of this story stopped abruptly. I also didn't like how some of the characters were cast off, in an almost absentminded way. I also think that in the main part of the story, there were a few too many characters to keep track off. That was something I had a problem with, in the first book. I did enjoy how the story and tension grew throughout the book. A lot of the time I was wondering how all of the threads of story were going to either fit together, or have relevance to the original story. I was happy that they did in the end. The later quarter of the book, was the best for me. It contained the right amount of tension, action and supernatural elements, which I enjoyed in the first installment. The majority of this book didn't exactly move the story forward and there were a few things wrong with this. However, I still enjoyed it and intend to read the next book. My Rating ***
  3. I finished reading 'The Twelve' by Justin Cronin a couple of days ago and now, I'm about 150 pages into 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest', by Stieg Larsson. I'm really enjoying it so far.
  4. That's why I don't look at any Book Prizes, because I want to make my own mind up whether I want to read a book, rather than because it has won awards.
  5. Hi, I was probably generalizing when I said that statement in the spoiler, but what I was basically saying was that I felt like Eleanor was put into situations that made her an element of being made fun of which I didn't feel comfortable with. Sorry if I offended you! Actually when you say that because a book is over hyped, I expect to like it, well actually, I'm the opposite. Like films that are nominated for Oscars, I very rarely like them for some reason. That's why I deliberately waited for the hype to die down on this book, before reading it. Does any one else do this?
  6. Moving the read-athon to April 12th is fine with me!
  7. I try to leave a little bit of time before reading a hyped book, simply because I don't want to be influenced by a book's popularity. I don't tend to read that many recent books anyway, as I get a lot from my local charity shop!
  8. A lot of people have read this loved this book, but I can't seen the appeal myself. However, that doesn't mean that you won't enjoy it if you read it. I look forward to hearing what you think of it
  9. I-d be interested in hearing your thoughts on this book, maybe i'm missing something.
  10. I may have changed my mind, if I had continued reading on, but I this book just made me feel uncomfortable reading it.
  11. Yesterday, I finished re-reading 'Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone' by J.K Rowlijng and I enjoyed it, but it's not my favourite book in the series. Now, I've started 'The Twelve' by Justin Cronin the second book in 'The Passage' series. It's good so far!
  12. 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman. Last year, this book got a lot of hype everywhere and won a lot of awards. I deliberately waited before reading this, because I didn't want the hype to influence my opinion of this book. This is the first book I DNF'ed this year. Why? Well only after 44 pages, I felt that this had an ugly, spiteful tone to it. Eleanor, who is socially awkward, was sneered at by her mother and her colleagues and I didn't like it.. Whilst Eleanor had back story was incredibly sad, it felt like the author herself, was using Eleanor for laughs, that were at her, not with her. I can't really say much more about this novel. It's quite possible that, if I had continued on with it, it might have got better. However, just in this few pages I read, I was left feeling very uncomfortable, with the way in which socially awkward people was being portrayed by the author. I didn't feel that it was right to support this kind of attitude because, after all, we are not all the same and that's not a bad thing. Clearly, this writer doesn't agree.
  13. 'The Diving- Bell and the Butterfly' -by Jean-Dominique Buby Being only 139 pages, this book may be short, but the impact it had, was enormous. This is an extraordinary memoir of a man who had a stroke and was left unable to move or talk. He dictated this novel to someone, using eye movements to indicate letters on an alphabetic board. Whilst this book doesn't have a linear story as such, this is a beautifully written novel about the writer's day to day experiences in the hospital he is being treated in and, in the most mundane or saddest moments, there is humour and insight. This is a very interesting and poetic novel. My Rating ****
  14. 'The Knife of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness I saw this being talked about on YouTube a few months ago and it seemed really interesting. This is about a place called Prentisstown, where there are no women and all of the men living there, can hear each other's thoughts. The story of told by Todd Hewitt, the main central character and, because we are hearing his thoughts and he is illiterate, a lot of the words in this book are incorrectly spelled. This actually annoyed me to begin with, but as the book went on, I actually think that this was a good idea, because I really bought into Todd's character and I got into the story quicker. I loved the experimental style of the writing and different fonts, to describe different people's thoughts. You could tell a lot about each speaking, by the font of their thoughts. I really liked this technique and thought it was very effective. As the book went on, I thought some of the writing was very poetic and approached the target audience in a non patronizing way. One thing I might add, would be that throughout the book, Todd kept asking people what was going on. He was repeatedly told 'I'll explain later'. Now I know this was to keep you reading on, but I felt like some of the important information that was given, could have been more frequently placed through out the novel, instead of having quite a lengthy explanation near the end of the book. The majority of the characters were realistic and I liked the relationship between Todd and the other main central characters. However, I thought the character Aaron, was a little cartoonish. This is a very fast paced story and I found it difficult to put this down.The plot itself wasn't predictable and I was eager to know what was going to happen. The ending of this book for some reason, left me a little underwhelmed. I was expected more of an impact. However, I'm still really eager to know what happens in the next book. My Rating ****
  15. I'm catching up on some reviews! 'Testimony' by Anita Shreve This novel is set in a prestigious private school in America, where a sex tape involving some of the pupils is found by the principal. What follows, is the after effects of such a scandal. It actually took me over 100 pages to get into the story, mostly because of the way it was written. This shifts from different character perspectives and has very different writing styles too, so I really found it difficult to settle into this book. I almost DNF'ed this book actually, because for quite a lot of the novel, there seemed to be a lot of negativity towards the female participant of the sex tape and the men weren't seen to be as responsible as the woman involved.. However, I admit that this did level out as the plot unfolded. This book wasn't plot driven, but I think it is a good examination of the problems of teen sex and alcohol abuse. This was an interesting read. My Rating ***
  16. Thanks for the recommendation, I will try and find it!
  17. There were a couple of things that let the book down, but I'm being picky, because the book was very good. I look forward to hearing what you think of it, once you have read it.
  18. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this! Everyone seemed to be raving about it, and I wasn't sure if I was reading this wrongly or something.
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