Books 8 - 11
Aug. 12th, 2024 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavendersparkAs per usual, I haven't been properly updating my books, so here's what I've read recently. I haven't been reading as much lately. Struggling to find anything good and struggling to find the desire to read.
When Margaret and Steve Frawley come home to Connecticut from a black-tie dinner in New York, their three-year-old twins, Kathy and Kelly, are gone. The police found the babysitter unconscious, and a ransom note from the Pied Piper demands eight million dollars. Steve's global investment firm puts up the money, but when they go to retrieve the twins, only Kelly is in the car. The dead driver's suicide note says he inadvertently killed Kathy.
At the memorial, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says: Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now. At first, only Margaret believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. But as Kelly's warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, FBI agents set out on a desperate search. This was your typical MHC story. There were a few twists I didn't see coming and overall it was an okay read. I'm starting to not enjoy books that have children being hurt. Not that I every really *enjoyed* them, but I'm at a point where I would rather not read them at all.
In Portland, he saved a young boy from a drunk driver. In Boston, he rescued a child from an underground explosion. In Houston, he disarmed a man who was trying to shoot his own wife. Reporter Holly Thorne was intrigued by this strange quiet savior named Jim Ironheart. She was even falling in love with him. But what power compelled an ordinary man to save twelve lives in three months? What visions haunted his dreams? And why did he whisper in his sleep: There is an Enemy. It is coming. It’ll kill us all... ? Again, your typical Koontz story, though this one didn't have a golden retriever. This one also felt off with several things. The romance made zero sense, the characters had no chemistry. And the reveal of what was happening felt... wrong. I'm not sure how to explain without spoilers. Maybe it's because it was written/published in the 90s. I don't know, but I didn't really like this book.
The Joker has been murdered. His killer is a mystery. Batman is the World's Greatest Detective. But what happens when the person he is searching for is the man staring back at him in the mirror?
THE JOKER IS DEAD.
There is no doubt about that. But whether Batman finally snapped his scrawny neck or some other sinister force in Gotham City did the deed is still a mystery.
Problem is, Batman can't remember...and the more he digs into this labyrinthine case, the more he starts to doubt everything he's uncovering.
So who better to set him straight than...John Constantine?
The problem with that is as much as John loves a good mystery, he loves messing with people's heads even more. So with John's 'help,' the pair will delve into the sordid underbelly of Gotham as they race toward the mind-blowing truth of who murdered the Joker. This I actually enjoyed. It veers a bit from the Batman storylines I've read before, but still holds the spirit. The biggest difference here is that it's narrated by Constantine. Their interactions are actually pretty minimal, but seeing Bruce through John's eyes was interesting. They did play with Batman's origins and I was not a fan of that, but overall I enjoyed the story.
Constantine is not your average bad boy…
John Constantine is, and has always been, a magician of the highest caliber—who doesn’t need additional training from any highbrow magician, thank you very much.
Sensing an opportunity for independence, Constantine falsely accepts an apprenticeship in the United States to instead become the lead singer of his best friend’s punk band, Mucous Membrane. When the band begins to dabble in magic, a complicated spell gets out of hand…and the disastrous consequences might be more than Constantine can handle. Saw this at the store and found it at the library rather than pay $17 for it. It's not terrible, but it isn't Constantine. It's more love story than magic and they completely changed John's back story. It was a fun story, but not at all part of the Constantine story.
When Margaret and Steve Frawley come home to Connecticut from a black-tie dinner in New York, their three-year-old twins, Kathy and Kelly, are gone. The police found the babysitter unconscious, and a ransom note from the Pied Piper demands eight million dollars. Steve's global investment firm puts up the money, but when they go to retrieve the twins, only Kelly is in the car. The dead driver's suicide note says he inadvertently killed Kathy.
At the memorial, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says: Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now. At first, only Margaret believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. But as Kelly's warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, FBI agents set out on a desperate search. This was your typical MHC story. There were a few twists I didn't see coming and overall it was an okay read. I'm starting to not enjoy books that have children being hurt. Not that I every really *enjoyed* them, but I'm at a point where I would rather not read them at all.
In Portland, he saved a young boy from a drunk driver. In Boston, he rescued a child from an underground explosion. In Houston, he disarmed a man who was trying to shoot his own wife. Reporter Holly Thorne was intrigued by this strange quiet savior named Jim Ironheart. She was even falling in love with him. But what power compelled an ordinary man to save twelve lives in three months? What visions haunted his dreams? And why did he whisper in his sleep: There is an Enemy. It is coming. It’ll kill us all... ? Again, your typical Koontz story, though this one didn't have a golden retriever. This one also felt off with several things. The romance made zero sense, the characters had no chemistry. And the reveal of what was happening felt... wrong. I'm not sure how to explain without spoilers. Maybe it's because it was written/published in the 90s. I don't know, but I didn't really like this book.
The Joker has been murdered. His killer is a mystery. Batman is the World's Greatest Detective. But what happens when the person he is searching for is the man staring back at him in the mirror?
THE JOKER IS DEAD.
There is no doubt about that. But whether Batman finally snapped his scrawny neck or some other sinister force in Gotham City did the deed is still a mystery.
Problem is, Batman can't remember...and the more he digs into this labyrinthine case, the more he starts to doubt everything he's uncovering.
So who better to set him straight than...John Constantine?
The problem with that is as much as John loves a good mystery, he loves messing with people's heads even more. So with John's 'help,' the pair will delve into the sordid underbelly of Gotham as they race toward the mind-blowing truth of who murdered the Joker. This I actually enjoyed. It veers a bit from the Batman storylines I've read before, but still holds the spirit. The biggest difference here is that it's narrated by Constantine. Their interactions are actually pretty minimal, but seeing Bruce through John's eyes was interesting. They did play with Batman's origins and I was not a fan of that, but overall I enjoyed the story.
Constantine is not your average bad boy…
John Constantine is, and has always been, a magician of the highest caliber—who doesn’t need additional training from any highbrow magician, thank you very much.
Sensing an opportunity for independence, Constantine falsely accepts an apprenticeship in the United States to instead become the lead singer of his best friend’s punk band, Mucous Membrane. When the band begins to dabble in magic, a complicated spell gets out of hand…and the disastrous consequences might be more than Constantine can handle. Saw this at the store and found it at the library rather than pay $17 for it. It's not terrible, but it isn't Constantine. It's more love story than magic and they completely changed John's back story. It was a fun story, but not at all part of the Constantine story.
