Alice Archer
5/5 - Absolute fantastic thriller mystery! This is an incredibly fast paced novel which once you get started you will find it very hard to put down! The twist at the end should have seen obvious but all my theories and guesses where very far off what the outcome ended up being. I especially loved the Greek Tragedy theme throughout the novel, makes want to see Alcestis on stage.
2.5/5 - Promising start but just kinda fell apart after that, the ending didn't captivate me at all.
3/5 - Undoubtedly beautifully written, completely devastating and harrowing story. However, definitely could have been about 100 pages shorter, aspects of the book felt repetitive and unnecessarily long. Not sure A Little Life is something I would go about recommending to everyone due to it being a heavy slog of a read, but if you think you're up for it give it a go!
Genuinely terrifying gothic horror story , this relatively short novel will have you looking over your shoulder at night. Themes of sadness and heartbreak are also layered in between horror elements of this novel making for a much more effective horror tale!
5/5 - Hands down one of the best books I've ever read! Based around the real life events of the Massacre of Nanking, this book is just as much unsettling and frightening as it is desperately sad. Can't recommend enough for people looking for a Horror / Mystery novel mixed in with Historical Fiction that will leave you feeling thoroughly numb by the end.
2/5 - Ahhh this started off so well but just wasn't it!
If it was cut down considerably it would have been so much better, but to have about 200 pages of going back and worth on whether Honoria and Devil are going to get married got real boring, real quick.
Furthermore, I really don't feel Devil did anything in his past life that warranted the nickname “Devil”, the whole Bar Cynster thing just came across as a bit cheesy.
Also, far too much long sex scenes in the book that felt very pointless, and just placed in for the sake of it.
Murder mystery aspect of the books was very obvious from the start but that wasn't much of a deal breaker.
Disappointing as I thought the premise the Devil's Bride was going to be so good but sadly overall didn't meet the mark, 2 stars for the strong start but can't justify any more.
3/5 - decent physiological thriller, however far too much going on that took away from the main plot. Also felt like this relied far too much on the big twist at the end with majority of the book lacking up until that point. There was also one massive plot hole that for me makes the ending totally unrealistic and takes away from the ending as well.
10/10 recommend this to everyone, can't see anyone not enjoying this book! Gripping and heartbreaking, Taylor Jenkins Reid is incredibly talented!
4/5 - enjoyed this more the 2nd time round! First half of this book is definitely pure gold, absolutely fantastic, leaves you on the each of your seat. It is everything you want from a mystery thiller.
Second half doesn't quite meet the mark of the first half but doesn't take away from the overall story. First time round my main issue was with Claire and a lot of decisions she made in the second half. But this time, I didn't find her nearly as annoying but at certian points I did still want to shake her by the shoulders.
Still just as heart breaking during the second read as it was in the first!
Original Review:
3.5/5 - I am so conflicted with this book! For the most part this is a really fast paced thriller/mystery novel that pacts quite a punch with its very disturbing subject matters. Considering the length of the novel the pace at which the majority of it seemed to go really made for a more gripping story which I really enjoyed.
However, in certain parts I found it slowed up, where there seemed to be endless inner dialogue with one of the main characters which I found a bit long winded. Furthermore, I found Claire and some of decisions she made slightly frustrating and irritating.
But would all this stop me from recommending this book? No, I enjoyed around 70% and the mystery overall had me hooked throughout the majority. Although this book is very dark and deals with some pretty disturbing content, so do assume all the trigger warnings!
4/5 - I have found this book really hard to rate and I feel after I sit a while thinking about it more I will probably change my rating but overall a super quick read and absolutely loved the premise of this book! But there is something about it that is stopping me from giving it a full 5 stars.
On the surface this is a devil possession story, but it's so much more than that. Tragic tale on how the Barrett family deals with Marjorie's physiological changes with devastating consequences.
Not a particularly frightening book but it handles some very heavy topics and as someone who grew up rather religious (not anymore) I found aspects of it quite triggering, in particular John Barrett's approach to Marjorie's illness.
I've seen some reviews that where critical of the blog post aspect of this book, but I rather enjoyed them. Gave a nice break to Merry's childhood persepective of what happened during the time the film crew being in the house. But I wish it was explored more into why Merry was doing this blog post about the show anonymously, unless I missing something or am I reading too much into it.
The ending was unexpected but it didn't come as big shock, I was more intrigued by the questions it left you with, was it really Marjorie that was possessed/ill or was it actually Merry? And I just can't help but feel that Merry is a super unreliable narrator.