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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Local Woman Missing in Books

May 27, 2021

Local Woman Missing

Mary Kubica | 2021 | Contemporary, Thriller

9.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

I'm so excited to be a part of the blog tour for this dark, frantic page-turner of a thriller

First Shelby Tebow goes missing. A new mom, Shelby's husband is quickly suspected in her disappearance. Then Meredith Dickey and her young daughter, Delilah--who live just blocks from Shelby--vanish. The rest of the neighborhood, including couple Bea and Kate, are terrified. Are the cases related? An investigation is launched, with few results. Then, eleven years later, Delilah is found, bringing back memories of all the incidents, especially for her father Josh and brother Leo. Everyone wants answers, but Delilah is too traumatized to provide them. Besides, the secrets unearthed with Delilah's return may be too much for everyone.

"I don't know how old I am. I don't know how long they've been keeping me here."

This was a captivating page-turner that I read in three breathless sittings. It's undeniably compelling and sucks you in from the beginning. It starts with Delilah's point of view, shocking and terrifying, and sort of never lets you go. Her voice and story are hard to forget. Among other narrators, we hear from Meredith, eleven years ago, and then Kate and Leo in the present. Working out how the various families and characters are interconnected is part of the challenge and honestly, I was truly shocked at various points in the story. How exactly these missing women and Delilah are tied together is incredibly dark and twisty.

I was completely into this book for most of the story and thought I was looking at 4.5+ star read. It started to dissolve a bit at the end, as things (including some characters) went a little crazy. Still, some of the twists were truly awesome and breathtaking. I think--in that way--this is one of Kubica's best in a while.

Overall, this is an addictive thriller filled with some truly shocking plot twists. It keeps you guessing the entire time, and its complex and layered plot is different and exciting. 4+ stars.

Kudos

Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Zig Zag Girl in Books

Jul 8, 2021

The Zig Zag Girl

Elly Griffiths | 2015 | Crime, History & Politics, Mystery, Thriller

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Captivating mystery set in the 1950s

When DI Edgard Stephens sees the body of a girl, cut into three, it reminds him of a magic trick: the Zig Zag Girl. His friend, Max Mephisto, used to perform it. Max and Edgar served in the war together as part of a secret unit called the Magic Men. Max still performs, but when another person turns up dead, he reluctantly helps Edgar look into the deaths--especially since this one seems tied to magic as well. Both men feel like the murders may be linked to their war days, and if they're not careful, their whole unit could be in danger.

This was the twenty-sixth (and final!) book in my #atozchallenge! I challenged myself to read a book from my shelves that started with each letter of the alphabet.

"'The way the body was cut into three, each part put into a black box, it reminded me of a magic trick. One you used to do before the war.'"

I absolutely adore Elly Griffiths, but I don't read a lot of historical fiction, so I've always kept this series in my back pocket. When I needed a "Z" book for my challenge, this seemed like a perfect fit. No surprise, really, but this was an easy and interesting read. Griffiths is such a good writer, and this is written in what I've come to think of as Elly's style--a fun, enjoyable form, where she captures the essence of each of her characters so well.

The book is filled with magic and war stories. The mystery is quite captivating--it's a good case, which draws you into the story. And Edgar, Max, and their crew are very compelling. I enjoyed the themes of friendship and wartime, plus the surprising vulnerability that shone through in both Max and Edgar. I would certainly read the next book in the series. 4+ stars.

Kudos

Kaz (232 KP) rated Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in Apps

Jun 29, 2019

The idea of collecting items sounded fun (0 more)

Slow to load, Really oversensitive when casting spells. (0 more)

A Disappointing Game

Being a Harry Potter fan, I was really excited to finally be able to download and play this game. However, I have been left disappointed.

When I first started up this game, it took forever to load. So, thinking this was due to my phone (I don't have a fancy phone, just a bog standard one), I bought a new SD card, hoping that the extra memory would do the trick. It helped, but I found the game to still be really slow.

Also, it was a bit frustrating when you had to cast spells, you kept having to do them again and again, because your tracing of the patterns, wasn't quite right. Possibly I would have done better using a stylus to trace the patterns, but I think it shouldn't be so exacting, because not everyone has a stylus to hand when they are out and about.

I also found that I wasn't able to put the VR backgrounds on my phone and had to resort to having the computer generated ones, which kind of defeats the purpose of this game, as it's supposed to be fun to find 'foundables' within your home or town.

This leads me to another problem I had. During the game, you had to go to certain places within your area. However, when I got there, it said that I had to wait for players to do a battle or some kind of challenge with. I don't know whether I chose the wrong time of day, where other players were elsewhere or there aren't many players within my area, but I didn't fancy standing around on a hot day, eating up my Internet MBs.

The concept of this game is good, but due to the slowness and uninspiring context of the game, this didn't get me enthused to play it. Actually, I've deleted the app from my phone. Very Disappointing.