Probably the best book/series read this year. Hurwitz somehow manages to give a 'Perfect' character a story arc. Not too much clunky action sequences.

Yeah... This book was good. For me, it didn't really compete up to the likes of Alex Rider, but it was good. It wasn't as much as a 'kid joins a secret school' trope then I expected at first.

Took a while to get into itself, but thought-provoking, science-fiction madness!

I think that both this book, and the original would make a great duology, this one ended on a really good high, and felt like the sort of ending that I imagined. But, there is a sequel, which I’m quite looking forward to. This has been the best original Sci-Fi series that I have read, probably of all time. Liu managed to create an amazing universe, both in the present, slightly in the future, and the far future. I usually don’t read sci-fi, or fantasy because of the sheer amount of exposition necessary, and my ability to get wound up with the author. But the way that Liu gradually transported us into this, ultimately different, almost dystopia (my favourite genre) was pretty expert. The parallels to reality were quite interesting, and I liked how she almost approached the ‘alien challenge’

When we went forward a hundred or so years, I was slightly worried that the utopia might mean little plot development, but I was proven wrong, when the droplet started wrecking the fleet, and apocalypse was reinsured , the plot becoming more gripping

Sci-Fi Madness!!!

I went into this book with a shade of doubt in my mind:
I don’t often read Sci-fi; the last Sci-Fi I had read ended in disaster.
But I was also wary about reading a translation, in that it might not be as fun to read in translated mandarin.

But, I was blown away. Liu is clearly an amazingly talented writer, the same goes for the translator (in fact I am a bit worried about the sequel, which apparently has a different translator). The prologue/ first chapter 1 set up the whole book for what was to come, as it seemed like the book may be historical fiction, but turned into this crazy, yet brilliant Sci-fi thing.
Normally, when there is slightly niche sectors in a book, then I skim through it, yet Liu made her maths sound almost appealing.
I think this was done by dumbing down her scientists a bit. This was a bit of a risk, but it payed off, allowing us to think they are the ones who don’t understand - clever, and inconspicuous!

We have to talk about character arc's I cannot think of a single character who didn’t have one, but perhaps the best of all, was Ye Wenjie’s. It was amazing. First you thought she was good, then bad, then good, then bad, then good! This conflict allowed you to really emphasise with her, because it was like you were experiencing the conflict with her.

The alien species though, were incredibly well-developed, and had new ideas, which we hadn’t seen before.

This book trilogy was the peak of 2024 for me. Dystopian fiction is absolutely my favourite genre, and to be honest, it was this book which got me into it. To this day, it is still the best dystopian series I have ever read.

This book gave me nothing

It was incredibly boring

Much better than I expected

I started this book last year - got about 50 pages in, then abandoned it. I’m not sure why I didn’t enjoy it, but this year I decided to retry it.

And it was really good. I am quite fond of the whole children become leaders trope, seen in ‘The Enemy’ for example. And this was a good showcase of this theme.

This book had me on tenterhooks - tantalisingly dropping jigsaw puzzle pieces

Before I say too much, I should probably 'hide entire review because of spoilers' This book comes to a conclusion about 5 times during the plot, before wrecking a new bombshell. But it didn't get old, in a using the same techniques sort of way - it was more like a feeling of "is this it?", and then like oh no...

There seemed to be plot's hidden within plots, character arcs hidden within character arcs - it made you always have something which you don't quite know, so when there is something right, you know it must be right.

Another Cormier masterpiece

What I like about Robert Cormier is the way that he expertly crafts masterpieces: and this one is not an exception. It is short enough to be a novella, and I think I almost think of it that way, and is filled with twists and turns in the plot, which absolutely keep you hooked. The interviews are also very well written, although it is never well explained who Brent actually is.

Provocative, but perhaps better suited to a novella, or even poem

I liked this book. I really enjoyed it, so don't interpret what you're going to read as if this book was a piece of rubbish

And indeed, if this review was just about my first reading of the book, then it would be closer to 5, not 3, but when I reread it, I found the book slightly boring, don't get me wrong, I could still see the beauty of it; but I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting, and it seemed some of it could be changed;

Firstly, and perhaps most prominently it took ages to get to the point. This may seem slightly insensitive, but it was full of musings about the wrongs of communism, which is fine, but it felt quite repetitive after a while, as if it was just reusing the same ideas, and plot-wise, it was like cutting bread with a butter knife; I'm not particularly sure if it deserves to wear the badge of ''Powerful New Thriller'', as advertised on the blurb. The only serious action was at the end, and felt incredibly rushed for a book that took a bit too long to get there.
Secondly, and closely tied with the first, it felt unsuited for a 300 page novel. The whole profound ideas about how the world should work etc, were nice, but I was expecting something a little bit more thrilling, and perhaps sped up, then what I ended up with, when pulled off the shelf. I think a novella could have been a better idea, or at least a shorter read - and the demographic was off too (is YA, or below where you show more should be aiming?)

Despite the bit of a rant above, I did really like the book, and it was quite provoking to read at times. I will look out for the authors other works show less

This is where Shusterman gets the chance to explore what he has created

Neal Shusterman is an amazing writer. The dystopian universes he writes about are incredibly well developed, not least, this one (if you can call it dystopian) The whole premise that the trilogy is set on is incredible, but I feel that this book is the one where having set out the rules for the Scythe universe, manages to weave an amazing story, sacrificing people along the way, but it feels like he just has a purpose in mind.

This was a good thriller

I enjoyed this book. The characters were slightly forgettable; there was not much backstory, but then they went pretty quick, so… There were some very good plot twists, but they got slightly lost in action, and they were quickly thrown aside, and there were quite a lot, so it made the story slightly confusing.
But it is a good book; I might read another of MacLean’s.

The plot was actually very good, but sometimes it was drowned in heavy action scenes, or at least the opposite of description. This I’m sure, is fine to everyone, but I have a habit of skimming over those types of scenes, which doesn’t really help me later on, when I’m wondering what on earth is happening.

I liked this book, but it isn’t one I will read again.

This takes all the best parts of his debut, and makes them better

Wow…
I loved Happy head, it was this intensely poetic, deep-meaning, thoughtful story about misuse of drugs, and depression, so when I picked up this, I was ready for something just as good.

And I got it. Whereas the Debut was about depression, this is about trauma, and you can just feel the sense that Silver is writing from a place of experience, with his teenage mental health experience. And consequently it all feels so real: The cliffhangers are of a grade I can’t remember him being capable of; indeed when you get to the end of the book, there is so little of what you recognise.

It is amazing.

I love that the Historical Fiction wasn’t the only thing going for it

In this book, the genre, and the time period that it was set in was always secondary to the main plot, which I thought was brilliant. Often in Historical Fiction books, the fact that it is set in Ancient Rome or whatever is more important then the actual plot. But with Fatherland, Harris managed to craft an amazing crime novel, set in 1964 Berlin.

I thought that the fact that he managed to write across two difficult genres was pretty incredible, and it meant that if you enjoy reading Historical Fiction then this is a good book, or if you enjoy reading Crime, then this a good book.

Going in, I was slightly dreading the book, because historical fiction isn’t my favourite genre by any means, and I was expecting the book to be quite thick, but, it wasn’t, which I was quite amazed at.

Overall this was a really good book, and I encourage any sort of person to read it.

I can see how this could be interpreted as a good book

If I had stuck with this book slightly longer than the just over halfway then perhaps It would have got into it’s own a bit more: but I have a rule with my books - once I’ve read it to halfway, then, and only then, may I stop reading it. And all throughout the book, although there were clearly climaxes (which were really anticlimactic) the book just seemed to be happening: as in there didn’t seem to be anything very important, and the entire plot just drifted past me if I’m being honest. In particular, I found the alternate time periods rather confusing.

If executed properly, then I am really fond of mixed media, and alternate time periods, point of views, etc, but This just seemed confusing, and I constantly struggled to see how one was set in the future, because it’s attempts to show advancements in technology were lost in an effort to explain the series, and Fadugba made no attempt to explain this, so frequently when I started a new chapter, I had no recollection of what had happened previously.

Also, although the idea of the Upper World being real is perhaps a good idea, it wasn’t executed right, and it was never clear,

bit boring

Didn’t really enjoy this book, not much of a plot. The characters weren’t really fleshed out tbh.
Not very gripping either. The storyline was very confusing, and it was telling me all these things, like don’t eat pork or something

The most gripping book I've read in a long time

I read this book when I was very busy, and had things to be doing (at least more than normal), but when I started it my whole life had to be put on hold to finish. It is full of twists and turns, and probably one of the best cliffhanger that I will ever read. It is slightly horrific, but not in a descriptive way.

Nice little lazy read

I liked this book. It wasn't very gripping, in a thrilling style, but it was in it's more laid-back kind of way.
Of course, the absence of the action sequences did make it a little bit boring to begin with, but I stuck with it, and when it came into fruition (which admittedly was the last chapter or so) it was amazing.

As I just said, there isn't loads of action, so it became a book that I would lazily read, skipping a boring paragraph here and there, which actually made it quite enjoyable. And the book suited that sort of reading format, I didn't feel I was missing out on anything, by missing a sentence or two, and I didn't have to go back some pages, because an important point had completely passed me by.

I thought it was good having various tweets, and other mixed writing styles as a break, between the blocks of texts that were sometimes incredibly boring, and seemed irrelevant (see below) to the plot in general.

Despite my praises of the book, parts of the story seemed unnecessary. Looking back, It seemed I was being a bit lazy at the time, but it wasn't exactly my type of thriller, or mystery, but it almost seemed to be. Personally, it didn't have much flavour to it; a bit bland. BUT, I did enjoy it enough to be looking forward to reading the sequel, so it clearly was hooking enough for me!

DISCLAIMER: I am not by any means a Marvel Person, so I am not influenced by some sort of
nostalgia in any way, whatsoever.

too good for a seemingly fan-fic

Hmm... I'm not sure what to make of this. Good plot idea? Definitely. Enjoyable? Yeah, I suppose. Well executed? Not really.
It was an alright book, but it took ages to get into any sort of mystery, or crime to solve.

I think this was a very good idea for a crime novel, and although not a well read Lisa Jewell fan, I can see why people like her, the book was engaging towards the right end of it, and had good sub-plots, and I the whole alternate time period gimmick was well-executed.

So don't direct my criticism towards her, because it feels like she was a bit restrained, but here goes - a bit of a rant starting in 3...2...1:

Firstly and most importantly, the book spent way way too long on Jessica, describing her, doing a lame attempt at a pregnancy plot. I mean who saw that coming? apart from everybody of course, which sadly meant that the brilliant plot idea was completely submerged under what feels like way too much unnecessary exposition. This, I imagine was due to Marvel wanting to focus on the superheroes, and the crime at the same time, but failing at both. It was a real shame though, because the idea of the app which turns you beautiful instantly could have been absolutely amazing; I can envisage myself giving such book a far more nobler review, then what has happened. And in a way, I would even say that the book show more is a bit too good to be a Marvel crime novel thing?? Because of the whole time lost getting through the plot - Jewell tried to fit two books into one which didn't quite work - it was only in the last 50 or so pages where I thought 'actually, you know what, this is a good book,'
The whole baby plot was an unnecessary way of clogging up the novel, and felt like a bit of a side hustle, but too much, so as too detract from the main mystery.
Despite the above, it was actually an alright book, in the last 100 or so pages (which is not nearly enough) but it just spent too much time on Jessica. Jessica this Jessica that...

I think I will try one of Jewell's other books, because I clearly do not think that this book is a good example of

a) The Marvel Cinematic Universe

b) Lisa Jewell

c) Fan fictions in general. show less

An overblown fan-fiction

To me, this book seemed like a half-good fan-fiction. It did not seem like a legitimate sequel whatsoever. Many topics, and ideas in the book were not at all fleshed out enough.

Firstly, telling the story from different points of views would have worked fine if it weren't for the fact that the previous book was told from the point of view of April.
Next, the plot is very impossible to get your head around. The reasons that characters do something, E.G talk to Rebecca, do not make sense whatsoever.

Exposition is extremely limited in the book - sure you get exposition, but it's often dumped where we least need it. We do not need to hear Carl's entire autobiography, but it would be nice to learn more about his brother, and why he is doing what he is, and how he is doing it.

Green has a habit in this book (not the previous one) of leaving of cliffhangers, and it sometimes feels like he centralises his entire chapter around cliffhangers, which aren't then properly explained.

The entire Altus plot seems strange for at least half the book, partly because it comes out of nowhere, but mainly because it just feels wrong.
To me it feels like the whole plot is centralised on the previous book, when it is said that he has gone to Costa Rica, or wherever.
And the whole thing about him working on a secret project just feels strange. The first thing we hear about it is here:

Peter's house is not just part of a house, it is part of a compound. There are dorms for

show more

workers, offices, servers, laboratories.
''That's where we're doing the mining,'' He gestures toward a huge cinder block building...He calls it our service during the meeting

This made me puzzled as the first notice of Altus, is when a guided tour is thrown onto you, and after that it takes a long time to rushedly find out what they're doing, and even that comes in patches, and you're never quite sure whether it is real.

Overall, this book is so poorly written, it seems like the sort of elaborate, fan-fiction published online. It's a shame, because I really enjoyed the previous one, but this completely failed. show less

This book was alright...

There wasn't anything special about it though.
It's an interesting genre Historical fiction, and although I wouldn't especially call this a shining example of the genre, but it is one of the better ones (and trust me once you've read the highs and lows of the 'My Story' series, you KNOW what good historical fiction is!)

But is it really historical fiction? The parts which are set in 1944 seem pretty indistinguishable from the 2023 parts, and there are very little references to rationing:

The war rations and shortages of sugar and butter don't make it any easier, do they?

This is the only, even slight notion towards rationing, and it perhaps would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that you sometimes thought you were in a different time period than you were. I think the authors would have done better to alienate Alice, Lawrence and Artie, from the year 2023.

Despite what it says on the cover, I would NOT call this book a thriller, and it felt somewhat boring at times, and easy to phase out of.

Low effort - High Octane!!

This book wowed me. Somehow it blended horror with mystery, with panorama, with Young Adult, with Romance, but made coherent sense as a book.

When Paige arrives in America, things start turning strange. She receives mysterious letters through her postbox, and a serial killer who is thought to be long gone, returns, and Killings happen throughout the once peaceful town of Shorehaven. It is up to Paige, to find out what the letters in her postbox mean.

This is a great read. As said previously, it requires very little effort to read, but is filled with mystery and intrigue.

Gripping is the order of the day. This book kept me up all night, and lasted me much less then it should have. Prior to this book, I had endured and 800 page epic, which took me long enough, so it felt great to go from, somewhat boredom, to an amazing thriller. The mystery plot, although subversive to the main plot, was a very novel idea. It was executed splendidly, and I really enjoyed it. But the relationship between Kat and Locke, and her character arc was executed amazingly.

I was somewhat dissapointed - as a fan of the prior Orphan X books, I was very much looking forward to this book. It didn't really live up to my expectations. The entire book hinged on the conflict between Tommy and Evan, which felt very thin, and seemed almost non-existent. Nevertheless, it was a good book, but still. The last in the series is not representative of the whole series.

I wouldn't call this a bad book. But I definitely wouldn't call it a good one either.

The whole circumstances relating to his wanted capture feel very unrealistic, for a book which is trying to take place in the real world. The whole 'Bloke In The Van' narrative doesn't feel fleshed out.

But one of my biggest irks is the fact that Dane is so incompetent. At EVERYTHING. His combat abilities are so lacklustre that it gets boring to read (and I'm referring to the series as a whole now). His hacking skills feel only somewhat better than an IT specialist. Despite that, Swallow tries to project him as a super-cool spy; yet he is just inept. Swallow is giving very mixed messages:

1. That Dane is only the 'Bloke In The Van' he isn't meant to be great at his job

2. That Dane is a world-renowned soldier, ready for combat.

3. That Dane is a patriot, wanting to do the world justice.

Part of these mixed messages are due to the Rubicon group. They feel very pushed to a side, and it would be nice to have them explored a little more. The company just feels like stepping stones, so Dane can have the resources he needs to take down the terrorists. In that way, it feels pushed to one side.

That being said, I enjoyed this book enough to stick around for the third one. But it only came into it's own at the last few pages when they actually managed to do something remotely competent

Wow. An epic. At first, the 800 page length slightly put me off, but as Hayes says in his acknowledgements, it had to be, to do the story justice. The 'Pilgrim' main character is really well written. I like how at first, it throws us into the deep end, write in the middle of a mystery with pretty much zero context, before spending 75% of the book on exposition! Consequently, Hayes fleshes out quite a nice little world, and means that the actual plot is amazing.