Paige

YA Total Bore with Too Much Teenage Angst

Revisado: 12-07-19

I got this because it was listed as suspenseful and one of the staff's picks. I haven't disliked a book this much in ages. I had no idea this was YA- but it clearly is. The writing is ridiculously dramatic- think the worst parts of Twilight and beyond. Things like when the protagonist's father leaves her she describes it as being shot in the chest and bleeding all over the lawn. This image of bleeding and oozing fluids is constant in the story to explain the depths of this girl's despair. I kept thinking it will get better. It didn't. The ending was completely obvious (maybe not every detail but the gist) from about 1/3 of the way through. And looking back on it some of the plot points didn't even make sense. I guess that is part of the point of the girl's mental illness, but it was a terrible read and super depressing, without anything to redeem it. I hate wasting hours on a poor book when there are so many good things to read. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

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Am I listening to a Different Book?

Revisado: 12-29-18

I bought this because I loved the 13th Tale, but this book is nothing like that. The reviews are wonderful and I'm left to wonder if I have a different book. I'm three hours into it and nothing has happened. Does it get better? Do all these pointless stores somehow come together? I don't think I can power through it. The narrator puts me to sleep. Not a good thing for a commute. It's just so dull I find my mind wandering off and I have no idea what's going on. It reminds me so much of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I couldn't get through that either. The stories just wander and wander with no point. Sorry, this isn't for me. And I'm usually one to read anything. Moving on. Life is too short for boring books!

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Could Not Stop Listening

Revisado: 08-15-15

I usually am wary of best sellers because I just tend to have different tastes than the majority of the world, but this was an exception and such a great story! I saw the preview of the movie recently and thought it looked good and maybe I would like the book. Yes, I did like the book!

Mark Whatley is part of Aries 3, a Mars mission, and he gets left on Mars after his fellow crew mates have to leave during an emergency and believe he is dead. He wakes up alone hours after they have left. Communications equipment has been destroyed and he is left with no way to contact anyone and he must figure out how to survive on Mars for four years until the next mission arrives and he can hitch a ride home.

There is a lot of science in this book and sometimes I wasn't totally clear on it, but it didn't matter. This guy should have died several times over but somehow manages to keep going. I found myself cheering Mark on during my commute and not wanting to leave the car when I arrived at my destination.

This is an enjoyable story about never giving up, even on a fictional mission to Mars.

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Just Awful - Don't Waste Time or A Credit

Revisado: 08-15-15

Either the author of the publisher has done an excellent job on Facebook getting people to read this book series. They make claims of "If you loved Gone with the Wind, you will love this series!" Same thing with Downton Abbey. Seriously, the only thing this book has to do with Gone with the Wind is the time period. And it's nothing like Downton Abbey.

This is a trite romance novel set just before the Civil War. Actually it's more like a Christian romance novel, in that it is very clean and the author spends a lot of time praising God and Christianity. If this is your thing, then you might like it. It's just not mine.

The writing is childish and extremely shallow. Her choice of phrase is so poor that at times I laughed out loud at passages. It's really more like a preteen novel that my daughter certainly could read without any objections from me, other than I think that even she at 13 would find it laughable.

I bought the first three at once on the assumption that I would enjoy them and I'm very sorry I did. If you like anything that has a good story and makes you think at all, skip this series and find something more worthwhile.

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Surprised at the Good Reviews

Revisado: 08-15-15

I love the horror genre and I was excited to read this book after the great reviews, but I found this story to be actually boring and the narration awful. The story follows the format where it jumps back from the present to 1692 and reads from a diary of a man watching the Salem witch trials. I usually enjoy this format but the diary was so boring I couldn't stand to listen to it and couldn't wait for those chapters to be done. It takes too much time to get to the point of those diary entries. One chapter could have covered it.

The story, in my opinion, is just sort of silly. I loved that a bit of it drew from Stephen King's Needful Things, but I think I would much rather be reading King's own stories than this pale imitation. Weird little creatures in invade the house and attack the dog, the daughter, and the mom while the father is away on business. Unfortunately these creepy little things are called minions. I don't know if the author wrote this before the current craze over the little yellow guys from "Despicable Me," but the result is unfortunate, because it is nearly impossible to find them scary when you can't get the yellow ones out of your head. There's a witch, a crazy cult, possession - nothing new here, just nothing special either.

The narration is just awful. The accents are dreadful and she makes each character talk so slowly that they all sound like they are mentally challenged. For a California girl who talks and thinks fast, this narration was painful. Her pronunciation of certain words was off, and a prime example of that is the word bougainvillea. Even the supposed Mexican housekeeper pronounced it incorrectly. Little details like that ruin a story.

And speaking of bougainvillea, it surprises me that the author uses this plant liberally throughout the story without seeming to know that much about it. For example, he often refers to the sweet scent of the flowers. Perhaps there is some magically variety out there that smells sweet, but I've had this plant in my back yard in every single house I've ever lived in, and not one of them has ever had scented flowers. I would think that someone (an editor maybe?) would have caught it. If that was my only complaint, I would not be writing this review but I just wanted to pint out that it's typical of the flaws in the story. I did a quick google search on it and found that there is one variety with a scent, but it seems so far fetched to me. . .

If you want a really excellent horror book that isn't King or Koontz, I highly recommend "The Good House" by Tananarive Due. I loved that book and it is so far above this one that I won't even begin to compare them.

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Great Horror Story!

Revisado: 09-18-12

I love horror stories that make me shudder. This one is excellent. A family moves to a small Northwest town and Angela's grandmother's house and has to fight the evil that lives there.

First, I want to warm people that it starts off with the suicide of a teenage boy. Having a son that age I was thinking of stopping right there. I am so glad I stuck with it. It starts off a little slow then gets going so well that I could not stop listening.

The prose is wonderful and the story went places I did not expect. The end is amazing! I did not know how she was going to get there, but Tananarive Due made it happen in a way that made me love it. Lots of twists and turns. You can tell she gave the story a lot of thought when you see how it fits all together in the end.

The narration is very well done. At times I forgot I was listening to someone talk because the narrator just put the pictures in my head like reading a book does. That's the sign of a good narrator to me. It is interesting how the story moves from the main character Angela, to her son Cory, and her husband and you get a feeling for their thoughts and feelings.

The story reminded me a little (and not in any copy cat sort of way) of Stephen King's Rose Red, because these two stories are the ultimate haunted houses. As in Rose Red, not everyone makes it out OK. Some people succomb to evil.

I also really loved the perspective. The family in the story is clearly African American and their perspective is different from mine. A good novel can take you into someone else's life and the author does this well. Loved seeing how other families have the some of the same and some different issues and how they go about handling them.

I can't say enough good about this book. Extremely well done! If you like the horror genre you shouldn't miss this one.

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Good Horror Story

Revisado: 09-18-12

I felt unease from the first few minutes listening to this story. It took a bit of listening to place it in time. I guess if I had looked at the Publisher's Summary I would have seen that it was 1939, but I didn't so I had to try to figure it out, which I did eventually.

At first the unease is in the relationship between Frank and Eudora. The author does a good job to give you a sense that there is something off about the relationship, and you discover later that the start of their relationship has created chaos and trauma for them both.

Then there is Whitbrow, and that place is odd and so many things make you uneasy that you know something is going on. The town has a strange ritual of sending pigs across the river as a sacrifice and when they decide it's a silly ritual and to stop, things go haywire.

A good horror story makes me uncomfortable as this one did. There is one scene towards the end that still makes me a little ill thinking about it, but it is what the one thing that allows Frank to make a decision about what he is going to do and is crucial to the story.

Well written, nice prose, and a sense of unease that blooms into terror. What more could you want from a horror novel?

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A Guilty Pleasure

Revisado: 09-18-12

Funny, I didn't find the narrator nearly as bad as so many have said. I thought Tess was kind of a flighlty character and the narrator fit her well. It didn't bother me at all.

I titled this "A Guilty Pleasure" because I can see that it's not really a great book, but I enjoyed it all the same. It's kind of like a romance novel with the "steamy" parts cut out, which is fine with me. Girl runs away to America, gets on the Titanic, survives, must choose between two men, and deal with a talented but demanding dress designer and her empire. That about sums up the whole story.

I have to say, though, when I was reading the part where the Titanic was sinking I was absolutely riveted. I was so involved in what was going on I have no real memory of driving home. That part was definitely worth the credit. The author did a nice job of weaving fictional characters into a story with real events and real characters. The designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon was a real person who survived the Titanic sinking and was credited with starting one the first off the rack clothing lines and Tess' story revolves around her. Some of the trial is included in the story and intrigued me enough to look online for the transcript of the trial, which you can read in its entirety.

If you want a kind of Summer at the Beach listen this might be a good story. If you want something more substantial, I'd say pass.

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Yawn

Revisado: 09-18-12

I love historical fiction and thought I would like to read about Catherine de Medici. I guess I picked the wrong book. I almost did not go beyond the first part of the download. I could not stand the character as a child and found her to be so simpering and annoying that I wondered why anyone would write about her, let alone want to read about her.

It picked up a bit in the middle section, and then lost me again in the end. Too much intrigue, too much astrology ( and I can't believe I would say that, but I was tired of it), and too much of poor decision making that led to disasterous consequences. It took me quite a bit longer to get through this story because I found my mind wandering and I kept having to repeat sections to get caught up. I'd rather read something that keeps my attention.

Again, it's personal preference but this story just did not hit the mark for me.

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Enjoyed This Story - Good but Not Great

Revisado: 09-18-12

I'm not sure why the reference was made to Outlander, because this is certainly not the saga that Outlander was. Maybe because of the time travel element. I did, however, really enjoy this book. It's fairly light. Some of it is sad because it starts out explaining how Eva is feeling all alone in the world and why she travels to Cornwall where she spent some wonderful Summers as a child.

It's interesting mode of time travel portrayed in this book, sort of a merging between two worlds that Eva has access to, but cannot control. Plus there is an addition of another time traveler and a few twists that make it a really interesting read. The author made an interesting point that in our modern world the idea that time cannot be changed is so ingrained that we believe it to be true, but she wonders if it is actually true. Events in the book lead you to make a guess at her conclusion.

It's not Diana Gabaldan if that's what you are looking for, but it's a nice listen and I kept wanting more. In fact, I was sorry when it ended. I would like to have seen what happened next.

The narration was well done. Nothing outstanding, but I think the narratot's voice fit Eva's character well.

I believe I will try another of this author's stories. These kinds of books make my commute much more enjoyable.

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