Dec 19, 2015

Peculiar... in deed

One of the problems of being an avid reader is that when someone tells you that there exists a highly underrated book comparable to all your famous fav one's... you kind of get hooked into reading it. And THAT can cause heartache.

I picked this one up, coz one of the FB articles about underrated books that fantasy fans should read. It was a Buzzfeed viewers choice list (click here) and this one was on it.... and luckily I was in a bookstore that showcased this one prominently. It was like the book wanted me to read it. So, I ended up picking this up, along with a few other staple authors.... (i.e. Devdutt Pattnaik and Ruskin Bond)


The book cover is creepy, with a levitating girl on it... the back cover is intriguing... hinting at supernatural leanings...the style of the books is like nothing I've seen before... story intermingled with creepy old vintage photographs... I had SKY HIGH expectations from this one...that's probably why I think I felt so miserable after reading this.

I'm a super fan of  creepy supernatural stuff. And I expect my spooky novels to be really that...spooky. This one held a good promise till about the time Jacob explores the basement with all its crazy, creepy body-parts in formaldehyde. And then the whole book takes the turn that makes it turn into an episode of Supernatural meets CSI. And my heart plummeted to the basement.

The story is nice. The developments are strictly ok. I found it hard to connect with the characters...somehow they were better as photographs. Its very hard to synch with these children. I've read enough YA to know that MY AGE doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the text...Percy, and Harry are proof enough of those. But for some reason Jacob and his band of Peculiar children didn't fit the bill. I did manage to finish reading them, but I know I'm not purchasing the second book in series.

Dec 10, 2015

Faithless by Karin Slaughter

Faithless (Grant County, #5)Faithless by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Let me admit... this is the only book I read of this author. Which also means, I haven't read any other Grant County books. I didn't even know that this is series book till I finished the book and reached the Author interview at the back.

In all fairness, throughout the book I did keep feeling that there's a larger plot that I'm missing out on. The characters couldn't reach me because they are always carried forward from an earlier "to be continued" narrative. And that ticks me off. This isn't my first experience at reading a book out of sequence, but this is the first one that I regretted reading.

The story is nice, but it didn't leave any impact on me. As a reader, it failed to connect I believe, if I look at the actual crime story in the novel...it holds up good. The additional information, about Sara and her ex-non-ex husband, Lenna and all others... is really distracting without adding anything to the current storyline. Ofcourse those who have read the earlier one's the additional information matters and makes sense.

Despite the core story of the novel, being a good one; I found the narrative lacking. The development of the story sometimes feels like having given lesser importance than the background / additional 'to be cntd' stuff. The events even when they have the potential to be shocking, unfold in the most un-shockingly manner. The climax of the whole novel is kind of better, however the motive of the perpetrator is simply too shaky to truly believe or agree on. Especially the link / relationship between the perpetrator and his lieutenant is really sketchy...to the point of being unimpressive. I still don't know why they both worked together, and how could they do all that they did. Doesn't make sense. It should've been elaborated further.

Author has some really rave reviews and I was kind of hoping to find a new author to add to my reliable authors list... She did seem like a good choice....Sad thing is... reading this one, I don't think I want to read the rest of the series.


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