Saturday, May 19, 2018

Some More Mini-Reviews

Well, once again I find myself behind on reviews.  And in order to catch up, I've got a couple of quick takes on nationally popular books/authors.

First, there is John Hart's latest, The Hush.  Those of you who have followed my blog for a while (I understand your reluctance to identify yourselves!) know that, as Julia Roberts said in Pretty Woman, I am a "big, huge" fan of his books.  I think his last 3 were 4.0, 4.0, 3.75 (and I liked his 1st 2 too).  So I was obviously very excited about reading The Hush.  How was it?  Beats the heck out of me.  I just didn't get it.  I don't know what John was thinking.  The story didn't make a lot of sense to me.  There was tons of description that put me off immediately and that showed up throughout the book.  And then there was some metaphysical stuff that I just couldn't wrap my arms around.  For me it didn't connect with the rest of the book.  Or maybe I just didn't care. Regardless, I'm giving it a 2.25/4.  And only because I like John personally (he always responds to FB messages) and because I recognize what a good writer he is.  Otherwise, uh, uh.



P.S.  John's ratings for his last 4 books on Goodreads out of a max 5:
The Last Child - 4.11
The Iron House - 4.09
Redemption Road - 4.08
The Hush - 3.64
It's obviously not just me.

My other short review is of A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window.  I liked this one much better - 3.25/4.  It came very highly rated from friends that I trust.  It was a little Girl on the Train for me in that it was very well-written, but I didn't emotionally connect with the characters.  In fact, it was very similar to Gone Girl because I didn't really get engaged until about half-way through.  However, that was all compensated for (at least to some degree) by the fact that it was suspenseful and had a real shocker toward the end.  We all know I'm not that adept (a classic understatement) at figuring out what's going to happen in a book.  But I think this one shocked everybody.  So it was good.




12 comments:

  1. I need to get to The Woman in the Window. Glad to see you liked it.

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  2. I haven't heard too much about The Hush. I am sorry it didn't work for you. I really liked The Woman in the Window as well.

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    1. It's okay because I have liked his other books so much.

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  3. The Woman in the Window seems like a worthwhile read for the shocker. I don't read suspense often, but I keep thinking I should pick up one of these really popular ones sometime.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. Definitely worth reading for the suspense value.

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  4. Hart's work is popular around here but I haven't tried it yet. It sounds like I should start with The Last Child. I felt pretty much the same way about The Woman in the Window.

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    1. I'm sure you will like The Last Child, and The Iron House too. They are both terrific books.

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  5. Glad you enjoyed WitW. I didn't even know AJ Finn was a man at first. He wrote a woman's thoughts so well.
    I finished Little Fires Everywhere and will be giving it 5 stars soon. Thanks again for the reco and for sending the book my way. :)

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    1. Agreed on LFE. 3.5/4 for me. Not quite a 5/5, but still very good.

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  6. I don't like the feeling of not getting a book so I can see why The Hush was disappointing. You know I'm not a huge suspense reader but I've noticed all the glowing reviews for WitW. Glad you liked it.

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  7. I keep putting off reading Gone Girl, and now I have a recommendation for another book that you found similar because it took a while to become vested in the story. I'm going to have to find a quiet nook and just read, I guess.

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