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Hell Train

Posted by cat2002116 on August 17, 2024
Posted in: Books, Horror, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I’ve been getting a lot of books coming up on my Facebook feed that are available through Kindle Unlimited, and this was another one that caught my attention when it came up. I found both the title and the blurb intriguing enough to read, even though it wasn’t a really unique idea.

The book opens up from the point of view of the train driver, Dan…which was something that I felt was a bit harmful to the ending. The beginning of the book heavily implied that Dan had no idea what was going on…which is later revealed to be untrue, as he’s pretty heavily involved.

After the setup that implies something weird is going on, the book switches over to Clip, who is travelling on the train with her boyfriend, Xavi. And the two of them are half of the most well-developed characters in the book, with the other half being Gina and Harley. I found it really easy to care about what happened to the four of them.

I will say that most of the characters were pretty much exactly what they appeared to be on the surface. The only exception to that was Dan…and I mentioned the problem with him earlier. But Grant is another character who springs to mind, as his betrayal at the end of the book isn’t a surprise at all – there was no subtlety to his character at all. And Mudz and Kyle were basically thugs. Even though Kyle showed some depth, the secrets that eventually caught up to him and Mudz were pretty obvious.

I was really intrigued by the whole Sacrificed Spouse angle, and her initial appearance was extremely creepy. I also really liked when Clip realised that the rest of the train was disappearing, as that added a whole new level of threat to the group, since it felt very much like they were running out of time.

I did feel that, towards the end of the book, there was an awful lot of exposition that detracted from the tension of the book. I do like to have things explained, but there was no mystery left about anything…and I really didn’t think it was necessary for the Sacrifical Spouse to stop and explain exactly what the ritual was going to do.

I did think that the whole cabin fever the characters were experiencing came across really well; I just kind of wish there’d been more depth to some of the characters. And a little more foreshadowing for the main villain. I do plan to read more books by this author in the future, though, as despite the issues, I did find this book easy and quick to read.

Blind Rage

Posted by cat2002116 on August 14, 2024
Posted in: Apocalyptic, Books, Horror, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I’ll preface this review by saying that I don’t read or watch a lot of fiction involving zombies. You’ll know, from my reviews, that I really like horror fiction. However, I like my horror to actually have the chance of characters surviving…even if that doesn’t happen the majority of the time.

This book isn’t exactly about zombies, although the people who lose their minds after looking up at the sky certainly share characteristics with zombies. After all, they’re overtaken by rage that makes them unable to see anything else; literally, as they’re turned blind. This phenomenon doesn’t actually strike everyone in the world…although it’s not actually clear whether some people don’t turn just because they don’t look up at the sky, or if they too are immune. Some of those people who didn’t look up at the sky and didn’t turn at the start of the book actually end up looking at the sky later on…and end up turning.

I don’t think I can blame the people who look up at the sky, to be perfectly honest. After all, if I saw a whole lot of people stopping and looking up at the sky, I’d probably do the exact same thing. In that respect, I think the author did a really good job of capturing that sense of curiosity that a lot of people have. If something’s happening, a lot of people are going to look.

There are a lot of tense scenes in this first book, especially after the initial crack in the sky appears. By that point, everyone knows that something is causing people to lose their minds and turn on everyone else around them…and most of them are waiting for the next incident to occur. The countdown to when, especially from the perspective of those who get early warning signals (the loss of hearing and the sensation that someone’s watching them) was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat.

I do feel there could have been less POV characters in this book, as the constant switching didn’t leave me with enough time to connect emotionally with many of those characters who only appeared for a chapter or two. I did care a lot about what was happening to Gina, Mark and Tommy, though, as they were the ones I got to know the most over the course of the book.

By the end of this book, I was left with a lot more questions than answers. And, of course, it ended on something of a cliffhanger. I am intrigued enough to read the next books in the series at some point in the future, though, as I’m keen to get the answers to some of my questions.

Gallows Born

Posted by cat2002116 on August 14, 2024
Posted in: Books, Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This book was one that came up on my Facebook feed when I was browsing through. The blurb was intriguing, even though the plot wasn’t hugely original, so I decided to give it a try.

The opening scene of the book was pretty tense, with a young woman being accused of stealing from the castle and about to be executed for it. Right from the start, it’s obvious that there’s a lot more to the execution than the so-called crime Nel committed. This is partly due to Gelwin’s protestations of her sister’s innocence…and partly due to the fact that Nel, upon being executed, gives birth to a little boy, which is, of course, where the title of the book comes from.

Bane’s life in Crookfell is fairly typical of a main character in a fantasy book. He’s an outcast, with a dead mother and a dead guardian…his only living guardian is physically and verbally abusive…and everyone in the town hates him. He also has a special marking, or tattoo, on his arm that marks him in some way and is later important to the plot.

Despite the large amount of cliches, I found Bane to be a character who was easy to empathise with. I also really appreciated that, while there are some elements of ‘you can fight so well because it’s in your genes’, he’s actually trained to fight and it’s in a way that makes sense, in spite of being used as a literal punching bag during one of his (many) bullies’ own attempts at training.

I really wasn’t a fan of the romance that seemed shoehorned into this book. Belle seemed to follow the whole Cinderella trope, but I didn’t find her to be an interesting character. I knew barely anything about her, apart from what Bane so, so she didn’t feel ‘real’ to me. On the other hand, Alruna had more depth to her…but I’m really not a fan of the whole enemies to lovers trope, especially as the whole reason Alruna hates Bane is because he killed her brother to save his own life. I have a serious problem with people who want others to suffer/die when their only ‘crime’ was defending themselves…and, in Bane’s case, the rest of his town.

The idea of the Fug was quite an intriguing one, especially with how it related to Vikings and Norse mythology. I liked the fact that it wasn’t all revealed at once, instead being shown gradually as the book went along.

On the whole, I did find this book easy to read…but Bane was the only character I really felt any real connection to. I did like Gelwin, but as she only appeared at the start of the book, I didn’t really form a connection with her. If you like fantasy that’s easy to read and fairly engaging, this book is probably worth reading. At some point in the future, I’d probably be interested in reading the next books in this series.

Five Survive

Posted by cat2002116 on August 8, 2024
Posted in: Books, Reviews, Thriller, Young Adult. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I originally started reading this book several months ago, but thanks to how bad one of the main characters was, I ended up putting it down until my oldest nibling told me they’d read it faster than the previous standalone book by Holly Jackson. So then I picked it up again…and finished reading it in less than a day.

I found Red to be a character who was really easy to empathise with and understand. I actually liked most of the characters who were trapped in the RV; except for Oliver, who didn’t seem to have a single redeeming quality to him. I was actually a bit disappointed, given how well developed the other characters were.

I thought Holly Jackson did a really good job of showing the tension and claustraphobia as the six main characters became trapped in the RV by a sniper. I do think that going along with every one of Oliver’s plans was a mistake, especially as he became more and more unhinged as time went on. At the same time, though, I guess no one else tried to step in, so maybe it was understandable.

I really liked seeing Red’s interactions with Arthur, as I thought they were very cute together. I really liked how Arthur bonded with Red by writing his own messages on his hand…and I liked that he constantly checked in with her, as it seemed like none of the others were really doing that; even Maddy, who was supposed to be Red’s best friend.

I do think that the group could have looked at what secret one of them held long before they actually did. Yes, the group was focusing on trying to escape…and assumed the secret was linked to the case being handled by Maddy and Oliver’s mother. However, as soon as it became clear that it wasn’t about Oliver or Maddy, it surprises me that no one thought to start asking about secrets.

I did find myself caring about all of the characters; except for Oliver, really. Yes, all of them had secrets of their own…some connected to the current situation they found themselves in and others that had nothing to do with why the sniper was targeting them. I thought the way those secrets came out were very seamless, and some of them made for very good red herrings. And the ending did manage to surprise me a bit.

All in all, I did really enjoy reading this book. It was quick and easy, and I’m glad I gave it a second chance. If you enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I would recommend giving this book a try too.

Stay Awake

Posted by cat2002116 on August 6, 2024
Posted in: Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I actually heard about this book when I watched a YouTube video about horror/scary books that should be made into TV series. The explanation of the plot sounded so intriguing, I was immediately interested and looked up the book on Amazon Kindle. It wasn’t very expensive, so I bought it…and then the YouTuber commented that the book wasn’t all that great, in spite of the interesting premise.

Since books (and movies, TV series, video games, etc.) can be subjective, I decided to give this book a try anyway, and I did find it a really quick, easy read. I will say, however, that it did hit a couple of my dislikes when it comes to books. For instance, there was a huge amount of info dumping in Detective Halliday’s sections of the book…and the book also kept switching between first and third person and present and past tense, which unfortunately made the book a little confusing and hard to follow at times.

A lot of this book made me think of the movie Memento, which this book had a very similar premise to. I did find Liv to be a character who was really easy to relate to and empathise with. Right from the very first scene, when she’s in the cab going back to what she thinks is her apartment, I was able to feel her confusion and disorientation about what was going on. It was clear that she didn’t have any memory of what had happened and why she had a bloodstained knife in her hand, and I could definitely empathise with her confusion and fear as the news reports start talking about the murder scene with the words Stay Awake written in blood at the scene; the same words that Liv has written on her own skin, because every time she falls asleep, her memory resets.

I will say that the constant flashbacks to two years ago made it really hard for me to follow the exact timeline in the present day. Later on in the book, it’s heavily implied that the entire murder investigation took place in a day…and I’m sorry, but that just didn’t feel realistic to me. I know, I know. It’s a book about a person whose memory resets every time she goes to sleep; it’s not exactly realistic. But suspending my disbelief about that was vastly different to suspending my disbelief about two detectives doing so much in less than 24 hours.

While I did find the constant flashbacks to be quite confusing, it was good to learn about what had happened to Liv gradually, as she herself learned about what had happened two years ago. However, I do think there could have been a different, better way of gradually revealing that information, since the constant changes in tense and voice made it difficult to switch focus.

Despite the problems, I did actually enjoy reading this book. It had a really interesting premise, and the main character was someone I really cared about and empathised with. I would be interested in reading more books by this same author in the future, so long as just one style is used when writing!

Artificial Wisdom

Posted by cat2002116 on August 3, 2024
Posted in: Books, End of The World Book Reading Club, Reviews, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This was another book I received through the End of the World Reading Club…and I was immediately intrigued by the cover and the blurb. Given the content of the book, it felt like it fit very well with the current affairs of the world.

Given I was reading this book during the summer, when it was quite hot, the heatwave in the book that killed millions felt like it could really happen.

Tully was a character who I was quickly able to empathise with, given how he was suffering from the loss of his wife and unborn child…and had had no chance of finding her body, until the mysterious whistleblower who reached out with footage from the tabkhir that had devastated the Persian Gulf.

While I was able to empathise with Tully really well, and gradually learned about Livia, I have to say that Lottie and Randall weren’t really developed to the extent that other characters were.

I thought that the whole murder mystery part of this book worked really well. It was really good to follow along in the investigation with Tully and October…but I have to say, I really didn’t like October as a character. I know she and everyone else said that the Floating States had different laws, but from an ethical standpoint, I felt that a lot of her actions were very questionable.

One of the things I really liked about this book was the description of the technology used in the world. While it was clearly futuristic, it felt like the technology was close to the kind of technology that exists now.

I liked the whole backdrop of the election, with the human running against the AI. I found Solomon a little bland as a character, to be honest. I guess that made sense, considering the fact he was an AI, but I would have liked a bit more about him…especially his relationship with Martha, who was effectively his mother, as she was the one who created him.

I mentioned that the murder mystery aspect of the book was really good, and I was really engaged with it…until the end of the book. I thought things made sense…and then it was like the rug was pulled out from under me with a random, ‘No, it wasn’t this at all!’ Without going into too much detail…I felt the ending was pretty meh.

On the whole, the book was easy to read. The main characters were engaging and well-written, even if some of the secondary characters felt a bit flat. And I definitely felt that the ending didn’t need an extra ‘twist’. But I am glad I was able to read this book, and while it isn’t something I’d read again, it was definitely intriguing for an initial read-through.

Not Alone

Posted by cat2002116 on June 25, 2024
Posted in: Apocalyptic, Books, End of The World Book Reading Club, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

I love the fact that I now have a new book coming every month…a book that I have no idea what it will be, other than the genre of apocalyptic/dystopian. Unfortunately, I missed the initial delivery of this book, so I had to avoid spoilers for what was in the box until I could get the rearranged delivery.

When I opened the box, I was immediately drawn in by the front cover. The blurb succeeded in piquing my interest even more, as I’m always kind of a sucker for reunion stories…and more so when they have an apocalyptic style setting.

The stronges part of this book was definitely the relationship between Katie and her son, Harry. However, I did feel like Katie’s decision not to tell him the real truth…and let him think there were ‘nasties’…made things so much more difficult. Children tend to understand a lot more than they’re given credit for, and what Harry’s imagination came up with was clearly much worse than the truth, given that he wasn’t that scared when Katie finally told him the truth.

I did find the constant flashbacks to before the storm a bit jarring and not really necessary. I guess those did a good job of showing that Katie was stuck in the Before and not able to embrace the new world, despite being forced to live in it…which is also understandable, since every breath she takes exposes her lungs to the toxic fumes of the air.

Katie’s struggles to breathe and her constant chest pain gave a kind of urgency to this book that didn’t really feel like it translated to the long descriptions of her driving the car along deserted roads, or walking with Harry. I felt that some parts of the book really dragged, while others rushed by too fast.

I did feel bad for poor Harry, who was wrenched from everything he knew and was thrust into a complete unknown. His reactions to being carried out of his safe space made a whole lot of sense, especially when he ended up getting motion sick from being in the car for the first time. The poor kid was actually pretty resilient, compared to how a lot of children his age would be.

I did feel that this book was pretty hopeless and depressing to read. It wasn’t easy…but that was the whole point of the book, really. It wasn’t a nice, easy read because the world the characters were in wasn’t a nice or an easy one. I just kind of wish that the multiple flashbacks hadn’t been included, as they pulled me out of the book.

On the whole, I felt this book was worth reading…but it isn’t something I would really want to read again. I recommend giving it a try, at least.

Cold People

Posted by cat2002116 on June 9, 2024
Posted in: Apocalyptic, Books, End of The World Book Reading Club, Reviews, Science Fiction. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I was very excited to read this book, as I joined The End of the World Book Reading Club, and this was my first box with the book and several small gifts to open throughout the book…all of which I thought was a pretty awesome idea.

When I read the blurb on the back of the book, I was immediately intrigued. The idea of an alien invasion and people having to travel to Antarctica to survive immediately caught my attention…and I actually really liked the beginning of the book. I really enjoyed viewing the first sighting of Antarctica through the eyes of Ui, a man from two thousand years ago with no knowledge of science, or technology. I especially liked the visual of the ice blocks as clouds, either falling from the sky into the water, or rising up from the water to become clouds in the sky.

I will say that I’m not really a fan of the instant love connection between two characters, so seeing that between Atto and Liza kind of put me off reading the book a bit. I did like the sudden, abrupt chaos of the alien ships appearing in the sky and giving the deadline to humans about thirty days to reach Antarctica. That definitely gave an air of urgency to the book…and as people attempted to flee the city and get to the airports, I could definitely feel the panic and that sense of trying to save your own family, with nothing left to help any of the others who were in the same, or perhaps worse, situations.

I liked the whole buildup of humans trying to reach Antarctica before the deadline given by the aliens, but I was extremely disappointed by the abrupt timeskip of twenty years once they actually got there. Learning, adapting and surviving to life in the extreme cold would have been a really good way of worldbuilding and character development…and I kind of felt robbed of that by the timeskip. I also found it really hard to have characters introduced in the present day, only to abruptly skip back twenty years to how they handled the alien invasion and got to Antartica. There was a lot of jumping backwards and forwards that made the book hard to read at times.

I also think that the book could have done without the focus on the science experiments. It felt like there were two different ideas/plots going on in this book, but neither were given enough room to develop properly.

On the whole, I couldn’t really engage with this book as much as I would have liked to. There was too much going on and too many random jumps for characters I didn’t get the chance to know. I will say that I loved the gifts I received with the book, and I definitely plan to continue the subscription as long as I can afford to. Hopefully, I will enjoy the next book better!

The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Posted by cat2002116 on May 27, 2024
Posted in: Books, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

After reading the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, Holly Jackson quickly became one of my favourite authors. So my sister and oldest nibling didn’t need to encourage me too much to buy this book and read it.

I will be honest that I wasn’t really that fond of Bel as a character for a lot of the book. I thought she was kind of mean, especially to Ash. I did like Ash as a character, so I felt a bit protective of him when Bel wasn’t really treating him very well.

From the book’s title, it was obvious that Rachel Price was going to appear after having been missing for so long. Having said that, I appreciated the fact that there was a buildup to her appearing again. By that, I mean Rachel didn’t just show up right at the start of the book. I had the chance to get to know Bel, and Bel’s relationship with her father, before Rachel came back into their lives and turned everything upside down.

While I wasn’t particularly fond of Bel as a character, at least to start with, I did enjoy seeing her relationship with Carter. I felt that was one of the strongest parts of the book, and Carter was a really well-rounded character. I did not like Sherry very much at all, considering that it felt like she was trying to be really controlling over Carter, and I felt like she didn’t really care about her daughter at all. Bel comments about a mother fighting for her daughter much later in the book, and I have to agree with her thoughts about Sherry fighting for Carter.

Throughout most of the book, I was trying to figure out what had happened to Rachel; why she’d disappeared, and why she suddenly returned. I had a mental list of theories that ranged from the extreme and unlikely (Rachel had been dead and dug herself out of her own grave, which was why she looked so bad when Bel initially saw her) to something that might have actually been possible, if it hadn’t been debunked by DNA testing (someone pretending to be Rachel in order to get fame/money). I can safely say that by the end of the book, I hadn’t even considered what had really happened, so Holly Jackson did a really good job of seeding the clues through the book without making it obvious what had really happened.

Outside of all that, I did feel that Bel reacted fairly realistically to having her mother suddenly show up after all those years, and I could easily relate to her need to find out what had really happened and what the truth was.

All in all, I really found this book engaging and easy to read. I had to find out what was going to happen next. If you enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I would definitely recommend reading this book.

Record of Ragnarok: Volume One

Posted by cat2002116 on March 20, 2024
Posted in: Books, Fantasy, Fighting, Manga, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

So, as indicated in the last review I posted, I really like books based on mythology and gods…so when I saw this one on my birthday, I was immediately interested in reading it.

I really like the whole concept of humanity having to fight in battles for its survival. Of course, the idea itself isn’t really all that unique – Mortal Kombat, anyone? But this book gave me a bit more of an insight into the gods who wanted to destroy humanity, so there’s that.

I was a bit surprised that none of the gods spoke up in defence of humanity. I know the vote was meant to be a unanimous one, but it was a surprise that none of the gods cared about humanity.

I really liked being able to see Brunhilde. She was an interesting character, and I would have liked a bit more detail about her time living among humans. I assume that none of the other Valkyries lived as humans, so I would have liked a bit more detail about why they all wanted to save humans, not just Brunhilde.

I thought it was really good to see the different gods, although a lot of them were more of a ‘blink and you miss them’ appearance. I did like the brief interaction between Zeus and Hermes…but I have to say that while Zeus appeared very similar to how I would picture him, Hermes didn’t really meet the mental image I had of him. And really, neither did Thor. Gorgeous artwork, but the gods from other pantheons were clearly coloured by the way characters are drawn in Japanese manga.

I didn’t know anything about Lu Bu’s character, but I really liked the fact that he and Thor were able to respect each other as warriors. And it was interesting to see how Lu Bu’s legend was different from the reality.

I did feel like there was a lot of tension in the battle between Lu Bu and Thor. It was really good that there was a way found to allow the weapon of a human to stand against that of a god. However, given that it seems it takes a sacrifice to make that weapon, it’s kind of sad that, presumably, each battle will require that same sacrifice to make a weapon.

This book ends on something like a cliffhanger, along with the list of gods and humans who will be fighting each other. I’m definitely interested in reading further books in this series in the future!