Tag: horror

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

Mr Mercedes – Stephen King

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18775247| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.

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My thoughts: In this rich, high-suspense race against time, written by the King of horror himself, you will find the most unexpected heroes and the most expected and unpleasant evil. Is the book perfect? Oh no. Far from it. Did I go all fan-girl over it? Yepp, totally did!

As usual you find a book with deep characters, complex story and layer on layer of that deep chill, mind-blowing mystery not that many authors (I have read) manage to create. I’m somewhat hard to impress when it comes to the horror genre. And even tough I would categorize this one more of a crime mystery than horror, i’m totally impressed. I got what I came for.

As an avid reader in the crime mystery genre I do often feel i’m hard to surprise and story’s often are predictable to me. I don’t have a problem with predictability per say, if it is done well. And as usual I would not have to expect anything less than well from King. There is some real unexpected twists and a ending I really cant get mad over. I liked the cat and mouse play they had going on. The communication, the inspiration and the war. Who shall win in the end?

The only thing I did not like with the book however, is that some part of it, it was to slow. Specially in the ending where you pretty much goes around waiting for something to happen. I get that King probably wrote it that way to make it more realistic. But it kind of bored me a little. However, King saved it with the end.

There is two other books in the series about Bill Hodges and I certainly need to read those two. And there is a TV-series on this first book, en I certainly need to see that one to. Yeah, i’m totally star-struck by this book. That is how good it is.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Mystery/Crime · Romance · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

Spirits in the trees – Morgan H. MacDonald

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17325157| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: EVIL DOES EXIST

An abandoned house, a serial killer, and a victim reaching out from the grave. A woman races against time to unearth buried secrets before she becomes a ghost herself.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Madeline Anderson goes to Isabelle Island, Washington, to sell a family home abandoned over forty years before. Strange things occur the moment she steps on the property. Inside the dilapidated old house, items move about on their own accord. Noises come from empty rooms. She has a vivid, recurring dream of a woman running for her life. The wind rustling through the trees sounds like urgent, murmuring voices. When the cacophony dies down, one single word emerges: Madeline, Madeline, Madeline.

YOU CAN NOT HIDE

At first, Doug Lindstrom, the hot fireman helping Maddy restore the old home, doesn’t believe anything bizarre is going on. He’s certain Maddy is jumping at shadows because the local kids call the house haunted. That is until he witnesses horrific violence he can’t explain. After Maddy’s life is threatened not once, but twice, Doug vows there will not be a third time.

THEY ARE WATCHING

While searching for answers, Maddy uncovers astonishing secrets about her aunt’s past. Finding more questions then answers, she digs deeper until she stumbles across evidence of a cold case involving a serial killer named The Seaside Strangler. Now Maddy must unmask the killer. The life she saves just might be their own.

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My thoughts: What I wanted and expected was some spine chilling horror/mystery. What I got was a silly love story in a hunted house and some confusion.

How shall I review this book? Well for starter, the writing did not work that well for me. It was somewhat confusing in the way that the author probably forgot to mention some details to make some other details later on make sense. And some stuff was only mention once or twice. This infuriates me. Do not include something huge in the story, and then just ignore it later on. A violation will not that easily be forgotten. And to not mention it again will just make it sham and frivolous.

I did however like the idea of the story. The hunted house, the family mystery’s, the 50 year old crimes, the island, the sickness and all that. Not so much the violations and there really should be a trigger warning on this book. Because there are some graphically described chapters from different point of views and I would have liked to be warned. But on the other hand, if I knew, it could have been a reason for me to not read it at all.

The characters are the usual ones. The great hero and the broken heroine on the way back to life. Somewhat shallow but still readable. I did like it. But if I remember correctly, I had the same writing problem with one of the other books I have read by McDonald. So even though it is a good story, I do see a pattern and maybe this is not an author for me.

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

The Silent Corner – Dean Koontz

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32148091| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis:  very much need to be dead. 

These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear, and fury demands: find the truth, no matter what.
People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America. Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important so terrifying that they will exterminate anyone in their way.
But all their power and viciousness may not be enough to stop a woman as clever as they are cold-blooded, as relentless as they are ruthless and who is driven by a righteous rage they can never comprehend. Because it is born of love.

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My thoughts: Koontz is and will for always be, a horror author for me. He is the first author I read in the genre horror. Not Stephen King as so many others. No I read Koontz and have for the most time loved his books. But sometime it is refreshing to read something new from your favorite author. Because Koontz is one of my few male favorites that I still read to this day. I love his way of writing and his immense imagination. I was intrigued to try this one, the first book in his new (well it isn’t that new anymore :P) series, where a female is the lead protagonist in the fight against a corrupt government and crazy scientist men.

I really liked the idea. The idea of a modern way of brainwashing. Totally frightening of course but still interesting. A lonely, strong female hero on the verge to declare war on the USA government. A female character who is smart, strong and immensely intuitive. I like the bad guys and I like the way of the plots development and the writing style. Even though Koontz could have avoided the huge amount of chapters. They were ridicules. I like to read by chapter (as so many other readers) but some were so short that they didn’t even take up half a page and then the next chapter just kept on going where the first one ended. Did not understand the reason for it, and I did not like the small brake in my reading speed it created.

Even though I liked the book, I have a huge problem with it. Not the chapter thing, no. What I did not like is how slow it got. It started so good and I couldn’t stop reading. Then something happened and I lost interest. It started to slow down and drag. Not even in the end did it pick up enough for me to feel that strong connection that I did in the beginning. I would however love to see this plot with characters as a movie or an series since it did intrigued me. It is just the execution of it that bothers me.

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Thriller/Horror

Stalker – Lars Kepler

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22554261| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: The police receive a video clip of a woman in a window and reason that someone must have been standing in the garden just outside her house to be able to film her. The next day the woman is found dead in her home, the vicious violence of the scene shocks even the most seasoned investigators. A few days later, another clip is sent anonymously to the police, but there’s no way of identifying the woman before she too falls victim to a brutal attack. When he finds her, the woman’s husband is so traumatized by the violent scene that, in a state of panic, he starts cleaning the house. He even washes the blood from his wife’s body and puts her to bed, as if nothing is the matter. He may have seen a vital clue but is in such an extreme state of shock, and seems to be suffering from short-term memory loss that the police cannot usefully question him. Criminal psychiatrist and hypnotist Erik Maria Bark is called in hypnotize the man in order to unlock his memories of the murder scene. But what Dr Bark uncovers in his sessions with the dead woman’s husband make him decide to lie to the police.

It becomes clear that the case cannot be solved without the help of Detective Joona Linna, the man who’s been missing for more than a year and has been presumed dead.

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My thoughts: Lars Kepler, the married duo who writes under that name, has done it again. With Stalker we yet again meet Joona Linna and all the loose threads from the earlier books are finally tied together. Even though the series is about Joona Linna, he has a lot smaller part in this book than usual. Here it is Erik Maria Bark who stands in the headlight and the character you get to follow the most. He is awesome and I have always liked him so it was great to get to know him even more.

I really like the stalker plot where as a woman, it even was a little frighting for me and with its graphic content, gave me the chills.  I found it somewhat of a paranoid thriller and I’m happy that I don’t live on the first floor (even though I curse those stairs everyday). And I Still checked my windows and doors a little extra, just in case. Not that I’m in any danger of being stalked, but it just felt better you know. Funny how books can have such  big impact on the everyday life. Anyway, I liked the plot and it is well written as always. I wouldn’t say that Stalker is my favorite in the series but it isn’t the worst either.

There is a lot of plot twists and one was really surprising and I did not see that coming. I should have and I kick myself for not doing that and it is great work by Kepler to fool me. I’m not easily fooled. Just saying! And this series is not a stand alone and you should read them in order, just to really understand some huge things that are not deeply explained.

A solid thriller with a solid and somewhat frightening plot and I give it four stars. Loses a star because it is a little too long. With almost 700 pages I felt somethings could have been edited out to make the flow more smoothly. And there is a lot of characters and even though I’m Swedish and doesn’t have a problem with the names, I still forgot sometime who was who.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

N0S4R2 – Joe Hill

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21087134.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: NOS4R2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4R2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.

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My thoughts: I think this is one of the best books I have read so far this year. God damn this is some good Thriller/Horror literature that gives you the creeps in a way that you even dream about it at night. To be honest, I don’t know if I’m supposed to laugh, cry or feel relieved that I’m done with it. There is like a 1000 emotions in this book, which took me by total surprise. Had not expected to be so emotionally captured by a thriller/horror like this and was unprepared for the mark it would leave me.

Everybody who know me, knows I like King, but often find him a bit long and protracted. This book is written by Stephen Kings son that goes by the name Joe Hill. I didn’t know what to expect when going in since I have never read anything by Hill before. I have heard a lot about him though but never had the “courage” to read one of his books. I was afraid that he would be too much like his father. That is not necessary a bad thing, I do like Kings books, but if I wanted to read King, I would read King. I hoped for but was afraid, that Hill would not have developed his own writing style. A style that said that this is a Hill book, not a King and not son of King. I’m happy to say that even though there is similarities, Hill do have his own style and he is a little more “quick” in his wordings and his way of build sentences, which I really liked. It made it flow easy and draw you so deep in the book that real time and surroundings did not matter anymore. I don’t know if I would be as attentive to the writing as I was if I didn’t know about the family connections before starting to read the book, but I’m very pleased by the outcome and are now a lot more excited to read more of Hills books.

I was surprised how much emotions there is in this book. And how many and diverse characters there is. I feel in love with some, hated others, felt sorry for one and had empathy for many. I laughed, I cried and my heart hurt. I read until I thought my eyes would start to bleed and then I had trouble to pick the book up again. I wanted to know, but still I didn’t. It is a good indicator of some good writing if I feel that broken and splitted like I did while reading this book. This was one long and emotional roller-coaster and the ending, even though not surprising, was the only one I could imagine for the story. And I loved it! I loved it all.

N0S4R2 is a work of incredible creativity and imagination. Hill has made a nightmare of the one holiday I love the most. I will probably never ever have a Christmas again where I will not think about this book. And I may never view Christmas songs the same way again. Hill has made wonderful work with describing all the characters, their own little quirks in a way that felt real. He have written destiny’s, actions, choices and outcomes in a way that you started to feel like you have met these people. You know them. Or in a different time, different life, you would have been them.

What can I say? I loved it! The hype leading up to this books was true and real and now I’m joining it. The stuff people say about this book is true and you do not want to miss it. I feel sorry for them who did not like it. This is 700 pages of pure art and I will probably rave about this book to everyone who will listen (and probably those who won’t), for a long time to come.

Suspense · Thriller/Horror · Young, New adult/College

Dust & Decay – Jonathan Maberry

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9917998| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It’s also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny’s zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny’s best friend Lou Chong are going with them.

Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland –where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. Worst of all… could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?

In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.

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My thoughts: How can I explain why I only gave four stars to a book I more or less loved, without spoilers and trashing the book completely? It almost feels impossible but I will give it a try.

This is the second book about Benny Imura. The series is not an stand alone and I do recommend to read it in order. The first books name is Rot & Ruin and here you can read my review of it. I did love the first book. I have experience of Jonathan Maberry from his Joe Ledger series and this series is much easier than Ledgers. Probably because it is written more towards young and young adults. Ledger series is not. The book starts off about 8 months (or so) after the first book ended and it started off quite slow. Then it really did pick itself up on both speed and action. We get to follow Tom, Benny, Nix, Lilah and Chong when they venture out in the wasteland in the search of the flying jet. Then off course everything goes to shit, as expected, and then it is one action filled event after the other.

And it is here my problem starts. The book is action filled and quite exciting. But when you have read 400 pages of “the same thing” you are starting to get a little bored. It is bad decisions after bad decisions and events so big, horrific and hard that at some point, my mind just shuts off. I read the story but I did not feel it anymore. It is like seeing one of those really bad, cheep, slasher movies that you just cant take serious. Then it all changed again. And the ending really pissed me off. That is not how it was suppose to end. Come on! But now when I have had some time to think on it, I do see that it was the only possible end. And it only made a mystery even bigger, the mystery that is going through the Rot & Ruin. Because something is not right, and right now, no one know what or why.

So after taking everything in account, the book ended on a weak four star. I would have giving a five if not for the end. I know it was the only possible end, but still, I did not like it at all.

I do not read a lot of male authors. It is not a conscious choice, it is just because there are really few male authors who write in genres that I prefer to read. But god damn, Maberry is and probably always will be one of my favorites. I still have a lot of his books to read and I can hardly wait.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Suspense · Thriller/Horror · Young, New adult/College

Shutter – Courtney Alameda

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20757532.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat—a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She’s aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera’s technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn’t exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she’s faced before . . . or die trying.

Lock, stock, and lens, she’s in for one hell of a week.

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My thoughts: I’m so disappointed with this book. I don’t think It’s due too high hopes, since the author was new to me and I haven’t heard or read any chatter about the book or author before. It was just something Book Depository recommended me since it was a similar to another book I bought a time back. Well it was a bad recommendation.

I have so many problems with this book that I don’t even know where to start. Here’s a list!

  • It is repetitive
  • Not enough description
  • No variety
  • Kind of cliché
  • To many questions
  • Lack of information
  • Slow and way to much teen angst.

My biggest problem is that there is not enough description of the characters itself or the history. The readers get thrown into the story with no knowledge or background history. Like for an example, all the unnatural creatures seems to be common knowledge. Does every person on the planet know that all you have seen in horror movies are true? That they really exist? Well apparently so. To a certain degree at least. But this is never 100% verified. And I missed proper information and descriptions of other things. Like characters! I should not have to read on page 220 that a main character actually has Aborigine heritages and that his skin is like a 5 shot Café au lait. That totally messes with my mental picture that I have tried to build up. And it is like this through the book. On everything! And some of the bad stuffs description is to easy that I can’t form a picture fitting with the story. And I have a pretty good imagination, to tell you the truth!

How about the story itself? Well, our heroine, Micheline Helsing, descendant from the big Abraham Van Helsing, killer of all unnatural, is around seventeen years old (I counted but it is never mentioned) and goes to school to become a hunter. She however, takes water over her head when trying to prove to her father that she is capable of taking care of herself, her team and save innocent people. She has a tough relationship with her father and to be honest, that is the only thing that kept me reading. Because I wanted to know what would happen between her and her father.

Other have described this book as fast paced and edge of your seat, kind of book. I however did not find it like that at all.   And I think Alameda tried too hard, to push that horror feeling trough out the book which gave it the opposite effect. No I’m not happy. Not at all.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction

A Glimmer of hope – Steve McHuge

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36605004| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: From Steve McHugh, the bestselling author of The Hellequin Chronicles, comes a new urban fantasy series packed with mystery, action, and, above all, magic.

Layla Cassidy has always wanted a normal life, and the chance to put her father’s brutal legacy behind her. And in her final year of university she’s finally found it. Or so she thinks.

But when Layla accidentally activates an ancient scroll, she is bestowed with an incredible, inhuman power. She plunges into a dangerous new world, full of mythical creatures and menace—all while a group of fanatics will stop at nothing to turn her abilities to their cause.

To protect those she loves most, Layla must take control of her new powers…before they destroy her. All is not yet lost—there is a light shining, but Layla must survive long enough to see it.

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My thoughts: First of I want to thank Midas Public Relations, who contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reading and reviewing Steve McHuge’s new book A Glimmer of Hope. The first book in his new series The Avalon Chronicles, that will be released 1st April 2018.

Second of I want to say, I freaking loved this book and I’m so happy that I got the chance to read it. It is highly energetic, action filled book of pure fun and I really enjoyed it. It is a greatly written, easy but still deep story not anything like I have ever read . It is highly imaginative and it is hard to anticipate what will happen next. The book is intriguing and exciting and I liked the way it was build from page one. It was suspense to the verge where I actually could not sit still.

Imagine that every horror story you ever read actually are real. That monsters under the bed, is not a imagination of a young mind. That warewolfs, warebears, shapeshifters, demons, and other mythical creatures is walking among us. Some are good, some are bad and some are even worse. Imagine all of this put in ONE book, melted together in one incredible story.

I only have one problem with the book, and it is unfortunately big enough to lose one star because of it. And that is the middle of it. The story lost some of it’s *ompf* and actually got a little boring. But I do feel that it was necessary since there was some things that needed to be explained, but maybe the explanations could have been done with a little more finesse, depth and without the juvenile behavior from Layla. I lost some of my reading energy because of it and it was hard to get back in the story. As soon as I did tho, I never lost it again.

I will definitely read the second book when it comes out. There is still a lot of questions I want to see pan out, and the world still needs saving. I can only imagine that it will be a bumpy but incredibly fun ride to read.

One other thing I would like to mention is that I love when publishers think another step forward. I was expecting a boring cover under the dust jacket of the book. I certainly did not expected that they have though about it and made it so beautiful. That was one more exciting, unexpected thing with the book.

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Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror · Young, New adult/College

Rot & Ruin – Jonathan Maberry

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7157310.jpg| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn’t want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

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My thoughts: I don’t know if I’m just incredibly lucky or if I have found a way to choose good books. Because my five star ratings and good books just keep pouring in. And I’m a little surprised. As much as I love Joe Ledgers series by Maberry (still more than this), not one of those books (that I have read) have received a five-star rating and yet this one does. But One thing is for sure, Jonathan Maberry takes my mind and heart by storm, Again!

This is a wonderful book and I am surprised over how much I loved it. It is a little different from what I normally read and it is a Young Adult book. YA books are often not for me due to that I often find the books a little meek and dramatic. Not in a good way. Anyhow, this book was nothing like that and it evoke feelings that I did not foresee it would.

Here we get to follow Benny. A fifteen-year-old teenager who live in a world post zombie outbreak. He was too young when the outbreaks began and he can’t remember a world before the Zombies. And I totally loathed Benny in the beginning. Yikes I hated him. Later, he grew on me and by the end of the book, I loved him. Him and his brother Tom. Tom however was old enough to remember the world before the zombies and he is the reason Benny still is alive. But misunderstandings and half-truths have made their relationship hard and they are not that close to each other as brothers should be. Different circumstances outside their own power makes them thrown together and they must work together and fight for their life’s and what’s right.

I often feel that Zombies, like vampires, are a subject that have been done to many times that there is nothing new about it anymore. But I think that Maberry has taken a step back and brought the subject back to its core and just stayed with what’s simple and that worked in favor of the story. It feels real and totally perfect. It even made me cry some parts.

I short, I totally loved it and can’t wait to read the other books in the series. I have ordered the whole box from Book depository and hope it will arrive soon.

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I’m really happy that I was able to find this book signed. I ordered it from some guy in USA and it took almost tree weeks for it to arrive. But I’m really happy and this is the first signed book on my shelf. Totally worth the money. 🙂

Fiction/Science Fiction · Mystery/Crime · Thriller/Horror

The treatment – Mo Hayder

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647954| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: Midsummer, and in an unassuming house on a quiet residential street on the edge of Brockwell Park in south London, a husband and wife are discovered. Badly dehydrated, they’ve been bound and beaten, the husband is close to death. But worse is to come: their young son is missing.

When DI Jack Caffery of the Met’s AMIT squad is called in to investigate, the similarities to events in his own past make it impossible for him to view this new crime with the necessary detachment. And as Jack digs deeper, as he attempts to hold his own life together in the face of ever more disturbing revelations about both the past and the present, the real nightmare begins…

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My thoughts: I have very few triggers when it comes to books. I read most of it. I don’t like it all and it can affect me bad mentally, but mostly I can handle it. But the few triggers I do have, are different types of sexual assaults. Specially against kids. I can read a book when the story is that it already has happen and you get to read about it in past tense and preferable not in that much details. Read it happen in present time and aftermath is something I have tough time with and I do my best to avoid those types of books.

So, you can imagine how tough this book was for me. And I didn’t know that it was supposed to be about pedophilia and other sick monsters. Now I’m glad I didn’t know since the book is terrifyingly awesome and if given the choice, maybe I would not have read it. But since I do have read the first book, I should have been a little smarter and foreseen that this would be a big part of the book. Apparently, I’m not that smart.

This book was so much better than the first book and I love the broken dynamic between Jack and Becky and how they, even though all the shit that has happened, not give up. The truth comes out and it just makes them fight harder for them self’s and each other and I love that. Other than that, the book is a typical British crime novel. Some really sick stuff is happening and you get some answers on questions from the first book (So yeah you should read them in order) and it builds something of a series I can see myself continue.

But no, this is not a light read but I do think it’s worth it.