Wellington High School and Com Ed Centre

35,795 pages read and 2,326 team points

Team members

Yeahbrenda

6,652 pts

(6,579 pages read)

The Cleaner

By Paul Cleave

0 stars

Currently reading
The Boy in the Headlights

By Samuel Bjork

0 stars

Currently reading
The Owl Always Hunts at Night

By Samuel Bjork

2 stars

The second in the series, this book doesn't break much new ground.
Bitter Wash Road

By Garry Disher

3 stars

Laconic Aussie storytelling, and lean evocative prose that suits the Queensland setting for this grim crime novel. I liked it!
I'm Travelling Alone

By Samuel Bjork

4 stars

A welcome return to Scandinavian crime :) - complex plotting and a huge cast of characters - I really had to concentrate - but a very rewarding read and a massive relief after enduring a couple of awful books before this :)
The Housemaid

By Freida McFadden

1 stars

Terrible. This book made me laugh out loud so many times. I read it because of the movie/hype - I like thrillers - but the writing is AWFUL: unimaginative description and dull, unnecessary detail, but other moments land without context or reason. The reader gets a distorted sense of what is important or foreshadowing, results in lots of irritating red herrings or dead ends. Characters are clichéd and poorly developed. The plot is wildly implausible. It lacks craft and it feels unedited. Example: "Are you OK?" "I'm OK. Are you OK?" "Yes, I think I'm OK." Variations of this appear at least ten times over the course of the book. Another couple of moments: "There was a round, circular table." "The attic was draughty" and then a few pages later, "The attic was stuffy"... better writers have written better versions of this story. (Jane Eyre, Rebecca etc). A Harlan Coben wannabe.
The Kingmaker's Daughter

By Philippa Gregory

3 stars
The Red Queen

By Philippa Gregory

3 stars
Rebecca

By Daphne du Maurier

4 stars

Classic
The White Queen

By Philippa Gregory

3 stars
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By Stieg Larsson

1 stars

I can't believe that I persevered with this book. It is awful. The first third was very slow going. A stultifying combination of cumbersome writing with far too much detail, and a pantheon of characters, which I struggled to manage - largely due to their lack of colour. There is also a heavy reliance on lengthy exposition via dialogue. Suddenly we arrive at a hideous and graphic account of sexual assault. And these two elements characterise this book: tedious, dry detail and voyeuristic descriptions of torture and sexual violence against women. The book purports to take a feminist stance, but it reads as overltly sadistic and prurient. The best character, Lisbet, is seen mostly from Blomkvist's POV, so we get a patriarchal assessment of her for most of the book, which focuses mostly on her physical appearance. And Blomkvist is a total cliché, arrogant, humourless, and lead by his penis. The title is a misnomer. It should be called "The Dull Man who Talked too much". I made myself finish it, but I hated this book.
The Reckoning

By Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

3 stars

I found this to be slow going. The plot is excellent, but again the writing is laboured and has too much explanation- well, too much for a thriller.
The Mist

By Ragnar Jónasson

4 stars

The strongest of the trilogy - and a really compelling read.
The Island

By Ragnar Jónasson

4 stars

Like all of Jónasson's books that I have read, the plotting is atrong - the the telling is not fast-paced enough to build momentum.
The Darkness

By Ragnar Jónasson

3 stars

Book 1 of a trilogy. Reversed timeline across the three books made for insightful reading.
Outside

By Ragnar Jónasson

4 stars

Stand alone thriller. Plot driven and compelling.
The Fallout

By Yrsa Sigurðardóttir

3 stars

Innovative plotting, but sometimes a little bit over written or too descriptive. Excellent storyline.

18 - 0 - 1

Add pages read

Wellington High School and Com Ed Centre

35,795 pages read and 2,326 team points

Team members

VSW

Angela Pelham

Yeahbrenda

John B

Helen M

Paton

CPJ

AceyJay

A.Haxton

ExLibrisAmy

Sharon Henry

Aimee

Tate

Emma Smith

Emma Wood

KFiszer

Kobe M

Ruka-Pa

Yeahbrenda

The Cleaner

The Boy in the Headlights

The Owl Always Hunts at Night

Bitter Wash Road

I'm Travelling Alone

The Housemaid

The Kingmaker's Daughter

The Red Queen

Rebecca

The White Queen

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Reckoning

The Mist

The Island

The Darkness

Outside

The Fallout

Wellington High School and Com Ed Centre

35,795 pages read and 2,326 team points

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