Book Reviews - Rachel Ellen

Saturday 20 February 2016

Book Reviews


Here's a new one for me, a book review (well three - kind of). Normally when I read book reviews on blogs they're all super positive but unfortunately I'm going to do things a little differently! (no surprises there then!) I had some clever idea to make the title of this post a combination of the three books I was going to review, "Us Bone Clocks on the Train", it was a lot less clever than I originally thought so now you get a boring title.

The Girl On The Train - Paul Hawkins


 I bet every book lover has read this or at least heard of this by now, I'd wanted to read this for a while since finishing Gone Girl as I'd heard so many people mention it in line with that book. And as it is being made into a film I thought I would actually read the book before watching the film (because that's what we all want really!)

I've never been a fan of reviews being big plot descriptions - they end up giving too much away. But here's a brief idea. The main character is Rachel (I didn't even know before I read the book!) and she gets on a train every day (I even impress myself with my descriptive skills) She's filled with heartbreak, an ex-husband, a drinking problem and various other issues that develop through the book. She's a very relatable character, which makes for a good narrative voice. The book is well written, believable relatable characters (mostly, some seem a little far-fetched but hey it's a novel we like a bit of that!), and doesn't give away too much or too little. There is a murder in the book and honestly, even though I like to see myself as quite savvy, I really didn't guess it until quite late on! I read the book in like 2 days, I was hooked so quickly!

Definitely recommend, and it's not massively long!
4/5 (a four because it's not writing genius but god it was good!)


 Us - David Nicholls



I finished reading this a few months ago so excuse my patchy memory on it! I started out really enjoying this book, I liked the writing style I liked the characters but it got pretty boring around half way through. I found the book lacked pace. In the review above for The Girl on the Train, I said a couple of the characters were a touch far-fetched, this was the total opposite, the characters felt very real, but boring because of that! The book is narrated by a father, Douglas and is centred around is family, his wife Connie and his son Albie. They have a plan to go travelling before Albie goes away to university but before they go, Connie tells Douglas she wants to leave him but go travelling first (I know i said the characters were very real before but this bit does seem a little silly). It's exactly how you imagine it would be. It was quite samey and I got pretty bored, but managed the finish it eventually!

I can see that some people might like this book but it was a bit too slow for me.

2/5

The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell

 I can't explain how long I've been trying to read this book, it feels like the elephant in the room in my bedroom, I feel exhausted at the thought of reading it!

The book starts out following a young lady, Holly she narrates it and I really grew to like her, it was a little slow anyway but I liked her voice as the narrator. The next part changes to a different voice narrating it, Hugo. I am stuck in his part, I find the character unrelatable, boring and pompous. The excitement in the fantasy that was brought into the end of part one has just disappeared (I realise it might come back but I'm finding it so difficult to get past!)

I can't even tell you that much about the book because I'm not even 150 pages in. If you have a lot of patience maybe try this book, if not then don't put yourself through it! I'm still debating whether to finish it or not!

1/5

 I hope these book reviews either make you want to read the books or never bother spending your money on them! (on a side note, anybody want to buy the Bone Clocks off me for £5 - I really should have given it a better review to do that!)

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think of these books!

Rachel xx

2 comments:

  1. I downloaded a free sample of the david mitchell book but I won't be reading it x

    Heather | Of Beauty & Nothingness x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I'd have read the sample first! Maybe then I wouldn't have bought the book! x

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