240 replies to this topic

[Mara=^.^=]

 

The Killer in Me stars a 17-year-old girl named Nina who enters the mind of a serial killer whenever she falls asleep at night. From sundown to sunup, she experiences everything that he experiences - every gruesome, evil, twisted, thrilling moment of it. Naturally, this has some pretty devastating effects on her psyche. She starts abusing stimulants to keep herself awake. She withdraws from her friends and her adopted mother. She becomes obsessed with finding and stopping the killer. Eventually, she decides to drive to New Mexico and confront him on his home turf...but when she gets there, the man she meets is not the obvious psychopath she was expecting. After discovering the true nature of her connection to him, Nina begins to question whether he is really a murderer at all. Is he playing mind games with her? Can he see through her eyes while he sleeps, the way she can see through his? Or is the whole thing - the whole tangled, disturbing mess - all in her head?

 

This book was....hmm. There were a lot of things I liked about it. Nina was a realistically tortured protagonist. Her friend/eventual love interest Warren was quite likable. The killer's real identity was predictable, but it made sense I guess...and I enjoyed the way the narrative made you, the reader, question Nina's sanity at times. I think one of the main problems with the book was the setting. The first half takes place in Montpelier, Vermont, and the author gets stuff wrong about the culture here. She takes old-fashioned slang terms from the Northeast Kingdom and plops them into the mouths of current-day teenagers living in the goddamn capital. Like, nobody outside the booniest of the boonies calls rednecks "woodchucks" anymore. People in Montpelier don't judge and/or pity children growing up in single parent households. I mean, it's friggin Montpelier. What is this, the 1950s? And sure, we have open carry laws and a bunch of gun nuts, but high schoolers don't tell other high schoolers to go to a gun shop to buy a firearm. They get one from a relative, or a friend, or the internet, or a newspaper ad. Long story short, seeing my home state portrayed inaccurately lowered the rating for me. I'm not sure it would be a problem for other readers.

 

Rating: 3 stars

[Mara=^.^=]

I'm so far behind on my reviews...

 

Recent reads:

 

Splinter by Sasha Dawn: 2.5 stars

→ Interesting mystery, boring and unpleasant characters.

 

Lucky Strikes by Louis Bayard: 4 stars

→ The main character's personality LEAPS off the page and punches you in the face.

 

Face of Glass by Frances Hardinge: 4 stars

→ An in-depth exploration of a concept I had never thought of - original and creative.

 

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge: 4 stars

→ Dark, atmospheric, and thought-provoking.

 

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge: 4 stars

→ A fun romp filled with intrigue, wordplay, and danger.

 

Frances Hardinge is incredible. She's one of my new favorite authors. I've enjoyed every one of her books so far, although none of them have been quite as good as the 5-star genius of Cuckoo Song, which I read last year. I HIGHLY recommend her work. If you like creative, speculative fantasy, do yourself a favor and check out her books.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[SweeneyxxTodd]

I'm behind on my reviews, too. I have two more to do, though they're for the Over the Garden Wall comics I got at Bookcon so I imagine they'll be short and easy to do once I make myself sit down and do them.

[Mara=^.^=]

It's been a loooooong time since I managed to get through a book.

 

 

Definitely worth checking out. I can't wait to read the sequel.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]

Since I'm cooped up at home following surgery complications, I've resumed my scribd subscription. Just finished Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson.  , atmospheric and engrossing, despite the slow parts in the middle. I can't wait for the sequel!

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

Sorry, off topic, but, uh, you had complications from it??

[Katia11]

Since I'm cooped up at home following surgery complications, I've resumed my scribd subscription. Just finished Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. , atmospheric and engrossing, despite the slow parts in the middle. I can't wait for the sequel!

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

(hugs)

Oh, I keep meaning to get around to this one! I liked her other things, but my TBR is so long.

[Mara=^.^=]

Sorry, off topic, but, uh, you had complications from it??

 

Bad complications. I've been re-hospitalized twice since the surgery. The wound got infected, and we can't seem to get it under control. I'm starting antibiotic #3 tomorrow. They had to re-open the wound, and it has to be packed with gauze multiple times a day. It's painful and debilitating. I can't go anywhere or do anything, for at least another month, maybe longer.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

(Oh, dear... I'll be thinking of you often, girl... Hope you keep improving daily... )

[Mara=^.^=]

 

My rating: 
 

Well this book certainly revels in its own sadism. Savors it, really, like a vintage wine.

 

It's a shame, because the cruel "twist" completely overshadows the poignant parts of the narrative. It takes something profoundly relatable - loneliness and vulnerability - and then goes completely off the rails into cartoonish horror movie territory. It cleaves the story into two disjointed halves, neither of which feels satisfying on its own. It's not a payoff. It's a waste.

 

What an unpleasant experience.

 

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]



 

 

Deeply disturbed by the fact that I just encountered one of the most attractive fictional characters of my reading career........and he's a sentient spider

This book will haunt my nightmares forever

 

 

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

hmmm.... I wonder... will rats be next?

 

that cover is so cool

[Mara=^.^=]

 

I did not like the octopus civilization anywhere near as much as I liked the spider civilization is a sentence I never thought I'd write. Also, the epilogue is more interesting than the entire rest of the book.

 

 

P.S. There are sentient corvids, and you decided not to write about them?? Priorities, Tchaikovsky, priorities!

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

This series is on my tbr, but now I'm wondering.....

 

I'll still probably give it a shot, but tbh adult fantasy can be so intimidating because it's usually such a commitment in terms of length.

[Mara=^.^=]

This series is on my tbr, but now I'm wondering.....

 

I'll still probably give it a shot, but tbh adult fantasy can be so intimidating because it's usually such a commitment in terms of length.

 

The prose is very scientifically dense. Complex (speculative) evolutionary concepts are discussed at length, and it can feel like scaling a wall at times. Just my personal opinion, but the first book is definitely worth the effort; the second one dragged.

[Katia11]

good to know!

[Mara=^.^=]

I really enjoyed Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel, so I picked up his latest trilogy: The Overthrow.

 

 

This was one of those series where each book was an improvement upon the last. It offers a compelling, fresh take on the "alien invasion" brand of apocalypse. The plant horror in the first book was the most distinctive, but all three had some truly unsettling shit. There's a twist with the cryptogens (beings of unknown origin) that I didn't see coming, and I think it lands in an emotionally satisfying way. My only critique is that some of the teenage angst in the first book feels...a little tropey, but it fades away as the narrative proceeds. Definitely a trilogy worth checking out.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]

 

Just finished Unraveller, a book by one of my favorite authors, Frances Hardinge.

 

She has a particular technique for crafting stories — she asks "what would happen if X bizarre premise were true?", and then she builds an entire world around that premise. She is a master of all things fey and wild, and the setting of this book is squarely within her comfort zone. Everything is eerie, magical, off-kilter, other. The opening chapter lures you in.

The question that powers this novel is "what if enmity gave you the power to curse someone?". On the surface, Unraveller is about picking apart those curses...but what it's really about is hatred, and what hate does to those who harbor it. Hardinge manages to get this theme across without seeming trite or heavy-handed, thanks in large part to the female lead, Nettle. She's a complex, nuanced character whose pain and strength run deep. Getting to know her takes time, because she hides so much of herself beneath the surface (with good reason). Her relationship with her seagull-brother Yannick is realistically imperfect and heartfelt.

 

Where this book falls apart for me is the male lead, Kellen. He's meant to be angry and reckless, breaking things wherever he goes, but it just doesn't land for me. True rage — the kind that simmers until it boils over — comes from somewhere. It has a source. Trouble is, the other characters have more cause to be angry than he does. It's surprising that a book which dissects negative emotions in such depth should include a character whose outbursts feel so superficial and childish. If I'm being honest, I think the problem is Kellen's age. If he were a kid instead of a teenager, his decision-making would make way more sense. I wonder if he was originally younger in an earlier draft of the novel.

All that said, it's still a good book, and definitely worth reading if you like Hardinge's other works. There's a surprisingly sweet background romance between a man who made a pact with a Marsh Horse (leaving him less than human), and his desperately loyal husband (who chases him all over creation). The author doesn't typically include romantic subplots, so this one was a nice addition.

 

Overall, I'd give it 3.5 stars.
 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Katia11]

Frances Hardinge is one of those authors I keep telling myself I will read more of but never do. :S I have a long list of her books I want to get to.

[Mara=^.^=]

Since I'm cooped up at home following surgery complications, I've resumed my scribd subscription. Just finished Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson.  , atmospheric and engrossing, despite the slow parts in the middle. I can't wait for the sequel!

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

 

Just found out this book isn't getting a sequel T_T

So bummed, it was the title I was most looking forward to.

 

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =