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BTPBookclub (18 KP) rated Gone Girl in Books

May 14, 2019  
Gone Girl
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
10
7.7 (142 Ratings)
Book Rating
Outstanding.
Now I guess you have heard about this book as there was and still is a big debate about Gone Girl, you either love it or hate it and I loved it! Gone Girl definitely gained a lot of media coverage especially as it has been adapted to a film since. I have seen both the film and read the book and both were brilliant! It is no wonder Gone Girl is a global bestseller book with many twists and turns that are bound to keep you reading until the end. For my personal review Gone Girl deserves the five stars I have awarded as it kept me glued to the story and is full of suspense and mystery, alongside it being an excellent thriller that will keep you up reading all night. This is the first book I have read by Gillian Flynn and I have already put a selection of her others onto my wishlist already. Let me know what your views are on this book below, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Gone Girl reveals the secrets at the heart of Nick’s and Amy’s modern marriage. When Amy’s and Nick’s fifth wedding anniversary arrives Nick reports that his wife Amy is missing! Under pressure from friends, family, the police and media will Nick be able to contain all his hidden lies, secrets and deceits? Did Nick kill his wife or is there more hidden beneath the depths of the story? Will Amy ever be found? With an intelligent and cleverly written plot I would highly recommend that you read this book and choose a side of the discussion to join, will you love it or hate it?
  
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Billie Wichkan (118 KP) rated Duncan in Books

May 22, 2019  
Duncan
Duncan
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A cunning pederastic serial killer nicknamed “Santa” is making his way up the East Coast from New Orleans to Boston, leaving a trail of young bodies in his wake. Santa covers his tracks along the way by working as an itinerant bass player in a series of jazz combos. At the same time, the Driscoll family – Mark, Julie and their nine-year-old son Nate – who live in an upstate suburb of Syracuse, New York, struggle to come to grips with Mom’s quadriplegia following a horrific auto accident. The suspense builds to a fever pitch as these two plot strands approach each other for the inevitable confrontation. All this tension is heightened by the mystery of Duncan, Nate’s stuffed-toy gorilla, who is not only the boy’s beloved companion but becomes a kind of family totem, and, later on in the story, so much more.


Trigger warning for pedophilia, disability, murder, and so forth

This is a novel not only for readers addicted to thrill rides and maddening suspense, but also those who are curious about the abnormal psychology of the pedophiliac killer. The book gives food for thought as well as a kind of perverse satisfaction for the imagination and senses. It is a thinking reader’s thriller.
There are some graphic scenes that would make any normal human uncomfortable to say the least.
I loved how Mr. McCort portrays the heart-warming relationship dynamics within the Driscoll family. Oh I did love Duncan too!
The book also delivers on its' promise to the insight of the killers mind as well (the diabolical Santa).
Disturbing but excellent read.
Recommend reading.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
  
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace
Mindy Mejia | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Defying all odds, ten years after a father and son wandered into the hundreds of miles of woods and water, comprise northern Minnesota's aptly named Boundary Waters, the son emerges from the wild not only alive but changed, violent, and withdrawn.

Winding up in the mental hospital where former patient turned assistant language therapist Maya Stark works, when Maya first meets nineteen-year-old Lucas Blackthorn, he lashes out, nearly choking Maya to death in a horrific assault.

The only person with whom he's shared any meaningful interaction (good or bad), the unflappable Maya is sent to speak with Lucas again, only for the two to build a strong connection as Mindy Mejia's book continues and we realize that both are harboring some serious secrets.

The definition of a page-turner from the start, while initially Leave No Trace's intensely vivid sentences fly right by, as the book moves from thriller to psychological mystery, it loses a good deal of suspense.

Slowing things down in the middle of the work which could've used some tightening up, while it's fairly easy to see how the two characters are connected on the surface, as Maya risks everything to help Lucas and learn more, Mejia's book picks right back up, leading to an if not altogether surprising than at least satisfying conclusion.

A terrific character-driven storyteller, while Mejia takes awhile to return to the pace of Trace's opening chapters, readers looking for mysterious psychological tale set against the atmospheric (and metaphorical) backdrop of such a beautiful but dangerous stretch of land and sea should pick this one up.

Note: I received an ARC of the title through Bookish First in exchange for an honest review.
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Lightseekers in Books

Feb 23, 2021  
Lightseekers
Lightseekers
Femi Kayode | 2021 | Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Lightseekers is a fantastic thriller set in Nigeria. I love books set in other countries (i.e. set outside the UK), in the hope that I’ll learn something about the people and the culture - and I think that was exactly the case for both me and the main character, Philip Taiwo in this book. He has lived in the US for long enough to forget how things are done in his home country of Nigeria, and for long enough to be considered an outsider. Luckily for Philip, he has a competent helper in Chika - a man employed as his driver who is clearly much more than just that. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Chika’s capabilities, and he certainly has a way with people that Philip needs to talk to. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not so much.
This isn’t a straightforward, easy investigation. There’s corruption at every turn, and the mob mentality and fear of being caught on the wrong side of that, radiates off the page. It was pretty difficult at times to work out who was on the side of ‘good’ and who wasn’t - the lines were so blurred. It was pretty obvious that social media in this case contributed negatively to what had happened, and how easily its users were manipulated - I’ve been seeing this a lot in books recently, and as a user of Social Media, I can see where these authors are coming from!
I really enjoyed reading this on The Pigeonhole, and I think Femi Kayode is going to be an author to look out for if this book is anything to go by. Thanks Pigeonhole for serialising this, and Femi for joining in the chat in the margins!
  
The Visit (2015)
The Visit (2015)
2015 | Horror, Mystery
This movie, and I can't stress this enough, spends way too much time on the young kids budding rapping career. Not convinced I ever want to watch 13 year old white boys rap, let alone 3 or 4 seperate scenes of it...

Anyway, The Visit is pretty good (if you ignore the whole rapping part - not sure if I've mentioned that yet). It has a minimal yet great cast, some solid creepy moments, and a surprisingly grounded twist from the notoriously inconsistent M. Night Shyamalan.

Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould are likable as the two leads. The framing device of them filming a documentary about their estranged grandparents is a natural explanation for the 'found footage' camera style.
The stand out though is Deanna Dunagan as the grandma. Christ she is unsettlingly creepy, even when she's being kind. Her contribution to this film really lends the narrative as a whole, a huge help of tension. The slow burn nature of it is fantastically realised, and presents the audience with a decent mystery plot, and a chance to try and unravel what is really going on before the inevitable twist hits.

The twist itself is simple yet effective, and is certainly an "oh shit" moment, but unfortunately it leads to a final act that feels a bit over the top and silly. It shifts from an atmospheric creepy chiller to a sub par horror trying a little too hard to pack in the scares. It's a shame because 80% of the runtime is genuinely engaging!

Despite the lackluster ending, The Visit is a solid POV thriller that is head and shoulders above a huge chunk of Shyamalan's back catalogue, and is decent enough way to spend 90 minutes, except for the 3-4 minutes spent with the kid rapping...