On the second of October I went to the bookstore, I hadn't read a lot lately as I was building up the anticipation for Dan Browns new book Origin. Some people criticize him but I am a big fan. Sadly the book hadn't arrived at the store yet. I was glad to see that the fifth book in the Milennium series had come out when I was in Amsterdam. Without further adue, lets get down to reviews of the books I've read.
2/10 David Lagercrantz: Mannen som sökte sin skugga (The man who searched for his shadow)
I love Lisbeth Salander as the badass -pardon the language- hero. Instead of the thoughtful or just beautiful female heroine you get a girl who pays zero respect and does what she wants. If you havn't read the Milennium books I highly recommend them, especially the first three by Stieg Larsson. This one was far from bad but I have to say that I liked 1-4 better. While they were detective stories this was more like a mystery. It lacked the actual thought process of trying to figure out who the villain was, it was quite obvious. It was a great mystery tho, with an excellent solution. Definitely worth a read! I give it 7.5/10
Obviously I finished the book the same day as Dan Brown couldn't wait, and the next day the book was in.
3/10 Dan Brown: Origin
As always Dan Brown writes an excellent and fast paced mystery. It is the same concept as most of the other books, - Secret has to be found before mysterious murderer catches up. - but the concept works and it's hard to put the book down. I don't recommend anyone who isn't a true bookworm to read all of them in a row but I do recommend you to read them if you like that kind of books. Don't start with this one tho, Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code should be your first one. Still, I give it 8/10.
After finishing two books in two days I was in reading mode and I did actually have a series that I wanted to check out. I had actively avoided reading it so that I would be even more excited for Origin and not get tired of reading. But well, I wasn't tired. I will write one review for the entire trilogy even if it took me two days to read it.
Mariette Lindstein:
5/10 Sekten på dimön (The sect on fog island)
6/10 Sekten som återuppstod (The sect that came back to life)
6/10 Sektens barn (The children of the sect)
The first book is about a girl in her early twenties who gets dragged into a sect on an island by a charismatic leader. Everything is great at first but it slowly turns into a tyranny and slave camp with terrible punishments where the sect members arn't allowed to flee.
The second book is about her life after fleeing from the sect ... but the sect hasn't let go of her at all.
The third book takes place fifteen years late whn the sect is recreated ... and once again the sect and its charistmatic leader are on her. I'm not saying too much about book two and three as that would be a bit of spoiling but if anything the quality goes up, not down.
While I don't think these books were any of the best I've ever read there is one thing that makes them very much worth reading, the author was stuck in the Scientologists for 25 years before managing to escape and made the entire story and description of the sect realistic. Not the same punishments and rules but reality was equally bad for her, sometimes worse than she writes in the book. Characters and locations completely fiction, story based on how the inside of a sect can b. One thing noteworthy is that the main villain in the book is one of the characters I've hated the most of all the villains I have met in books and films. I don't know how much of the hate comes from that he semes to be based on knowing that it's fully realistic and how much of it comes from the way he acts but it goes to show that the author did something right, the books are terrifying. I give it a 6/10 for the story but considering that it's based on true experiences I give it +3 on the must read scale, 9/10.
Photo is of the books I read between Monday and Friday, with a break on Wednesday.
Link to Ghost of forest manor song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE_28YFWPGI