Thursday 28 April 2016

Hidden Monster by Amanda Strong

Title: Hidden Monster

Author: Amanda Strong

Publisher: lean Teen Publishing

Pages: 264

Source: NetGalley

Genre: Thriller , Mystery, Supernatural, Young Adult

Rating: 2

We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a great story. Some say it was murder others say it was an accident. What we can all agree on, brothers and sisters, this is a loss that the community did not deserve.

Plot:

"For seventeen-year-old Samantha Campbell, running back woods trails usually means freedom from her less-than-perfect life. That is, until the day a morning run turns into a living nightmare. When Samantha wakes up to find herself bound to a dirty, pinstriped mattress, she realizes she’s anything but free. With a masked abductor repeatedly injecting her arm with an unknown substance while holding her captive, Samantha tries in vain to find out what he wants, but he refuses to speak. Until the day he breaks his silence and his twisted words are worse than what she’d imagined. He promises her one day she will fall in love with him but the best part will be that she won't know who he is... until it's too late.
Finding herself freed from captivity, with her captor still at large, Samantha is on guard against everything and everyone around her. Unfortunately, walling up her heart proves difficult when eighteen-year-old Blake Knightley moves in next door. When Samantha starts experiencing strange changes within her, she realizes her captor may have left her more damaged than she originally thought. Now she must turn to Blake for help in order to unearth the truth behind the monster who started this all... or risk experiencing worse things than just falling in love."

My Experience:

By the middle of this book, I was just begging it to please stop. Please let it just end.

I’m sorry to say my experience was not one I would like to go through again. I had very high hopes for this book. Abduction by a mysterious man and then she would eventually fall in love with her captor without realizing it!? Sold!

It started off so well.

I could immediately identify with the character. I could sense a good flow of the story. I could hear her breathing I was caught up in her fear. I was captured in the story tied down to each word. The first hint of danger came with the introduction of Blake. There was an awkwardness in the way Sam and Blake spoke to each other and a forced friendliness. Out of nowhere I was surrounded by so many characters and their physical descriptions that I had to search for the story. However, I thought it was a false alarm especially with an element of supernatural emerging out of the story. I told myself just keep going Snow you are being paranoid.

I kept waiting for the story to get back on track to go back to that soft spot of thriller and mystery but it was like I had accidentally picked up a new book. This new book a young adult novel emerged in high school drama. I could barely see the characters anymore their dialogue had transformed into that of a badly dubbed Latin soap. Any indication of the previous chapters had disappeared. Yes, it was still there but more like a pimple than anything else. Making the character self-aware and concerned about what others thought.

It was absolutely enraging. I have read my fair share of abduction and abusive novels. This was almost offensive to the genre. How can a character that was just abducted and tortured for 3 weeks develop an instant crush on the boy next door?! How can a family who’s daughter just came back after being missing for 3 weeks continue as if nothing happened?

If the family was in the media calculated about their actions, not a loving family or perhaps a family of assassins, I would understand the lack of reaction. This is a normal family I expect change, drama, at least a bit of shouting.

Multiple times I wanted to throw the virtual copy against the wall and rage. I groaned out so many times at the horrible inner monologues and reactions of the characters, it became impossible to read in public.

What I liked:

I liked the beginning. I liked the idea behind the story.

What I disliked:

I disliked the way it was written. I disliked Samantha and the way she would become a teenager from "I'm a Barbie girl" that acted in a completely unrealistic manner towards the situation that she was in.

Rating:

The book redeemed itself a bit by the end. There was a twist I did not expect which is why I am prepared to give it 2 snowflakes.

/ 5

- Snow

Wednesday 27 April 2016

The Body Reader by Anne Frasier

Title: The Body Reader

Author: Anne Frasier

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Pages: 302

Source: NetGalley

Genre: General Fiction(Adult), Psychological Thriller and Mystery

Rating: 4

When I read what this book was about, I requested it faster then you could say:

“Give it to me now or else…”

And thank goodness I received the notification from NetGalley that Thomas & Mercer had approved.

I immediately started to devour this book. If I did not attend college or needed sleep, I probably would have finished it in one go.

Plot:

Detective Jude Fontaine was held prisoner by a sadistic captor for 3 years. She was kept in an underground cell by a man who had taken everything from her until all she had left was him. Jude knew every line on his face, every scar on his skin, every meaning behind every movement and what would follow. She learned how to read her captor and it kept her alive.

With Jude’s experience of hell, she learned something: Words lie but body language does not. Everything Jude experiences around her are now heightened. Her ears pick up the slightest shifts and her nose competes with that of a dog. Everybody's body is saying something, even when they are quiet even when they are dead.

Jude resumes her position at Homicide with a new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, who is uncertain of her sanity. But the town has a serial killer and the police need manpower. And no one knows evil quite like Jude does.

My experience:

Where are my words?

Where are my words indeed…

I seem to be unable to write coherently after finishing the last chapter.

Wow! What a journey. What a radical road trip.

It was such an adrenaline rush. From the first page, my heart was in my throat and I had no idea how I was going to get through the book. It felt like I was on a motorcycle that was speeding down a highway while also being on the wrong side of the road. And instead of being terrified at the danger and the shocking speed the book was going, I was on an adrenaline rush and I was craving more, shouting at the bike to move even faster. There were so many moments where I had to put the book down and just give my mind a bit of time to comprehend what I had just read. It was as thrilling as I expect thrillers to be. It disturbed me on just the right scale. The plot was complicated enough that you couldn’t immediately guess what was going to happen but not so complicated that you became lost which tends to happen with me and thrillers.

What I liked:

The characters were so likable . Magnificent! Excellent! By the end of the book, I knew the detectives personally, their struggles their quirks and I didn’t even know when that happened. I just realized I knew everything about them.

What I did not like:

My disappointment came from the lack of history from Jude’s captor. Without spoiling anything I will just say… I wish I had received more details about the villains in this story.

Amazing quotes I loved:

“Her mind kept her company because she'd long ago decided nobody was coming for her. She no longer remembered what her parents looked like, and she no longer remembered what the sun felt like or what snow felt like. All she knew was one man. He was her world.”