My Book Reviews

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I was younger, I had this big (literally; the books were the size of a paper folder) purple collection of books (I think they had classics). Somehow, I was always drawn to The Hounds of the Baskervilles. I remember vaguely an illustration of a hound on top of a dead body, its muzzle bloody. Keep in mind that this was a children's version.

Fast forward to many years later, I'm finally reading the actual tale. It wasn't as exciting of a tale as I was hoping it would be, I have to admit. It's still nice though, don't get me wrong. It just had less to do with the hound than I had been expecting.

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The Treatment by C.L. Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THIS BOOK.
OMG.

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it is. On the day I started this book, I initially thought I'd read maybe just a chapter or so to get started, then properly read it the next day. But 'a chapter or so' became several, and before I knew it, I read about a quarter in.

IT WAS SO HARD TO PUT DOWN.

At the climax I literally had to stop myself from flying off the pages for fear of missing details. There were moment when my jaw fell to the floor because I hadn't been expecting something to happen. There were some parts that I had predicted from the beginning, but even so, Taylor wrote it so eloquently that when it came to certain revelations, there was still an element of shock to it.

I did notice 2 or 3 little sentence structure errors, but they in no way affected the pleasure of reading the story.

For some reason though, I seemed to liken Mrs H. to Dr Ava Paige, and Dr Rothwell to A.D Janson (both from the Maze Runner).

This is by far the only book (other than the Harry Potter series, of course-... Forever an HP nerd =3) that made such an unexpected impact on me.

This is definitely not my longest review, but do me a favour everyone and PICK UP THIS BOOK. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of Taylor's books.

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Against All Odds by Danielle Steel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kate has 4 kids that have decided to go against the odds (not necessarily in a good way), in spite of her voicing her doubts to her kids. So if there is anything that I learnt from this book, it's that sometimes, no matter how much you love someone and want to protect them from getting hurt, you'll have to let them make their own mistakes and learn from them.

The conversation structures were very simple, and most of the description that explains the conversations were also very simply put. There is a part at the ending that I had suspected would happen a long way coming too.

Certain events, I felt, seemed too easily overcome though. Maybe it was just written that way so as to not make the story too long-winded and boring; in which case, that worked!

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Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I swear I don't mean any insult and disrespect when I say that I did not expect to love this book as much as I do. The synopsis at the back of the book, frankly, does not do the story justice.

To be honest, I was expecting a sort of run-of-the-mill story about racism and Islamophobia. But the book was such an easy read, the chapters not too long, and the story so relatable. I may not be Muslim, and Islamophobia might not be prominent here (seeing as Malaysia is a Muslim-dominated country after all), but Maya's struggles with her closed-minded parents very much resembles the life of some of my Indian friends (yes, even in this day and age).

I've been very fortunate that my parents were always open minded and understanding, but I've had friends lament about the mentality of their parents to me. Maya's life sort of felt familiar to me in a way, because it felt like I was reading excerpts of the life of some of my friends.

Yes, there are some cliches, but so does real life anyway. Major kudos to Samira!

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Conversations with Heaven by Theresa Cheung
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

WARNING: This review will have me relate some of my own experiences to what I've read. I won't go into great detail of course, but just a heads up to let you know that there will be instances where I relate something I've read in this book with a bit of my own personal experience.

I have to say, first of all, that I normally don't read books like these. No offense whatsoever of course, but it's just not something I'd sit down for hours at. However, that day at the bookstore, I felt compelled to get it, and it didn't take much thought.

The main reason, I can confidently say, was influenced by the fact that I lost my grandfather not too long ago (it's been over 6 months now, but it still feels fresh). Something about this book just drew me in.

I liked it because it contained many short stories from readers who've had experiences 'communicating' with or visions of deceased loved ones. A few days after the passing of my grandfather, whom I loved very dearly, I did dream about him. And in that dream, I felt like there was some sort of closure in it, but at that time I wasn't so sure what it meant and I hadn't want to get my hopes too high up. After reading this though, I am ecstatic to know that it really had been one of the ways that my grandfather had sent me a message.

He has appeared in my dreams several times after that, and those are the 'vivid' kind that I still remember to this day. And in each of the dreams, the message that he wanted to send was very clear; I am very sure of that now.

In a nutshell, this book has somewhat helped me get the closure I need that my grandfather really is communicating to me through my dreams, and he has, on more than one occasion, told me (indirectly) that he's doing fine up there, and that he loves me.

Thank you, Theresa. I needed that.

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The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't... scared, per se. Creeped out, yes.

I must admit that I expected for there to be a twist at the end. I suspected that things were not as they seemed as I was reading it. When you have two siblings who can see ghosts of the previous governess and driver (whom they are well aware of are dead); and whom don't really seem to mind at all, things sound fishy.

Also when they are described as very pretty/handsome, full of charm, and seem to be of close to no trouble at all, you know that something isn't quite right (because let's face it, kids are not that well behaved; even back then). My original guess (from reading the synopsis at the back of the book) was that perhaps the ghosts and the kids are plotting something over the new governess. I won't say if I'm right or wrong; I'll let you read it and see. ;)

The ending seemed to be open-ended. I have quite a few questions regarding the ending, namely: (highlight for spoilers!)

1) What happened to Flora & Mrs Grose?
2) Did they just up and left and never came back to Bly?
3) WTF HAPPENED TO MILES?? Why the heck did he just drop dead?!
4) What became of the other workers there?


Other than that, seeing as it was only 143 pages long, it was a nice, light read.


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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'll say this straight out: I liked it; I don't particularly love it though.

There was one whole chapter that basically explained Dorian's background, which I found so boring/hard to follow that I skipped the chapter as a whole; something I've never done before.

I kinda suspected what the ending would be around the second last chapter, and I was right. However, I felt like there was a chunk missing from Dorian's character early on in the book to his 'character development', I'd say. Then again, it could just be my pea-brain not processing the information as intended. =p

Other than that, it was a pretty good book.

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Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read several books by Stephen King, and I'd like to think that I could ascertain which was written in his style and which was written in Owen's style. Still, I think they blend together pretty damn well.

The element of amazing storytelling that Stephen is so famous for is prominent in this book too, though I'm unable to say the same for Owen as I've never read any of his books.

It has a good theme/plot: What would happen if, one day, all women disappeared from earth? How would the men cope on their own? There are things/reactions that you would expect from men, but what intrigued me was Evie.
As with all Stephen King's books, this has a supernatural element in it too. One day Evie appears, women start being encompassed in cocoons when they fall asleep, and removing those webs would cause chaos. Naturally, Evie becomes famous faster than Trump can say 'Fuck her right in the pussy'.
She's the only woman that can sleep and wake up without being in a cocoon, and she seems to know everything about everyone, and how things were going to end up. And what's up with that huge tree??

This deserves a nod for character development too, because one particular character that I originally felt really annoyed at, turned out to be not so bad after all. (Situations change people, as we all know.) Though one character, whom I grew to despise, met his fitting fate, I think, because that leopard never changed his stripes, and stuck with his mentality through and through.

I love this book; as I do with almost all of Stephen King's other books. I love the suspense, the addictive events, the whole shebang. What can I say? I'm a fan.

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The Dark Half by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with all of King’s books, they have a way of sucking you in to it’s stories. I like this one (as I do most of his books, actually), and something about it sticks with me the way Doctor Sleep did.

The Dark Half dabbles with topics of the paranormal, as with most of his books. In this case, the ‘person’ in question, George Stark, really ‘isn’t a nice guy’. Apparently writer Thaddeus Beaumont’s ‘evil twin’, Stark does everything in his power to become real, take over Thad, and rule his life. Kinda like a creepy osmosis.

I don’t think I have to tell you, and I think that it would not technically classify as a ‘spoiler’, but of course good trumps over evil, and George Stark is thwarted (obvs). It was a nice touch though, I think, on how King writes out Stark’s eventual (and well-deserved) end. Stark’s weakness, which he himself had been oblivious about for the most part, had been very satisfying to read about; especially since Stark was the cold-blooded, bloody killer that he is. Of course it was nice to read about how THE feared George Stark had a weakness in which he himself had not been aware of. Makes the offing more satisfying eh?

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Pet Sematary by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephen King himself said, when asked which of his book is the scariest, that Pet Sematary was it. Well, now that I've read it, this is what I think:

I read a quarter of it, and didn't find it scary in the least. No matter. Some books take about halfway through to get to the good bits, right? So then I got through half of it. Still nothing. Not quite scary; a bit of an unease would be best fitted. I still didn't see why King himself deemed it the 'scariest book' he wrote. And I've read Cujo, The Shining, It, and the likes.

Then again, as all his fans will be aware of, the description above wouldn't quite be King.

And rightfully so.

The last 'prelude', if you will, packed so much intensity and was so gripping that I felt spooked. Suddenly being alone in an air-conditioned room, with the sound of rain pelting on my window, didn't seem too calming anymore. Suddenly the slightest sounds just about creeped me out more than it should.
And now, minutes after finishing the book, I'm still jittery. The epilogue scene is stuck in my head. I'm creeped out. Not so much scared, but disturbed. Help.

Even the epilogue ended in a cliffhanger, which made it all the more disturbing, in my opinion.

I actually downloaded the movie, thinking that I'd want to watch it after I'm done with the book.
Now I'm not so sure. At least I definitely won't be watching it alone.

I stayed up till the wee hours just to finish this book, and now I'm not sure if I can go right to bed. *gulps*

You got me, Stephen King. You got me good.

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The Twilight Pariah by Jeffrey Ford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The synopsis of this book really intrigued me. I got this from PageHabit's book bundle, so it had little annotations by the author. The annotations were just little random facts though, and not necessarily about the story.

As this a thin book, it is what I'd call a rather short story. 3 young adults (Henry, Russel, and Maggie) unearth a skeleton of a baby with horns and a jar of some liquidy stuff, and as expected, things start happening to the people close to the 3. The confusing thing was though, at the back of the book in the synopsis, it mentions that the liquid in the jar was red.


However, there was no mention of the colour when they first found it in the book. When the colour of the substance was described though, it was described as being brown; which is rather confusing.


Other than that, the story panned out pretty nicely. Needless to say, the 'monster' was defeated pretty easily (understandable, as it was not a thick book to begin with). The storyline didn't feel rushed either, so that was good.

Overall, I liked it. Not too heavy a plot, and no over-complicated scenes. It won't scare you silly, but it's just enough paranormality.

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