Slap Happy Fun Time

         When it comes to suspense thrillers  there are a lot of names that come up but no one had the appeal that James Patterson had. For a while he was a machine pumping out books that were compelling pieces of fiction. At the time, no one wrote like Patterson which allowed him to carve out his own place on the best seller lists. What I loved the most was just how easy the books were to read, and on top of that Patterson had a knack for keeping the plots simple and easy to follow. To make the experience even more interesting  there were two viewpoints that allowed you to see the story from a variety of angles.You had Cross' narrative and then throughout the story there were others that were far darker and got  you into the mind of the villain. For me, it was the style I gravitated toward. Sure, Patterson kept the chapter short and he didn't use overdrawn flowery language, but that was the point. The Cross novels  were design...

Vox - Christina Dalcher 2/5 stars                                                                      Sometimes you hear about a book and you instantly think, yeah I need to read that. When I heard about Vox there were a lot of comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, but the sad part is that Vox isn't in the same ballpark as any of those books. It wants to be, and it tries really hard, but all it has going for it is the theme of government gone amok and it could in a way happen anywhere. There is that small percentage of people who will tell you that the book is controversial, but when you read a book like this you kind of expect that. These are women are allowed to speak only one hundred words a day which sounds insane, and it is, but this is what happens when you want to change in politics and vote the wro...

When The Lights Go Out - Mary Kubica 5/5 stars                                                                       When Jessie's mother suddenly dies of cancer strange things begin to happen and then insomnia settles in and odd things begin to happen. A simple act sets off a chain reaction of events that force Jessie to question not only who she is, but everything she knows. Kubica has a knack for writing books that hurl a lot at you. While Jessie's story in itself is compelling you have her mother's journal adding other layers to the story and there comes a point where you really think you have it all figured out, but then you suddenly realize you were wrong. There are clues sprinkled throughout the story but they don't all fall into place until the end. It's a novel that keeps you guessing until the ver...

The Luckiest Girl Alive - Jessica Knoll  2/5                                                                           Once you begin reading Jessica Knoll's novel the title begins to make sense. It's not an easy read and the things that Ani go through are horrible, and will no doubt make some readers uncomfortable. That's the intent, and Knoll is a decent writer, and the story itself is full of enough twists and turns to keep you reading, but it's the characters that keep this from being a must-read novel. Ani as an adult isn't all that interesting and is the kind of person you loathe on sight and while she's suffered more as a kid than anyone should, it's still not enough to make her likable. I kept reading this for the surprise twist at the end and well, the past and present cause you to f...

The Woman In Our House - Andrew Hart 3/5 stars                                                                           I’ve often said that books like these are a bit like junk food and there’s nothing wrong with that. Junk food is what we all need from time to time and no matter what people say, we all love junk food. The more the better. A Woman In Our House is exactly what I love in a good thriller. It ticks off all the boxes that make a book like this a good, but predictable read and I swear the writers of these must have a checklist tacked up somewhere so they hit all the right spots. The important thing here is the characters. They are the glue that holds these books together, and the plot may be predictable, but it has to connect with the reader somehow. Without the connection, and the cha...

The Cabin At The End Of The World - Paul Tremblay 5/5 stars                                                                          Paul Tremblay I would like to say that I hate you and I love you at the same time. We all love and hate authors. It's nothing new but this hate stems from the way he writes and makes it impossible to stop reading even after he begins to make you uncomfortable. His books slowly build tension while taking in directions you don't want to go yet have no choice. Cabin isn't a simple novel and all I can say is that it's about a home invasion and the apocalypse. The rest is up to you discover and figure out on your own. Tremblay takes two simple genres and creates something we haven't seen before which is the mark of a great author. Each turn of the page gets you closer and...

Doctor Sleep - Stephen King 2/5 stars                                                                     Let's skip the obvious question here because it's already been answered a million times. If anything, The Shining is one of Stephen King's greatest novels so a sequel has to live up to that and sadly, Doctor Sleep does not. When King is good, he's damn good but when he's bad, you get a book like Doctor Sleep. I will go on record as saying that this is the worst book that King has ever written. You'd have more fun watching paint dry than reading this shitty sequel. What makes me so angry is that everyone kept telling me it was going to get better towards the end, but they lied to me. The plot twist? That really pissed me off and if you have ever read a King novel during his glory days you know just how awesom...