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She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be
She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be
J.D. Barker | 2020 | Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Good suspenseful paranormal story
I received a free copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Prior to starting this book, I was only aware of Barker from his work with Dacre Stoker on Dracul, the prequel-cum-biography telling a variation of Bram Stoker's life story. This book is very different, though it also tells someone's full life story.
Jack Thatch has had a tough life already when we meet him, his parents dying in a car crash when he was very young, and he spends his childhood living with his Aunt. A chance meeting with a mysterious girl in the cemetery on the anniversary of his parents' death haunts him and each year he returns looking for her, and the mystery continues. This carries on, with a new chapter telling the events of each subsequent year, and the "burned but not burned" bodies that appear on the same day.
There is a little of a Stephen King feel about the book - telling of a young boy growing up and telling every detail of his life and his friendships and gradually letting the paranormal elements of the story build up.
The first third of the book is excellent, setting the scene and sewing the seeds of the mystery to follow and introducing the cast of characters and their interactions and conflicts. This part of the story rattles along with decent pace and the reader can get a good feeling of momentum.
The middle third ground to a halt for me. The chapters became longer, the story being told felt less important and the reduction in pace was a bit of a kick in the teeth.
But the final third this book gets going again in superb style. This could well have been an excellent story in its own right, but definitely benefits from the lengthy build-up. We gradually have one group of characters grow and come into conflict with another, all building up to an inevitable meeting.
This is a great, but long, story of special abilities, how they could impact someone's life and be abused by those in power, and how they will eventually become out of control.
  
The Yards (2000)
The Yards (2000)
2000 | Drama
5
5.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
For Family
The Yards- is a decent crime drama thriller with a good cast. I think the cast is good, just needed a bit more crime and thrills. Needed that action. Thats this movies down-side that it doesnt have enough of crime, thrills and action. Its also slow and takes it time.

The plot: After serving time in prison for taking the fall for a group of his friends, Leo just wants to get his life back on track. So he goes to the one place he thinks will be safe -- home. There he takes a new job with his highly connected and influential uncle. But in the yards, where his uncle now pulls the strings, safe is not how they do business. Unwittingly, he's drawn into a world of sabotage, high stakes payoffs and even murder.

Its okay.
  
My Life As A Rat
My Life As A Rat
Joyce Carol Oates | 2019 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
218 of 230
Book
My life as a Rat
By Joyce Carol Oates
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one’s family ever justified? Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it?

My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.

This was one of those books that just had you shocked to the core from the start. It’s raw and hard to read in parts. It’s well written and up until the last quarter I was enjoying it but it just got a bit tedious. This does have a few triggers for abuse and racism! Overall it’s a good read.
  
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
Don Miguel Ruiz | 2011 | Mind, Body & Spiritual
7.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"It's really good. It's probably not suited for radio talk show hosts because you're supposed to get pretty fired up. But for me, it, I guess it hit me at the right time, and it was very relevant at that point in my life. I kind of read it once a year just to reflect and get perspective, and it's served me pretty well."

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