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Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter #1)
Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter #1)
Thomas Harris | 1981 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.1 (15 Ratings)
Book Rating
I really wish I read this when I was in high school. This book really would have been right up my alley. The story was so complex that I would have devoured it within days. This would have been one of those books that I stayed up late reading under my covers. However, reading this book showed me how much I have changed & how my tastes in books have changed as well. Personally I am not a huge fan of mysteries. I find them dull, and typically I avoid them. The weird thing is that I love mystery thrillers. I have always found them fascinating especially if it is a psychological thriller.

Red Dragon is that psychological thriller that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat once you get passed the half way mark. The beginning of the book dragged for me. I would have loved more of an action packed thriller vs. a mystery turned thriller. Though the first half was essential for establishing characters I truly felt that it dragged. I'm typically used to a book that jolts you into the action instead of taking a lazy river ride to a waterfall. I want the rapids. So, due to the first half, it took me forever to finish. One thing that I really liked about the first half was how much it messed with my mind. Honestly I had trouble reading it before I went to bed simply because of the dreams it created at night. I had to make sure every door and window was locked before I went to bed simply to help sooth my mind so that I could get some sleep.

Though the story dragged for the first half, the second half made up for it. I found myself entranced by the thriller aspect of the writing & loved how complex the story truly was. It has been years since I last watched Red Dragon (the movie) so at times the story felt fresh and new. It was weird, sexual in strange spots, and honestly something that I have never read before. Thomas Harris was able to create a serial killer that will make you cringe, sympathize with, and wish they were dead all at different moments. It was fascinating to read.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. It isn't my favorite book but it was an interesting read that makes me yearn to watch the movies again. I probably will not continue on in the series but I'm happy that I did take the time to read it.
  
One by One
One by One
Ruth Ware | 2020 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Corporate Retreats are Murder
When the key employees of the internet startup Snoop show up at a chalet in the French Alps, they are expecting a week of presentations and skiing. However, there is tension brewing just below the surface thanks to a buyout deal that has split the board. The tension only grows worse when heavy snow and an avalanche cuts everyone off from the rest of the world and one of the members of a group goes missing somewhere out in the snow. As the hours pass, it becomes clear a killer is in the group. Will help arrive before they are all dead?

While the cast of isolated characters trope is not new to the mystery genre, Ruth Ware quickly makes it her own in this page turning thriller. I love how she so successfully isolated the characters. The plot is wonderful with tension rising early before the characters fully realize the danger they are in. The twists kept me engaged the entire way through the nail-biting climax. The characters could have been a little stronger overall. Don’t get me wrong, I cared about them and the outcome, but I felt like many of them stayed two dimensional and those we got to know better bordered on the cliché. Being a thriller, I expected more foul language than in the books I typically read, but it was a bit excessive for my tastes. Still, these are nitpicks in an overall wonderful thriller.
  
Behind Closed Doors
Behind Closed Doors
B.A. Paris | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
9
8.0 (18 Ratings)
Book Rating
Extremely disturbing - needs a trigger warning
I've never felt so moved and violently uncomfortable /ill at the same time while reading a book before. The level of graphic psychological abuse described definitely requires a trigger warning before survivors listen because unfortunately the truth is stranger than fiction, despite many readers wanting to wave away the experiences as 'absurd' on some of the Amazon reviews.

While there were some instances that were unclear especially near the end, and slightly inconclusive in the climax, which was a bit unsatisfactory - it should be listened to as a psychological cautionary tale rather than a thriller as such. To describe it as a mystery would be insulting to those who have experienced it.
  
A Fine Year for Murder
A Fine Year for Murder
Lauren Carr | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lauren Carr has brought you another thriller of a story. A Fine Year for Murder is dozy of a mystery and gut wrenching. No has any ideas that Jessica as seen a family be murdered. When Dallas Walker starts talking about a case that sees is investing the case called Pine Creek Massacre.

I loved the story and the way it was laid out. Jessica is dealing with nightmares, and things get more intense when something happens to young girls. What is triggering her nightmares? It a book you can not put down once you start to read it. All of Lauren Carr books are like that. She makes you want more and leaves to read her next book.
  
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Elvis Fox (24 KP) rated Thoroughbreds (2017) in Movies

Apr 29, 2019 (Updated Apr 29, 2019)  
Thoroughbreds (2017)
Thoroughbreds (2017)
2017 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Olivia Cooke (2 more)
Anya Taylor-Joy
Anton Yelchin
Thoroughbred For A New Generation
With its striking visuals and cleverly paced plot points, this modern day cat and mouse teen Crime Thriller will leave you speechless by the end credits. Anya Taylor-Joy's performance more than makes up for the film's weaker plot points as she brings a sense of vulnerability to the character that otherwise may have felt less memorable if portrayed by any other actress. As usual Olivia Cooke delivers a fabulously balanced performance mixed with dead pan that just makes sense given the subject matter. I feel this chic mystery will garner a cult following in the years to come and it rightly deserves so.
  
Then She Was Gone
Then She Was Gone
Lisa Jewell | 2017 | Thriller
8
8.1 (21 Ratings)
Book Rating
This thriller is completely gripping. Ellie was a golden girl, the apple of her motherÕs eye and only fifteen years old when she disappeared without a trace. Ten years later her mother, Laurel still has unanswered questions when she meets a man who sweeps her off her feet. Then she meets his daughter, the image of her lost Ellie, and Lauren must begin to unravel the mystery of what happened.
JewellÕs drama unfolds quickly and uses a smattering of dramatic irony, so that you figure out the truth before Laurel, making you squirm in your comfy reading spots as you read on. This is a pacy, dark, tense story, totally compelling until the very last word.