thriller

Book Review: Thornbird

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Thornbird
by E. Kennedy

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: YA thriller, romance

Gabrielle Thorn’s father confessed to murdering 6 women, but for 10 years, he refused to reveal where their bodies were. As both the 10th anniversary of his conviction and the date set for his execution approach, Gabrielle returns to the town where the murders took place with a new name and new story. Now she’s Ryan Shipley and even the cousins she’s living with don’t know who she really is. Ryan just wants to live as normal a life as she can before she graduates and leaves town for good, but as the search for the victims’ bodies heats up, she starts to get texts from an unknown sender threatening to reveal her true identity.

I don’t think I’d call this book a thriller, and it’s not much of a mystery either. For one thing, the murders have been solved. The only mystery here is where the bodies are, and Ryan does not spend any remotely significant amount of time in the story trying to figure that out—in fact, she actively avoids it as much as possible. For me, there was some suspense in the book, but that was really mostly due to me thinking there was going to be more going on than met the eye. There really wasn’t. A lot of the book is spent with Ryan feeling guilty, nauseous, etc. over what her dad did, the lasting effect he still has on his victims’ families, and keeping her secret from people she’s getting close to. She constantly does things she thinks are a bad idea, mostly chalked up to hormones, and basically is just carried along by the actions of those around her.

Romance is here in full force, though, albeit a worldly, YA version of romance. Ryan is pursued by the football quarterback, which then turns into a predictable-yet-ridiculous love triangle. In fact, around the 75% mark, when a thriller should be heating up, instead the serial killer side of the story slows way down as the romance heats up, and for a few chapters it seems the only focus is the physical side of this new relationship (which, by the way, is the only side to the relationship). After that, there are some reveals, at least one that could probably be seen as a twist, but I still kept expecting something else exciting or unexpected to happen, but the story played out fairly blandly to the end. So much of what happens in the last several chapters is illogical or just really stupid decisions on Ryan’s part.

So, I don’t really recommend this book to anyone. Younger readers might not be as bothered by the plot holes, terrible characterization, or other things that made me roll my eyes. However, the graphic nature of at least one of the physical interactions between Ryan and her triangle guy is inappropriate for teens. And for once, after reading other reviews, I’m not the only one that felt that it went too far, even amongst reviewers that are less conservative than I am. So let that be a warning to anyone considering reading this, of any age, really.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: The Institute

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The Institute
by Stephen King
Read by Santino Fontana

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Sci-fi thriller

When 12-year-old genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped from home, it turns out his kidnappers don’t care at all about his high IQ. They want him for his minor psychic abilities, along with other kids, all of whom are taken to the Institute and given lots of tests and shots. When they first arrive, they are in Front Half, where the food is good but the adults are cruel. Luke learns that kids are eventually taken to Back Half, after which, they’re told, they’ll be returned to their families. But Luke doesn’t trust these people who punish any slight insubordination with brutality, and as his time in Front Half nears its end, he becomes increasingly desperate to escape.

I really enjoyed this book and was engaged all the way through. Even when I felt like the narrative had taken a strange turn, or when I was confused when the first several chapters seemed completely unrelated to the main story, I was interested, invested, and always looking forward to when I could get back to listening to the audiobook again. The suspense and intensity build throughout the book, as stakes get higher and more is revealed about the Institute. I really appreciate that the main character isn’t the strongest, psychically speaking. He’s a genius, but really on a meager TK (telekinetic). He needs help from other kids, especially one that’s a particularly strong TP (telepath). And the anticipating of seeing how Luke’s story would intersect with the seemingly unrelated man we’re introduced to in the first 15 chapters adds to the suspense.

The ending was a little anti-climactic, maybe a little bit of a letdown after an otherwise great story. Overall, though, I really enjoyed my first full-length Stephen King novel. I’m still not sure I’m ready for any of his horror books yet, but this won’t be my last King novel. Santino Fontana did a great job with the narration, too, and added to my enjoyment of the book. I can’t speak to how this compares to King’s other works, but I do recommend this books to anyone interested in the premise or genre.

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Book Review: Odd Hours

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Odd Hours
Odd Thomas #4
by Dean Koontz

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

In a foggy coastal California town, Odd Thomas crosses paths with a mysterious young woman who seems to be in danger. When that danger engulfs him, he will have to use all of his wits and psychic abilities to save his own life and many others.

Like the previous book, this one is a bit of a departure from the main premise set up in the first book of this series, that being Odd getting into situations due to either ghosts visiting him or Bodachs alerting him to some pending danger. In this book, a combination of prophetic dreams and the cryptic woman he meets because of his dream start him off on his latest quest, and though some of his psychic abilities do come into play, they’re more vague and, well, just confusing to me. Not to say that no ghostly activity occurs here, but somehow it’s just not as good as the celebrity ghost from the first three books. And there is at least one paranormal element that I either didn’t follow or isn’t explained at all (even as much as paranormal elements are ever explained in this book). 

One thing I’ve noticed about these books in the past and was amplified here is the tendency for scenes to run on. When it really comes down to it, not a lot actually happened in this book, but when Odd would get into a situation—trying to escape from bad guys or track someone down, things like that—the scene would take several chapters, more than it really seems like it should. The combination of that and the aforementioned issues, and then an unsatisfying ending, made this my least favorite book in the series. I still like Odd as a character and some of the other odd characters he tends to run into, but I’m really hoping the series gets back to its earlier roots going forward.

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Book Review: White

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White
The Circle #3
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with Black.

In one reality, Thomas Hunter and the rest of the newly minted Circle try to stay out of the hands of the enemy while also debating whether it’s better to hide and stay safe or try to bring the Great Romance to that enemy. In the other reality, Thomas Hunter is dead and the threat of the virus inches ever closer. 

I think I understand more now why I had such a hard time with this series when I first read it around 20 years ago. The Christian allegory falls apart so much when it becomes more clear that these two realities are connected in some way, possibly some kind of circular time, and the “Christ” character dying and being resurrected in the previous book implies that Christ had to die twice for the sins of humanity. Which makes one not enough. That’s a huge theological issue. Then beyond those implications, when the histories are changed, the forest/desert world doesn’t seem to be affected, so does that mean they’re actually not as connected as it seems? It kind of gives me a headache to consider.

The story itself mostly plays out in a way that continues to be engaging. Though Dekker introduces a super powerful element that just sort of…goes away. I believe it comes into play in other pseudo-related books, but since it’s introduced here, used to incredible effect, and then just hand-waved away, it bugs me. I also dislike the feeling that Dekker killed off Thomas’s wife in the previous book simply to pave the way for a new romance in this book—a romance that I can’t say I cared for all that much. Couldn’t someone else in the Circle have been the romantic lead for this plot line? Maybe it wouldn’t have felt quite so forced to me then. Or maybe it wouldn’t have helped.

In the end, I like the trilogy a lot more this time than I remember like it when I was younger (or maybe this third book just tainted my memory of the first two), and I probably even liked this final book a little more than I did back then. But I feel like there was a lot of build-up for an underwhelming conclusion (though the conclusion on the “our world” side was more satisfying). Then there’s an epilogue that I think went completely over my head, and I’m pretty sure also set up more for Dekker to explore in other books, books that are not officially part of the same series but are still connected in at least tiny ways. I plan to keep going in this broad world, but I really don’t know how far I’ll get. As for this series, if you’re interested in fantastical fiction with a Christian, or at least moral, bent, you might enjoy this series. If you’d be bothered by a Christian allegory that goes pretty far afield, you might want to skip this trilogy.

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Book Review: Red

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Red
The Circle #2
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Black.

Fifteen years after the events of the previous book, Thomas of Hunter is the leader of an army of forest dwellers, called the Forest Guard, in a perpetual battle against the desert dwellers, the Horde. He hasn’t dreamed once in those fifteen years, but when he gets into a pinch in battle, he realizes that the answers could be found in his dreams. When he wakes up in the other reality, mere hours have passed and the danger of the Raison Strain virus is ramping up. Both realities need him, and both are on the edge of destruction.

I have to admit that with the way that the previous book ended, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic starting into this book. I’ve never really enjoyed war, battles, fighting, etc. in books, and the endless war between Thomas’s Forest Guard and the Horde (aka Scabs) wasn’t a huge draw for me at the outset. Fortunately, it quickly becomes more than that, especially when Thomas intentionally dreams for the first time in order to glean information he can use to aid the fight. It’s interesting that Thomas has aged 15 years in that reality but is still a younger man in the “real” world. Waking up after dreaming of 15 years going by is hard to imagine, but I liked that some of the people that know him best can see a difference in how he acts and even how he looks (mostly his eyes).

The urgency of the Raison Strain, even though it’s been carried on past the first book, is still there. The world moves on to a new stage as the secret of the virus threatens to be exposed, and though normally I’d feel it’s a mistake to drag something like this on for so long, it works here, thanks to the addition of the parallel reality. Some major revelations are shown involving the connected realities in this book, too, that brought my engagement level even higher. The forest/desert world, which has always displayed a very literal view of good vs. evil and has been the main vehicle for development and change in this series, brings some emotional moments at the end of this book that made me consider diving right into the third book. I won’t, but I also will not be waiting very long to read it. 

I understand even more now why 20-something-year-old me read this series as a parallel to Christianity. It’s not as direct a parallel as I must have expected/wanted it to be, but it’s certainly allegorical. Though the ways the allegory fell short (or even fell apart) bothered me when I was younger, I’m able to enjoy the story for what it is this time around. And I’m glad for that, because I’m enjoying it a lot!

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Book Review: Dead Fake

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Dead Fake
Bleak Haven #1
by Vincent Ralph

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA horror thriller

When a new trend takes over Ava’s school that lets students Swipe to Die, Ava seems to be the only one who wants nothing to do with it. It’s been ten years since her uncle murdered three people before dying himself, so death isn’t a game to her. Then fake videos of students being murdered start to appear, and Ava is appalled at how excited her fellow students are over the pretend tragedies. But when a student dies for real, in the same way he did in his fake video, Ava can’t help but look for patterns and answers, even if it means dredging up the not-so-buried past.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and was caught up in the slasher elements enough to have a hard time putting it down in the last third or so. It took a little bit to get going, but even early on, the hints about not only Ava’s uncle, but apparently quite a few mass murderers or serial killers in this town’s past intrigued me. There’s clearly a whole background here that I wanted to know more of. (There are 3 more books either already released or planned that are set in this same town, so maybe more of the town’s bloody history will be explored.) Some tropes of this genre were subverted in ways that I appreciated, like the town’s sheriff actually giving credence to Ava’s thoughts and discoveries.

I have to admit that the reveal of the killer was a little bit of a letdown for me, at least partly because there were some clues peppered here and there that seemed to be leading one way…only for them to be completely unrelated. Red herrings are one thing, but this felt a bit too deliberate. Plus, the killer’s revealed motivations and actions taken over time are either underwhelming or unrealistic. But even with these things, the story was overall pretty good, and I am definitely going to read more of this series. There is a little bit of language, including the f-word several times, but not nearly as much as I’ve read in other books in the same genre. And there is no sexual content that I can recall, beyond the mention of the MC’s friend and her new boyfriend making out a lot. Also incredibly light for the genre, which I appreciate. I’d recommend this for people who enjoy slasher fiction or thrillers in the teen/YA age range.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Black

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Black
The Circle #1
by Ted Dekker

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

After an encounter with a dangerous loan shark, Thomas Hunter dreams of a world where evil is completely contained and humans live in happiness and harmony. The dream is so vivid that while he’s dreaming, he’s certain the world with the loan shark is the dream. Then the worlds begin to bleed together when he learns about some events that are still future to the “Earth” side and are expected to wipe out most of life on Earth. Knowledge from each world becomes useful in the other, and before long, both worlds are in jeopardy.

I read this book, and the entire trilogy, for the first time back around when it came out. I remember finding it a bit strange, confusing, and not particularly enjoyable. My husband read the series more recently and said he thought I’d like it…so I gave it another chance. I have come to understand that, when I was a young adult, I read this book as a direct parallel to Christianity. Though it certainly has an analogous angle to it, I needed to read it more as fantasy and let it be what it was, not what I assumed it should be. Doing that made this second reading experience far better than the first. I was hooked early on, enjoying the fast pace of the “Earth” reality and the world building of the “green forest” reality alongside it. Though the green forest side was slow in comparison to the Earth side, I skimmed a few scenes when Thomas had a very real, yet at the same time kind of abstract, communion with Elyon, the undisputed Creator of the green forest reality. I get the inclusion of those scenes, but I didn’t feel the need to read them thoroughly.

As the Earth reality gained speed toward the pending disaster, the green forest takes a turn that is sad and unexpected (though, at the same time, unsurprising), and I was really curious to see where that side of the story was going to go next. I remember snippets from the trilogy, but fortunately, it’s mostly all new. The last few pages are a bit bizarre but, at the same time, intriguing. And the book ends on a cliffhanger, which I normally dislike, but it really worked here. And now I’m excited to continue reading, which I didn’t expect to be!

I am aware that I’m at the beginning of a long, twisty mess of a book franchise. Some are directly connected and others are more peripherally so, and apparently there’s no specified order in which to read the books. I have read one of those books in the past and part of another one, and I found both bizarre and unsettling, coincidentally enough. I currently don’t have a lot of desire to read much more than the main trilogy, but I’ll see how I feel when I’m done with the first 3 books, and maybe the prequel.

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Book Review: Brother Odd

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Brother Odd
Odd Thomas #3
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

While living in a guest house at a monastery in order to simplify his life, Odd comes across something completely new, even with his penchant for seeing ghosts and other paranormal connections. The bizarre creature seemingly made of bones, combined with the Bodachs that have appeared around the area, leads Odd to believe something bad is about to happen.

This was my favorite book in the series so far. There are a lot of amusing moments in the book, from Odd’s interactions with Elvis to his banter with the suspicious Russian man also staying at the monastery. I continue to enjoy Odd as a character—kind and modest almost to a fault with a strong desire to protect those who are weak. The mystery kept me engaged, though I have to admit that the reveal was a little confusing, even convoluted. But that was really my only issue with the book. I was sad about a chapter that closed at the end of the book, but I look forward to seeing where the series goes. Sadly, I’ll have to fit the rest into my normal reading schedule, because the rest of the audiobooks don’t seem to be available from any of the library services available to me. But I enjoyed this third book enough to be willing to continue on my own.

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Book Review: Forever Odd

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Forever Odd
Odd Thomas #2
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

When Odd’s best friend’s recently deceased (like, super recently) father visits him, Odd starts off on a mission to find his friend and save him from whoever seems to have abducted him and killed his father.

After finding the first book in the series interesting but a bit slow, this book is just as slow and less interesting. I still like Odd himself as a character. He’s very different from what you normally see in fiction in a lot of ways, a kind of throwback to a different time. Some reviewers seem to see this as a fault with the book, but I appreciate that his gifts have led him to live a simpler life—he has no real ambition, no need for vices, and in fact, what most people would see as a minor complication would throw his life out of whack completely. However, the first book really felt like a stand-alone. There’s usually a very different feel to a book that is the intentional first in a series compared to a book that was written to be a one-off, and though plenty of times a sequel or two may come after an original stand-alone, to me, this just didn’t work as a sequel. The main thing that I felt was seriously lacking in this book was the use of Odd’s gifts. His psychic magnetism gets plenty of play (and a new angle, unless I’m just forgetting something being mentioned in the first book), and he does see a few ghosts, but it seemed like a huge chunk of the book was just trying to escape from, hide from, and outwit the bad guys. It dragged down what was already a fairly slow read for me. Good thing I listened to the audiobook, or it might have taken me a really long time to get through this book. As for recommendations, if you haven’t read the first book, you probably shouldn’t start here, since it definitely references back and spoils some things. If you have and liked it, you may or may not like this one, depending a lot on which aspects of the first book you particularly liked or didn’t. That’s all I can really say.

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Book Review: Odd Thomas

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Odd Thomas
Book #1
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

Odd Thomas can see dead people, but he can also see dark shade-like creatures that tend to congregate at sites of future disaster. Between these two things, Odd is drawn to help bring justice for victims and prevent future tragedies. He works as a short order cook in a small town in California, and when he sees a large congregation of these creatures, which he calls bodachs, interested in a particular customer, he does his best to investigate so he can try to stop whatever future catastrophe might have drawn so many bodachs.

Leaving aside the paranormal aspects, this book is a thriller mystery and a race against time to stop a massacre. Adding the paranormal aspects back in, and the overall story here is engaging and inventive. Odd himself is a sympathetic hero, if maybe a little too naïve and Gary Stu-ish. He tends to draw people to himself by being a nice, quiet guy and has more than one mentor-type character. The background Koontz shows us for Odd make me happy for him that he has these other people in his life to counter-balance some truly awful parents.

I’ve only read one Koontz before this, and I loved it, but this time, I found that his tendency to describe things in way more detail than necessary slowed the story way down. There was also a lot of focus on sex and references to body parts for a book with a main character that isn’t sleeping with his girlfriend. And a couple of the major side characters I did not particularly care for. They were just over the top in their personalities. I listened to the audiobook, and I don’t know if it would have been better to read it, so I could skim some of the descriptions or worse, because then I would have struggled to get through some of it and taken a lot longer to read it. Either way, I enjoyed the book more than not and was actually kind of annoyed with myself for not clocking the slight twist at the end before it happened. Also, I am very glad that I had already read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie before reading this book, because Koontz full-on spoils it! Overall, I like the world Koontz has set up here and Odd Thomas himself enough to continue the series. I think most people who enjoy paranormal thrillers would enjoy it, but just keep in mind the slowness.

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