Peigi

Best one Yet!

Revisado: 12-20-23

This is the 4th book in the October Daye serious. The first established the characters. The second was good but not terribly memorable. The story of Blind Michael in the 3rd book was disturbing but exciting. This book is the best yet including all the original characters including two super villians for this series who are now gone, but not missed. However, I will miss Lily. Super awesome narrator too.

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Love it!

Revisado: 11-15-22

I truly love to be enmeshed in this world and generally love the Targarians, incest or no! Rhaenyra is my favorite - a strong woman, seeking her right to the Iron Throne and her father's promise that she was the rightful heir. But, of course, politics and the viewpoint that women are too emotional to rule ruins everything.

As much as I hate politics (in the USA), the extent that those near the the top in Westeros will go to hurt "the other side" is terribly entertaining. I rooted for the Targaryans and the Valerians and hated the Hightowers and the Peaks, those who would abuse their position for gold and absolute power, more so than the reigning Targayans ever sought themselves. The degree of wickedness and devious planning against the persons whom they allegedly served was so incredibly detailed, I felt like I was there seeing through their eyes (very creepy feeling as well).

Another thing i like about this book is the way families we already know from Game of Thrones are eased into the story - Lannisters, Freys, Baratheons, Starks, and Greyjoys. I can't wait for Book 2.

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Bentley Little does it Again!

Revisado: 10-24-21

Over the last 20 years, I have read numerous novels written by this author. To my knowledge, he has never advertised his books, gone on the TV circuit of talk shows, nor conducted book signings. He simply writes the best horror novels. Even Stephen King has labeled Little the "poet-laureat" of horror, which is high praise considering the source.

Although I have never read any Bentley Little novels that I disliked, I was particularly impressed with this one. It was another haunted house story but the author had the ability to mesh contact with the "evil spirits" with normal family life, making it seem so real. I know I will never go into a basement ever again. The characters were fleshed-out completely, even the women which some male novelists have trouble writing without describing women in one extreme or another. I loved the family, each member supporting the others first before outsiders, despite sibling rivalry, arguments, and the occasional bullying by Julian's father-in-law but he got what was coming to him in the end. He-he!

If you like horror stories like I do, you can never go wrong with Bentley Little. "The Haunted" is one of his best.

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Great Story - Hysterical at times

Revisado: 08-22-21

I loved this book. I loved the story which is hysterically funny at times. I listened to this book while driving to work- I was laughing so much, another driver pulled me over to make sure I wasn't having a seizure. Most funny - the siege on Walmart by Vikings from the 10th century. Yes, first and foremost this is a time travel story. As usual, Neal Stephenson's grasp of the possible science of time travel is spot on but highly technical.

The only drawback to this book was a number of anacronyms throughout a 700-page novel. And then I located a print copy of the same book and low & behold there is a glossary of all the anacronyms plus other technical words right in the back of the book - like, uh, magic.

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable book. The narrators were believable. Can't wait to read the sequel! Don't forget to look in the back though.

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A Beautiful War Story

Revisado: 02-22-21

This was a beautifully written story about D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy but from the point of view of the villagers of the small town of Vergers in France. The main character, Emma, a pessimist French woman who works daily to provide a tiny bit of optimism to her neighbors. She was a trained baker, taught by the Jewish baker for the occupied town of Vergers. Early on, Uncle Ezra is murdered by a Nazi officer in front of the whole town and the tree behind him cut down, a portion of which was given to Emma as a cutting board. Emma is ordered by the Kommandant of the occupation in her town to bake 12 baguettes daily for the occupying army. Emma includes ground-up straw to extend the recipe so that she can bake 14 loaves, the extra 2 of which are given to her neighbors who are slowly starving to death. Later, she starts a barter system to provide things needed by the townspeople - fuel siphoned from Nazi motorcycles for the fisherman, an egg for the local "whore" who provides daily servicing of a Nazi officer, etc.

I loved this book or rather the way it was written. The author was able to show how the locals were treated by the Nazi army rather than saying "Nazi=bad guys" repeatedly. Throughout the entire book, the word(s)" Nazi, German, swastika and Hitler" are never used. The German language was "guttural spitting", the Nazi army was "occupying army", and Hitler the "screaming madman". Despite never using the actual words, you always knew what he was talking about. I could feel what it was like in the town prior to D-Day and it was a horrible claustrophobic feeling. After spending 2 years this way, having her father, boyfriend, and all men that were young and strong enough to be a threat either shot in front of the townspeople or "conscripted" to a German concentration camp "to work for their superiors," Emma was terribly pessimistic that the Allies would ever come to save them. However, she was also the only source of optimism to her neighbors.

I have read numerous historical fiction books about World War II, the occupation(s) of France, Paris, Italy, and Poland. This I believe to be one of the two best (no book is better than "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah) fictional accounts of the occupation of Europe during WWII. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could but I have no problem rounding up to 5 stars.

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Creepy, but not Horror

Revisado: 02-01-21

This is the story of Ines, a young woman with a sketchy background who attends a free college hidden deep in the forest of Pennsylvania. In exchange for free tuition, room, and board, all students must leave their previous life, including families, behind for a 3-yr. commitment.

The actor who narrates the book (also named Ines) was fantastic. She managed to keep an otherwise slow-moving story interesting. There are some thoroughly creepy characters in this book - Victoria (the director of the school), Theo (Ines' boyfriend in the 3rd year), and Baby (Ines' roommate) to name a few. The story seems to hover around an experimental program at the school that the creepier students seem to be involved in. By the end of the book it is revealed that this research involves using students with little or no family or friends (thus unmissed should they happen to die) to create some kind of robot / human/ zombie who has no identity or emotions. Bad behavior at the school gets you a term in the "Tower" (essentially prison) for re-adjustment. After using Theo's key card to break into the experimental lab and setting the animals (rabbits and mice) free, Ines is locked up in the Tower. She is advised that her only means of leaving Catherine is as one of these experimental zombies, thus requiring her death as a thinking, feeling person. The book ends as Ines (with the assistance of her friends) escapes Catherine House to continue running away from her life.

While the narrator makes the story interesting enough to keep you listening, the story itself is very slow. I can't imagine actually reading and finishing this book. Some of the "sessions", a required meditation hour, could easily have put me to sleep (which is not a good thing when you are driving while listening). The ending is such that it seems the author expected to write a sequel, although I can't imagine what the story would entail now that the main character has escaped from the titled school. But it just sort of ended without a satisfactory ending. Nothing is said of what became of Ines after her escape. She muses that it is unlikely they would look for her as she would never tell anyone what is really going on at the House.

Bottom line, it appears an editor went through the book and said, "It ends here". Ines slips out a unlocked door in the Tower and rides away with an employee of the school, presumably to bike her way across America. No dramatic escape. No stress about her impending death. Very flat ending. Essentially the same tone entering the school as leaving the school and only the slightest suggestion of action (unless you consider a "bouncy castle" to be action).

As a lover of horror, post-apocalyptic stories, and thoroughly disturbing characters, I was truly disappointed. The actor/narrator was the high point of this novel, thus the overall "4-star" rating.

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I know it is a trilogy but....

Revisado: 01-10-21

I am reading this book for my book club. Otherwise, I probably would have stopped listening a couple of Chapters in. The book was called fantasy, and to be fair, magic and some of the characters qualify it for "fantasy". But please, barbarians and non-stop fighting and mutilation is not interesting to me. So, the narrator was great. The book just ends, no real cliff hanger. Lastly, the story is so-so, so I rated it a 3 star. I am sure younger people will enjoy all the violence.

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Great Story with Performance Difficulties

Revisado: 12-06-20

I have wanted to read this book for several years but I never seemed to remember it when choosing the next book to read. Until it went on sale with Audible - then my memory returned. As a horror story, this book ranked with many notables like Dean Koontz and Bentley Little. The characters were well developed and the story kept my interest through out. My only issue was listening to it rather than reading it, specifically the narrator.

Mr. Bray has a long list of books he is credited with narrating and maybe it is just me, but I found it difficult to follow some of the book, primarily dialog between characters. There was very little variation in the voices between male & female, adult and child, regional accents. On many occasions, I had to re-listen to portions just to figure out who was speaking. By adding a Southern accent to some of the characters, it was really confusing to tell one from another, causing me to lose track of the current storyline. A fake Southern accent just cheapens the character, in my opinion.

This was a great story which I so wish I had read rather than listened to. At least the action and horror sequences were done in a straight voice so they could be enjoyed without having to figure out who was involved.

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Just as Great as her Books

Revisado: 09-14-20

I started off not particularly liking this story because I thought it was some kind of White Supremacist/Misunderstood Anarchist story. I kept waiting for a reason to "feel sorry for" the father in this story. I couldn't seem to find a reason to like the man much less feel sorry for him. But I should have known Ms. Ware wouldn't write some soapy tripe. I have read several of her novels and found them outstanding mysteries. In this case, I didn't allow the story to completely unfold before making a decision. As I continued to listen, I discovered the father's whole POV was a fantasy and his girls had become part of that fantasy as they had no other view of the world other than their father's. I re-listened with an open mind. Just goes to show me that I too had pre-conceived ideas about this story, just like the father's tunnel-vision about the world. Truly a good story after all - learned something about myself as well.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Very Good for a Short Story

Revisado: 09-12-20

Picked this Original mostly because it was a short story, fiction, not some interview or boring nonfiction. I'm glad I did - great story, great performance, and Aussie to boot!

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