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The Student
The Student
Iain Ryan | 2017 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
6
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow, well this really wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a little mysterious but it wasn’t in the slightest. It was just hardcore, gritty Australian crime.

This one is seriously dark and graphic. I’m not really into the gritty sex, gritty crime kind of books, so a lot of this one wasn’t really my cup of tea. We follow around a student drug dealer whose friend, and supplier, has gone missing. What ensues is a long journey of some seriously gruesome discoveries. While, of course, this book has a plot, it’s one of those books that also feels like it has no plot. It concludes itself, but it doesn’t really finish.

I enjoyed the way it was written. The snappy sentences and the minimal descriptions, it felt right for this book. It definitely wasn’t the best written book in the world, but it did what it needed to do and it did it quite well.

As for characters, there’s no one to like in this book and I think that’s intentional. I mean, don’t me wrong, I did empathise with Nate in some parts but he wasn’t a likeable guy.

In the end, this one just kind of depressed me and was reminiscent of Sarah by JT LeRoy in it’s brutal darkness. I think maybe the synopsis needs to be changed because it definitely sounds like a completely different novel to the one I just finished.
  
The House of One Thousand Eyes
The House of One Thousand Eyes
Michelle Barker | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Felt as if it could have been a glimpse into real people living in East Berlin (0 more)
Story wraps up nicely at the end but it ends abruptly. (0 more)
Realistic, historical fiction YA about living in East Berlin in the early 1980s
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Lena Altmann is a 17 year old girl who lives in East Berlin. After her parents were killed in an explosion, Lena was forced to move in with her aunt. Lena's only respite comes when she spends her Sundays with her uncle, her aunt's brother. One day he is erased. He along with all of his possessions,and his birth records are gone. His published books have disappeared from bookstore shelves. He is just gone, disappearing without a trace.

Lena frantically searches for him but knows government spies are everywhere and she feels alone. Her aunt is a hardcore member of the Communist party. Can she trust her? Can she trust her friends? Can she trust anyone?

Through her story, Michelle Barker shows what it was like to live in the "Better Berlin" in the 1980s. She shows the rigidness, fearfulness, suspicion, and oppression of life in East Berlin.

The House of One Thousand Eyes did not feel like fiction. You could feel and hear Berlin. You could believe Lena, her uncle, and her aunt were real people and this book just captured a portion of their lives.

Although the story wraps up nicely at the end, it ends abruptly.
  
Megalithic Symphony by AWOLNATION
Megalithic Symphony by AWOLNATION
2011 | Alternative
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is Aaron Bruno’s solo proect. I put this on the list because I’ve been listening to it recently. I tend to find an album that is eclectic enough to keep me interested and I listen to it over and over again, obsessing over it… and then I stop. And I just stopped with this! Ha ha! Well, I’ll probably give it a bit of space and then come back to it. I try and listen to new music as much as I can, but that’s probably the first genuinely eclectic new album that I’ve enjoyed in years. The story goes that somebody in Texas played one of the album tracks and it’s caught on and everybody’s playing it now on their radio stations. And it’s become a sort of mega hit. To me there is some stuff on it that sounds like the Pixies and some stuff that sounds like The Beatles, but it’s all slightly electronic and his voice is great. There’s loads of obviously ad-libbed stuff that they’ve kept in and it’s very cool. Rough round the edges in the right way. It’s not guitar heavy, but there is some really great live drumming happening in it. I think he’s a surfing man who’s influenced by hardcore and stuff like that, but some of it’s very poppy. I think it’s just a guy who is not afraid to explore songs and take them where they feel like they should go, rather than worry about what it’s supposed to sound like. It’s the best new album I’ve heard in years."

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