Scott
It had great potential, but the pacing was much too slow. Instead of being a true horror story, it turned more into a study of the nature of good and evil.
I really enjoyed this book. Just a warning though: If your not a tech geek, there's going to be a lot in here that you won't understand.
Sam follows a lead to find his son but ends up back where he started. I liked it, but there's not much content here for even the $1.99 eBook-only format—weighing in at only 24 pages, that should have been a given when I purchased it. I'm pretty sure this was put out just to garner some interest in the latest Sam Capra book that either came out earlier this year or is due out soon.
Pretty sure you could skip this one and be just fine moving on to book #2 in the series without missing anything of importance.
I really enjoyed it. It's a good Lovecraftian tale with a focus on humanity and coming of age.
Creepy right from the start. I liked it!
There's more that I would have liked to know, but the book was creepy and held my interest right from page one.
Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman is a hard one to review... The stories are dark, with themes that center around trauma, guilt, regret, revenge, pride, and greed. And the characters are more than just flawed - they are damaged.
I didn't dislike the book, but only two of the stories truly left an impression.
“Argyle” was disturbing (in a fun way) that still has me wondering how many Shawn Hasbros there are in the world, living with the constant struggle to deny their true nature.
“Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer™” felt like being on a rollercoaster, going back and forth, trying to decide if the characters deserved redemption. I'm still not sure.
These two stories alone still make the book a worthwhile read.
Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Del Ray for the opportunity to review this advanced reader copy of the book.
Gillian Flynn definitely knows how to write a dark story. Both this and Sharp Objects were disturbing, but still not as disturbing as Gone Girl. I'm looking forward to her next book!
This book kept me laughing all the way through. I'm sure that most parts of it were embellished, so while it may have seemed mean spirited at times, I didn't waste time worrying about how anyone would feel knowing this book had been written. In truth, every single one of us says stupid things on occasion. I just thought of his “neighbors” as amalgams of every person he's ever heard say something unintelligent (this could even include himself).
While the book may be titled “Dear Girls Above Me”, I found myself far more entertained by the self-deprecating style of humor the author used when describing the events of his own life. His relationship/dating failures weren't only hilarious, but also completely relatable. And while some of the mentions about his childhood may not be relatable for many people, it was still laugh out loud funny.
If you're not easily offended, you should get a good laugh out of this book. However, much of the book does center around the author making fun of two dingy valley-girls that live above him and if you might see this as being sexist or unflattering to women in general, you'll probably want to skip this one.
I received a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
I normally enjoy the true crime genre, but had a very difficult time getting into this one. The pacing felt extremely slow and most of the time I didn't know if I was reading a book that was intended to be historical fiction or biography and whether it was meant to be about Tony Costa, Kurt Vonnegut, or Norman Mailer. Any one of these people would have made for an interesting topic, but a book that continuously shifts gears and shuffles between all three was difficult for me to keep my head in.
Once I got past the odd writing style, I really enjoyed the story. Party because it takes place in Colorado – where I live – and partly because of the image it paints of a presumably near future without having to go into too much detail.
The book was okay. Entertaining in parts, but the author was trying really hard to write like Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide) and he really wasn't good enough to pull it off. Very original story though. There's supposed to be a sequel in the works, but I think I'll skip it.
Short and Fun
A fun little dive into quantum physics and how advances in the field may cause issues with gambling systems that rely on number randomization.
Being a recovering Catholic, both the book and the movie scared the crap out of me. Some teachings you just can't get out of your system.... Seriously, I'm 43 now and I still can't read it or watch it alone.
I enjoyed this book so much when I was a kid that I'm re-reading it now as an adult.
And it was still as much fun as it was back then. I still recommend it.
It won't be winning any awards, but it was a fun book. Now I just have to wait for the third. I should know better than to start these trilogies before all of the books are published...
Fascinating book about manic/depressive disorder (now referred to as bipolar), written by a person afflicted with the illness. It's a short book, and I found that a lot of it was fluff. It probably could have been about half the size and still been just as good. It also had some extremely slow chapters (so slow that I could only read a couple pages before putting it down and doing something else for a while). If you're interested, but not sure you'll like it, I recommend reading the epilogue first. If it catches your interest, then it'll be worth the read.
I received this book as an ARC from Goodreads and have to say that I was very happy to get it. Once I picked it up, I had a very hard time putting it back down. Many books that fall into the techno-thriller genre leave me disappointed because the authors either know too little about technology to make it interesting or make it so far fetched that it fails to strike any chord of believability. Where they fail, Nate Kenyon has done a fantastic job. Day One takes place in present day New York and N.K. has his finger firmly on the pulse of today's tech as well as what technological advances are likely right around the corner. While the question of what will happen to mankind when the singularity (the inevitable time at which computers will be so advanced that they become self aware) occurs has been posed in many other books and movies, this story takes a somewhat refreshing approach. There are no killer robots. The AI may be self aware and have an instinct for survival, but like all intelligent beings, it isn't completely infallible. I think what made me appreciate this book the most was the way that N.K. demonstrated how much we rely on and are surrounded by technology that can easily be used against us, be it by a self aware program or organizations that can seize control whenever they deem it necessary.
The author really writes for his audience and doesn't waste much time explaining things that most tech minded people will already understand, which was something else that I really appreciated. Regardless of whether or not that describes you though, there's definitely more than enough action to keep anyone turning pages until the very end.
I can't say that I agree with everything in the essay, but it was definitely thought provoking and worth the time to read it.
A good play on one of my favorite stories ever written. Unfortunately, to tell you which one would spoil the story.