Monthly summary

December Summary

monthlysummery2

I’m not happy with this months read. I had such troubles with several books. I have yet not finished Strange the Dreamer that I started, but I have not DNF it because I still hope it will get more exciting soon. Santa Claus totally killed my desire to read but I felt I had to finish it and it took way to long. So even though I have had several days free from work, I have hardly read anything. Its sad but now I just hope January will be better for me.

Favorite book this month: Shadow Dance – Julie Garwood
Least favorite book this month:
Santa Claus: The King of the Elves – B.C. Chase

Number of physical books:
2
Number of e-books:
 5
Number of audiobooks:
1
Total pages: 3380
Female authors: 4
Male authors: 5

18498558Bird box – Josh Malerman
Settings: USA Pages: 262 Published: 2014
Genres: Horror, thriller, mystery, fiction.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
136637Brimstone – Preston & Child
Settings: USA, Italy. Pages: 740 Published: 2004
Genres: Mystery, thriller, horror, crime.
My rating: 3/5
Links: Review
Book 5 in The Pendergast series.
39313789The Ghost – Jessica Gadziala
Settings: USA Pages: 239 Published: 2018
Genres: Romance, contemporary, suspense.
My rating: 4/5
Links: Review
Book 2 in The Professionals series.
731806If looks could kill – Heather Graham
Settings: USA Pages: 384 Published: 1997
Genres: Romantic, suspense, mystery, thriller, paranormal.
My rating: 2/5
Links: Review
31180248Leah on the off beat – Becky Albertalli
Settings:
 Atlanta, Georgia Pages: 343 Published: 2018
Genres:
 Young adult, contemporary, romance. 
My rating:
 1/5
Links:
Review
Book 2 in 
The Creekwood series.
29875363The fireman – Joe Hill
Settings:
 USA Pages: 768 Published: 2016
Genres:
 Horror, dystopia, thriller, fantasy, science fiction. 
My rating:
 4/5
Links:
Review
51J31JlyR4LShadow dance – Julie Garwood
Settings: USA Pages: 336 Published: 2006
Genres: Romantic, suspense, mystery, contemporary.
My rating: 5/5
Links: Review
Book 6 in The Buchanan/FBI series.
36021329Santa Claus: The King of the Elves – B.C. Chase
Settings: Fantasy Pages: 308 Published: 2017
Genres: Fantasy.
My rating: 1/5
Links: Review
Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Thriller/Horror

The Fireman – Joe Hill

29875363.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: The fireman is coming. Stay cool.

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.

Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.

Untitled

My thoughts: This is the type of book you wished Goodreads had the ability to give half stars to. Because I do not feel the book is worth four stars, but it is not as bad as a three stars either when I think about it as a whole. However I do not feel this was a consistent read. After N0S4R2 (which I freaking LOVED) this was a major snoozefest and I’m sad to say that I was so bored some of the parts that I’m now amazed that I actually continued.

The beginning was so good. I loved the whole burning plague, dystopia where the earth is on the brink to unravel plot. It was well thought out, written, interesting, capturing and skillfully described. I loved the characters and the more day to day business you was a part of. Then around two, three hundred pages in, it started to fall. The characters was now even better but the day to day business certainly started to drag. And worse it got, the longer I read. There was some highlights in the middle of the book that did capture me, but mostly I was more or less waiting for stuff happening. I was bored out of my mind some times and this is a great example of the saying “Longer does not equal better” .

And the ending, how am I even going to be able to describe my thoughts and feelings about the ending. There is so much but at the same time so little happening that I can’t wrap my head around it. Not after all that I have already read. And it was by far not satisfying.

So to be honest, I loved some parts of it, others bored me. But I did love N0S4R2 so I know he will make it.

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

N0S4R2 – Joe Hill

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.

Untitled

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.