All the Books I’ve read in 2018 Part II

Shari Lapena
A Stranger in the House

2017
Rating,
It was  not as suspenseful and as mysterious as the premise make it seem to be. Each of the character’s ‘secrets’ were obvious quite early into the story. There was no character development, they are all stereotypical and the plot is predictable.

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Shari Lapena
An Unwanted Guest

2018
Rating,
Very enjoyable, the plot is one of my favourite tropes in mystery fiction wherein a group of people is stuck together and they get killed off, one at a time. I love the imagery writing, it really captured the foreboding weather and the feeling of isolation. It kept me guessing up to the end, which I did like however I also feel like we did not get enough foreshadowing and instead got a culprit’s monologue to tie everything up in a neat bow.

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Sandra Block
The Secret Room (Zoe Goldman, #3)

2017
Rating,
Zoe Goldman series is one of my favourites, I’m so sad that this is the final installment in the series. I hope Sandra Block eventually continues to write books in this series. The Secret Room and the series as a whole has really good writing; the pacing is good, Zoe’s character  is well developed, she is so endearing with all of her quirks and the supporting characters are very interesting as well, especially her sister. There are a couple of story lines in each books which keeps things interesting and really good twists too.

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John Corey Whaley
Where Things Come Back

2011
Rating,
Where Things Come Back offers something different in the young adult genre. It’s partly a coming of age story and social commentary. The story is split between Cullen; who has to deal with the lose of his brother and how it affects his parents, the death of his cousin and the disruptiveness that the rare woodpecker brought to their small town. In the other half, we meet Benton, a disillusioned missionary and his room mate, Cabot, a religious fanatic whose actions has a devastating effect to Cullen’s life. Where Things Come Back, undoubtedly is a good book but my rating comes down to personal preference. I find that I rarely enjoy male narrators and the whole book just gave me a sense of sadness that is not entirely enjoyable.

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Anthony Horowitz
The Word Is Murder

2017
Rating,
Anthony Horowitz writes in the style of the golden age of detective fiction in this book. The title, not only a good pun but fits the story perfectly as the Anthony himself is a character in the book. The story begins when Anthony was approached by Daniel Hawthorne to write a true crime book based on the cases that Hawthorne takes on as a consultant for the police. Hawthorne is a very difficult character and Anthony is quite intrigued and at the same time indignant of him. The two very much plays the role of Sherlock and Watson and in this first installment, they have to solve a case of a woman who goes into a funeral parlor to arrange her own service and wouldn’t you know it a few hours later, she was murdered. The answer to the case is not as straightforward as you might think and it getting to it was hella entertaining.

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Wendy Walker
Emma in the Night

2017
Rating,
Emma in the Night was a good thriller even though it is young adult, the plot was gritty and thrilling. Three years ago the Tanner sisters disappeared and now the younger sister, Cass is back. Cass is an unreliable narrator and unlikable and you cant help to suspect her. You will also get from the narrative that their mother has a narcissistic disorder and that she is somehow involve in their disappearance but you wont have an idea how. I really enjoyed reading this one.

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Jim Starlin
The Infinity Gauntlet

1992
Rating,
I read this because of the movie, I wanted to know how different they were. I liked it, I always enjoyed Marvel comics compared to DC.

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Ruth Ware
In a Dark, Dark Wood

2015
Rating,
One of the run of the mill psychological thrillers, with that said it was an okay book. The setting of the atmosphere is great, the trope is one of the things that I like wherein the characters are in a isolated place with a killer among them. However the plot and motives are really ridiculous, the characters are very bitchy, they are at each other's throat, all the time, makes you wonder why they are friends to begin with. This is Ruth Wares debut novel and she gets better with every new release so I say if you are not a fan anyway, skip this one.

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Clare Mackintosh
I See You

2017
Rating,
The plot of I See You was so unique and at the same time very realistic. This is the first Clare Mackintosh book I have read and I am an instant fan, I will definitely read all of her other books. So the plot starts off with Zoe noticing her photo in the ads section of the newspaper, she was skeptical at first if it was really her so she did some investigating and she found out that several women's photos were also placed in the newspaper and some of them were assaulted, or stalked and in one case something much worse. This leads to her paranoia of taking the tube and of suspecting the people close to her. A good point that stuck with me reading this books, is that each person has a different way of dealing with trauma and it is not anyone's place to question their decisions.

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Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen
Beware the Kitten Holy (Lumberjanes, Vol. 1)

2015
Rating,
I did not enjoy this as much as I think I would. The story and writing is very young as compared to the characters age. It reminded me a lot of Gravity Falls, which I do like and the art is really good.

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Victoria Schwab
2018
City of Ghosts (Cassidy Blake, #1)

Rating,
My favourite middle grade book of 2018 and my first Victoria Schwab too. City of Ghosts reminds me a lot of my other supernatural middle grade favourite, Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator. In City of Ghosts we meet Cassidy who can see ghosts after she drowned in the lake and almost died if not Jacob saving her. After that accident, her and Jacob become inseparable as if there is a strong bound between them which I'm guessing will be explored in the other instalment of the series. I love Cassidy, she's witty, funny and smart and her parents are amazing too and we will get to travel with them around the world to haunt for ghosts. Can't wait!