lunababymoonchild
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Books Reviews posted by lunababymoonchild
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The research is second to none and the writing also very good. The events took place long before the Salem Witch trials and explain how superstition and a certainlack of education coupled with mental health illness, which was more or less unkown then, can lead to accusations of witchcraft and other paranormal activity.
Absolutely fascinating and well worth reading.
Recommended.
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I think that this one is the best of the quartet and it's not necessary to have read the other three in order to enjoy it. That said, the other three books do explain the relationships betwen the characters, especially the children, and go a long way to explaining the smiling man.
This one came across as the scariest of them all, most of the action takes place at night, and thus in the dark (my own personal irrational fear) with most of the horror coming from clowns (apparently a high number of children are actually scared of clowns. My opinion is because clowns wear make-up and their faces can't be seen properly so they can't be recognised without their make-up, which is scary imho, but that's just a theory). What happens to you when the clown catches you is original, and scary but not graphic, and the fix is brilliant.
Aimed at children 10 years and up, this is absolutely great!
Recommended.
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Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian Author who lived from 4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. His work spans more than 70 years and he is considered to be "one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past hundred years" (ca. 1890–1990). *Source Wikipedia*
Mysteries is Hamsun’s second novel, published in 1892. It undoubtedly is a towering work and an amazing achievement showing insights into human nature hitherto unseen.
It centres on Johan Nagel, a Norwegian who turns up in a very small town in the 1890s on the Norwegian Coast. He manages to shock everybody with his erratic, and to them, non-understandable behaviour but possesses an insight they do not recognise nor do they understand. He leaves as abruptly as he arrived and leaves them none the wiser.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Hamsun’s first book, Hunger, but I’m glad that I stayed with it as I was rewarded with a surprise that I didn’t see coming at all and which caused me to question my own assumptions.
In my opinion, it’s a difficult book – as you read it comes across as boring with not much happening except the constant whining of the central character. It’s not until near the end that you (for that read I) have something of an understanding of what the author was trying to communicate. I do feel richer having read it and remain sure that I’ll get more out of it when I read it again.
Recommended
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The film scared me rigid as a child but I read the book as an adult and it's not as scary now. It is, however, an interesting story and the end of the book does leave it open to a sequel (which will be why there are around five films now). There does not seem to be another book, though.
I enjoyed this, it was mostly about a politician who was persuaded to lie to his wife about the birth of their son, for (he thought) the right reasons, and this came back to haunt him - literally - when the child was older.
Recommended.
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I surprised myself by actually enjoying this. I thought that it was cheap pulp fiction (and maybe it is, what would I know?) but my father recommended Lee Child Jack Reacher and I decided to read the first book.
The story, plot and characters were all better thought out than I expected and I found myself reading large chunks of it in one sitting and looking forward to finding out what happened next, and that's what it's all about as far as I'm concerned.
If you like it, you like it, if you don't you don't.
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The novel itself does indeed provide a more nuanced story and, probably for the era in which is was published, is much darker than the film.
Psycho was published in 1959 and I have no doubt that it was absolutely horrific in it's day.
Norman Bates is described in the book entirely differently to the way he was portrayed in the film by Anthony Perkins. As a result of this he was more frightening. He liked to drink for one thing but as you are reading it becomes obvious that it's not just the drinking that causes the mayhem. And mayhem is what is caused. We learn through the fullness of time that Mary isn't the first one that Norman killed and she won't be the last. The book does a very good job of hiding the true nature of Norman until near the end and then explains it fully at the end. There is one plot hole which is fairly large but doesn't detract from the story and comes very near the end anyway.
I pretty much knew what to expect, the story is fairly well known, but the details provided in the book do make it almost entirely different to the film (as far as I remember the film).
It's an easy and quick read but not for someone who doesn't enjoy horror. With that in mind, highly recommended.
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Read in August 2022.
An action packed page turning thriller which kept me guessing until the end even the loose end. Easily read, easy to follow, well written, good plot, good characterisation.
Recommended
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The synopsis of the book actually describes what happens, without giving anything away, very accurately. It's absolutely brilliant! Just when I thought that it wasn't going anywhere, or that there weren't enough chapters left to explain everything everything was explained and it went somewhere.
An absolutely brilliant finish to the series and not to be missed.
Recommended.
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Just so that you know the ISBN listed in the info is actually the ASIN number and it doesn't have 51,348 pages it's 51,348 kb.
I read The Old Curiosity Shop from this collection
It gives me enormous personal pleasure to read Charles Dickens because for a very long time I assumed that his writing was far too intellectual for the likes of me. I read Oliver Twist and discovered that it's not!
I love The Old Curiosity Shop and plan to read it again some time in the future. - with plenty to get my teeth into. Yes, it's wordy and Dickens does make many descriptions in much detail but it's just a case of getting used to it and then it's amazing! Towards the end I was getting cross if I was interrupted and during the day I looked forward to finding out what happened next.
To the story. It's about an old man and his granddaughter and what befalls them as a result of his life. She is around 14 years old and he is in his eighties. The old man ran The Old Curiosity Shop until ......... but I don't want to spoil the story. It did bring me to tears in the third chapter from the end, I found it so moving, and that has never happened to me before.
I'm glad that I read it, I will continue to read Dickens and I thoroughly recommend this.
The Bone Collector
in Crime/ Mystery/ Thriller
Posted
I genuinely thought that this was a boring, formulaic, paint-by-numbers type crime book by a successful but not very good author. I was wrong!
The prose is easy to understand but the plot is convoluted and yet still easy to follow, the characters are well-rounded and, even although I'd seen the film of the same name, the twist in the end came as a complete surprise. The book is so much more than the film and I'm glad that I read it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Whether I'll read the whole series is not known just now but I'd be willing to give them a try.