Thomas Gaffney

Excellent! Much better than The Woman in Cabin 10 and I thought that was an awesome, crisp read. Definitely recommend for anyone who's read Paula Hawkins or Ruth Ware's other books.

Started off very slow, but got better for the last third. Picked up steam and closed on a high note. Looking forward to the fourth book.

Definitely not as good as the original three. Not enough Salander, and I disagree with the author's choice to 'ship' her and Blomkvist again. I should've checked before reading, but the author's Acknowledgments at the end thanked Larsson's brother and father. It was Larsson's girlfriend who had all of his notes and the manuscript of the fourth novel.

I would not recommend unless you're a completist and HAVE to read it.

Kinda similar-ish to The Girl on the Train, but really good!

Really good, if a little depressing...

Not bad. Didn't care for some things and the end felt too rushed. Would've benefitted from being a fleshed out book, instead of a playbook...

Stranger is one weird-ass book. Very good, but weird...

Before today, I had read 3 Ray Bradbury novels. Based on those books, I decided to divide his works into 2 camps: Best Shit I Have Ever Read and Martian Chronicles Redux.

Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes both fall into Best Shit I Have Ever Read. The Martian Chronicles make me wonder how that boring book came from the same mind as the other 2 books.

Today, I finished Dandelion Wine. And before I got to end, I knew what camp it was going in - Martian Chronicles Redux. It didn't enthrall me. It didn't wow me. It didn't transport me to a wonderful place. It was just there. I am amazed the man who churned out Dandelion Wine also wrote Fahrenheit and Something Wicked.

However, my love of Ray Bradbury is unchanged. So please enjoy this tribute to his greatness...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IxOS4VzKM

Better than the first book of the trilogy, even though there was less Bill Hodges & his crew. At the end, however, it got away from being just a crime novel and became a Stephen King novel...

Great read. Highly recommended. Unlike "DaVinci Code", this is a massively popular book that lives up to the hype...

WAY better than I was expecting. More than just an adult Harry Potter. Heard the 2nd book is the best of the 3 as well...

This book was highly recommended, but lived up to every expectation.

It took a while to get rolling (like more fantasy novels that have to build the worlds they live in), but once it did, it really took off. Cannot wait to pick up the next book.

Short review...ok. Had it been a stand alone book, it wouldn't have been bad. But as a sequel to The Shining, it did not fill the big shoes that were left behind but that genuinely scary book.

It feels like only yesterday I was in the world of Morpheus and the Endless...

A splendid collection from one of my authors. Will give mini-synopses/reviews of the stories.

A Study in Emerald - Wow! I don't know if I've ever read a better short story in my life. Written for an anthology of stories where the world of Sherlock Holmes meets the world of H.P. Lovecraft, Gaiman's take gives The Ancient Ones the sanity-crumbling horror I'm used to and gives Holmes the brilliant see-everything-at-once deductive skills that we expect. A best-of-both-worlds story that's scary, thrilling, and surprising.

The Fairy Reel -

October in the Chair

The Hidden Chamber

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire

The Flints of Memory Lane

Closing Time

Going Wodwo

Bitter Grounds

Other People

Keepsakes and Treasures

Good Boys Deserve Favors

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch

Strange Little Girls

Harlequin Valentine

Locks

The Problem of Susan

Instructions

How Do You Think It Feels?

My Life

Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot

Feeders and Eaters

Diseasemaker's Croup

In the End

Goliath

Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky

How to Talk to Girls at Parties

The Day the Saucers Came

Sunbird

Inventing Aladdin

The Monarch of the Glen

I don't know if, after reading these books so long ago, I could write a review for each one...so I'm going to write and all-encompassing review of The Hunger Games Trilogy.

The Hunger Games (Book #1) - The best of the three.
Catching Fire (Book #2) - Gets better from about the half-way point on.
Mockingjay (Book #3) - Not that great. Probably the weakest of the three. Then the ending sucked HARD.

The Hunger Games is a story about North America after a horrific war has wiped out life and government as we know it. The survivors have banded together to form the Capitol City and various outer Districts, each with its own jobs/manufacturing tasks. The Capital City controlled everything to the point that the Districts rose up and revolted. And they were crushed. To remind the Districts that they must never revolt again, the Capital initiated The Hunger Games. Each District must deliver one boy and one girl to fight to the death against the other District children for food.

All this happens before our story begins...

We begin with the 74th annual Hunger Games and our main character, Katniss Everdeen from District 12, is competing in the Games. While it won't shock readers to know that the main character wins the Hunger Games, there are still surprises, twists, and gut-wrenching scenes of loss and heartbreak. This is the first book. It was fantastic and an exceptional read. The Hunger Games could stand alone without the other two books and still be a knock-out first novel. In fact, I kinda wish I stopped reading here.

The second book picks up with the Victory Tour that follows the Hunger Games. Katniss, am anti-authoritative rebel, ended up pissing off the leaders of the Capital City with her actions in the 74th Hunger Games. So during the Victory Tour, she has to deal with the consequences of her actions from her Hunger Game win. This part really seemed somewhat repetitive and boring, especially after all the excitement of the first book. Then, everything changed from the middle of the book on. And it was almost as good as the first book. Definitely full of unexpected surprises until the cliffhanger ending...

The third book picked up from the cliffhanger ending of book two and completely different than the other two books. Mockingjay deals mostly with Katniss Everdeen being the figurehead of a District-wide revolt against the Capital City. The difference in plots alone doesn't make the book bad, just not as interesting as the other two. Then came the surprise "dramatic" conclusion to the trilogy and...IT SUCKED HARD. The ending was SO BAD it pretty much ruined the entire trilogy for me. I don't think I'd ever read these books again, cause I know how it ends and IT. IS. HORRIBLE.

My advice to anyone...Read "The Hunger Games" book #1 and THEN STOP.