Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Review: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

Image result for the woman in the windowTitle: The Woman in the Window
Author: A. J. Finn
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 448 (Paperback)
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: January 2nd, 2018

Synopsis from The Woman in the Window's Goodreads page

Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.



THOUGHTS

Quite a few of my close friends had read this book before me, and every single one of them hyped it up. They all told me that it was really good, but also that it was very predictable. Knowing that, I was hesitant to start it but I knew that due to its size, I would only be able to read it during my reading week, or after the term was over. So I opted for reading week, and I somehow managed to read it in less than 24 hours.
The idea behind this book I found to be really interesting. The main character is an agoraphobic; she can't go outside and stays in her house alone all the time. Cue the new people moving across the street, and she begins to keep an eye on them. An event occurs (not going to say because SPOILERS) and then Anna'a entire world is turned upside down and everyone thinks she's crazy.
Anna herself I loved but I also found quite annoying at times. She's an alcoholic, so a lot of this book was her drinking and being drunk and questioning everything that she does and sees. However, I did love her more than find her annoying; she knew that the event that had occurred across the street happened, and she was fighting everyone to believe her. Even though she is an agoraphobic, she is still resilient and will put up a fight when she knows is right, which I enjoyed.
A lot of the other characters were very well thought out as well. The entire family across the street were very well created and that massive twist at the end I DID NOT see coming; the character was so believable the entire book that he definitely tricked me the whole way through. (That is very vague, but again, spoilers are killer).
I found the plot of this book to be very slow at the beginning. It is over 400 pages which is very long for a psychological thriller, and I found the beginning to lag in places; a lot of the minor things that happened in the first half of the book I found dragged a bit, but overall the book was very well written so the slow parts were punctuated with a lot of action and suspenseful parts.
As a psychological thriller, this was definitely well written. A fair amount of the events that were happening I was able to guess before they did, but a fair amount of other things shocked me because there was no way I was going to be able to guess them. It was fast-paced in the second half, and I was able to read it in less than 24 hours, so it kept me interested even through the slower parts.
Overall - ★★★

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Review: Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Image result for unraveling oliverTitle: Unraveling Oliver
Author: Liz Nugent
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 272 (Paperback)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: August 22nd, 2017

Synopsis from Unraveling Oliver's Goodreads page

“I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.”

So begins Liz Nugent’s astonishing debut novel—a chilling, elegantly crafted, and psychologically astute exploration of the nature of evil.

Oliver Ryan, handsome, charismatic, and successful, has long been married to his devoted wife, Alice. Together they write and illustrate award-winning children’s books; their life together one of enviable privilege and ease—until, one evening after a delightful dinner, Oliver delivers a blow to Alice that renders her unconscious, and subsequently beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath of such an unthinkable event, as Alice hovers between life and death, the couple’s friends, neighbors, and acquaintances try to understand what could have driven Oliver to commit such a horrific act. As his story unfolds, layers are peeled away to reveal a life of shame, envy, deception, and masterful manipulation.


THOUGHTS

I'm going to start off by saying that going into this, I thought it was more of a psychological thriller. After the first few chapters, however, I realized it was more of a psychological analysis of sorts, instead of a thriller, but it did have a lot of the aspects of a thriller. Saying that, I really did enjoy this book.
Unraveling Oliver is a story about a man who has harmed his wife to the point where she is in a coma, with little to no hope of her waking up. The entire novel is a character summary of Oliver, with each chapter being told from a different characters' point of view of him. Each character is recounting how they either met Oliver, or the different things that have happened to him in his life that could possibly have made him the person he is, and explain why he harmed his wife.
The story overall I really enjoyed. Each character added a few pieces of the puzzle of Oliver together, while creating more mysteries. Each recounting of each part of his life fit together perfectly, and I had no problems with how anything fit together or how it was told.
In regards to the characters in the story, each and every single one of them was needed in some way, for something, either as someone who is currently in his life, or as someone from his past who is required to tell his story. In a lot of thrillers I find that there are unnecessary characters that are used in order to distract the reader for some reason, but that was definitely not the case for this book. Every single character was well thought out, and well executed. I also loved how each and every single character had their own distinct voice. With telling a story from different characters' points of view every chapter, a lot of the time the characters start to become mashed together and start to sound very similar. That was not the case at all here, with each character having a very distinct voice, and I loved how that was not only shown through what was spoken about, but also in how they spoke to the reader.
The story itself was also something that I really enjoyed. It left just enough of a mystery throughout the entire novel, while also giving just enough to the reader that they can almost figure out what will happen next, before continuing to read and realizing you are completely wrong.
I feel like this book could have been an easy 4/5 stars for me, if I had gone into it knowing that it was less of a psychological thriller and more of a psychological character study. It definitely had all the aspects of thriller and I did read it in less than twenty-four hours, but it was more of a character study than anything else.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book that I'm glad that I took the time to read it and I know that I will definitely read it again in the future when I'm more in the mood for a character study, and then I have a feeling that it will be a higher rating for me.
Overall - ★★★

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Review: The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

Image result for lovers dictionary
Title:
 The Lover's Dictionary
Author: David Levithan
Genre: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
Pages: 211 (Paperback)
Publisher: Picador
Publication date: January 17th, 2012


How does one talk about love? Is it even possible to describe something at once utterly mundane and wholly transcendent, that has the power to consume our lives completely, while making us feel part of something infinitely larger than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this age-old problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary constructs the story of a relationship as a dictionary. Through these sharp entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of coupledom, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

THOUGHTS

This book was definitely not what I was expecting. I was expecting more of a lighthearted, easy, love-story read. This was not that.
This book is told in a very unique way - every page has a word on it, in alphabetical order, and the story is told as the definitions of the words that are on the same page. It was this that drew me into the book in the first place - an easier read, and something that I have never even seen anything similar to before.
The plot of this book was also really different, in that there wasn't really even quite a plot. The entries jumped from sad ones to cute and happy ones back to devastatingly sad ones, and I really liked that. It resembles a real relationship, where there are good days and bad days, and the good days are really good and the bad days are really bad. It resembles life, and I really liked that it didn't sugar coat it; it was abrupt and to the point.
The entries themselves were absolutely amazing. They were very short, with some being a sentence or two, and the longest being just over a single sided page. They were beautiful and sad and heart-wrenching and wonderful.
One of my favourites was this quote, from the page titled "Only":
"That's the dilemma, isn't it? When you're single, there's the sadness and joy of only me. And when you're paired, there's the sadness and joy of only you."
The story itself is raw and real, and is completely relatable to any relationship. It was sad and happy and gave me a lot of emotions, but was also a bit too short for me. I was hoping for a bit more, an I felt that even though it did end on the letter Z, I feel like a bit more could have been done.
Overall - ★★★☆☆.5

Saturday, February 10, 2018

February 2018 TBR

Hey everyone! This past week has been crazy with midterms for me so I wasn't able to post my TBR for the month, but it's never too late!

I plan on reading:

1. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
       This one came out last month, and everyone at my work has been buzzing about it, so I'm definitely going to be reading it this month!

Image result for lovers dictionary2. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
       I bought this one in December, and I absolutely love the idea of it. It's written in the form of a dictionary, with different words on each page and the story is told part by part according to the word on the page. It's a strange, different concept but I'm sure it's going to be amazing, and it seems like a really quick read! I'm hoping to write a review on this by the end of the week next week.

3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
       This one came out last year and everyone has been buzzing about it and everyone on booktube seems to have loved it. So I'm going to give it a go!

4. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
       With the third book in this series coming out, Still Me, I feel a need to finally get this one off my TBR shelf. Not to mention that it's February and I need some romantic reads (but I'm sure this one will break my heart more than anything else).
Image result for the darkest minds
And a few tentative reads (if I have time over my reading week!)

5. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (reread)
       I read this one about 4 years ago, and with the movie coming out, I really want to reread it and to finally finish this series!

6. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (reread)
       This one I read YEARS ago and also never finished the series. I'm working on my New Year's Goal of finishing every series that I want to finish this year so I can go into 2019 with no opened series (other than ones that still have books coming out).

Well that's it! A pretty good TBR in my opinion, but I'm excited for it and excited to start reading again now that I get the time over my reading week.
Happy reading everyone!