My Book Reviews

99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Starting this book, I didn’t have any expectations. I was confused about the story about halfway through, but then when the revelation came, it all made sense.

And no, it had nothing to do with red balloons (or 99 of them).

I won’t say a lot for fear of spoiling it, but there is a cliffhanger at the end of about 2-3 chapters. 8 year old Grace has been kidnapped at a sweet shop, and it bears an uncanny resemblance to the disappearance of 5 year old Zoe years ago. Why is Emma’s mother acting so suspiciously, and what does widower Maggie have to do in the equation?

I never expected to love this story like I have; just when you think you’re starting to grasp it, you don’t. The story goes to and fro with a handful of the characters, giving the reader an insight to each of their lives before coming together as one beautifully.

Elisabeth Carpenter, I’ve got my eyes out for more of your books.

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*WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS, WHICH I WILL HIGHLIGHT OFF*


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my first review with spoilers, because there are things I find confusing. So here goes....

Judging by the ratings, a lot of people seem to love this book. Me, on the other hand; I have a love-hate relationship with it, I think.

It took me a while to get used to it due to the way it’s written. There are very little conversation-openers, and the entire thing constantly shifts from ‘the now’ to ‘before’, that I had a bit of trouble at first determining which was what.

What I still can’t understand though, is how the thing all is. Offred describes having classes with the other handmaids, taught by the Marthas (or rather, Aunt Lydia in particular). But then again, in other scenes, she’s described as being the only handmaid in the household, apart from Rita & Cora who works in the kitchen, and Nick who’s the Commander’s driver. There is no mention of Offred going to another household or building for the ‘classes’, as the classes are very clearly described to be with the other handmaids as well.

Then when they have their ‘afternoon nap’, it is described (such as in the beginning of the story) that they do it in an old university gym. I originally thought that perhaps there were other handmaids living under the same roof, but then when there is a Birth Day, Offred is the only one to go from her household, to the one whose handmaid is having the Birth. That confused me.

Apart from that, it was overall okay. Maybe just not exactly my kind of thing.
Don’t get me wrong; the story overall did get interesting about halfway through. Just that I don’t really understand what all the hype was about.

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The Choice by Samantha King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Out of all the books I’ve read before, this was the only one where my suspicions are about 95% true. Having saying that though, The Choice got me hooked.

Without giving too much away, I suspected Annabel’s fate from the off. I also suspected Dom & Max’s intentions (it was an either/or situation) and to find out that I had been right had been a smug moment for me.
Madeleine’s suffering was very relatable. The way King describes how Maddie is feeling seems to perforate through the pages of the book, because I felt them as if I was living it as well.

The climatic scenes got me breezing through the pages, eager to find out what happens next. The grief she felt, the relief, the panic; this book basically took me on a roller coaster of emotions. There were times I felt so frustrated with one of the characters. However, the ending was perfect, and I admit I almost got teary.

Samantha King is definitely an author to look out for; I know I’d be looking out for her future books!

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I Do Not Sleep by Judy Finnigan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very easy and pleasant read. Each chapter was only about 10 pages or less, and the font was fairly big. For a story about loss, the plot was fairly light, tone-wise.

Unlike other novels that tackle a grief-stricken protagonist, Molly was very relatable. She had her moments, but at the same time, I thought she was level-headed about it. Whenever she was being ‘unreasonable’, she would later contemplate her actions and the reactions of others. She did not wallow in self-pity and constantly feel sorry for herself; although the grief of losing Joey turned her into somewhat a zombie emotion-wise, she could still deliberate her actions after.

The theme also happened to coincide with a life event of mine, and the message that this book gave me had given somewhat of a comfort for me.

There was a pleasant surprise at the end too.

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