Moonlit Pages

I was a little bit disappointed in the ending but it was still an amazing read. I thoroughly enjoy it! I loved the mysterious, creepy and well-built atmosphere and how the story is told through diary entries, police reports, transcripts and more. I have already started recommending it!

I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would. In fact I barely enjoyed it at all. I hated the writing style and found it hard to follow. Frequently I found myself thinking "What the heck does that mean?....huh? what are they talking about?" The characters were unlikeable and the dialogue was unrealistic. I did take into consideration the time in which the book was written but I've read many excellent books from times long past and just no, this just wasn't good to me which is a real disappoinment.

I was not a fan of this writing style. it took me awhile to get use to it. In the beginning I found the story to be spooky but cliché and I thought I knew where it was going. I was wrong. It ended up being very disturbing and creepy.

I wanted to love this book. Everyone loves this book. But I didn't love this book. It was just okay.
I found it interesting at the beginning, but it began to drag on and on until I eventually lost interest in the mystery, because I just wanted it to be over. I didn't DNF it because I had just enough interest to make me want to find out how it ended, but when that ending FINALLY came, I was just left feeling unsatisfied. I will say however that Marisha Pessl, is amazing when it comes to her character development, writing characters that feel unique and real. I loved some of the suspense and the atmosphere and the premise was great, but it just stretched out too long.

2.5 stars

I had this short story read to me in a podcast Levar Burton Reads.

I'm not really into Sci-Fi so I found it a tad boring but It was short and sweet!

This book is mostly sentences with random line breaks. You know the saying "you have to learn to love yourself before you can love others"? yeah, well this book contains multiple "poems" that are just that saying worded slightly differently. Maybe I just don't get poetry, but I feel this is overhyped

Interesting at times, incredibly boring at others, this book is one that honestly would have been better as a short internet article.

I think books like this are profoundly important. There is such a huge stigma when it comes to Suicide and it really does make it hard for those who have thoughts of suicide to seek help. This book is beautiful written.
I enjoy the duel narrative and was almost holding my breath sometimes as I waited to find out what the next reason was and how it all connected.
It made me feel all the feels but it was also very true to what I knew. Years ago, I attempted Suicide. Luckily I was pulled from the edge and I survived. I did reach out for help before my attempt and I was let down. It wasn't taken seriously.
Some would say that Hannah is selfish and unrealistic but there are plenty of Suicide survivors that have read this book that would disagree with you. One thing to keep in mind is that at least in my experience when a person gets's that depressed, and ready for it to be over, Small things can seem even worse than they really are.
Things that no one would actually kill themselves over, little things, start to add up to create or merge with bigger things, everything crushing you and confirms to your mind that it's not worth it and you'd be better off or a multitude of other horrible misguided conclusions. Which is why this book is so important I think. That one thing you think is no big deal, the joke you told behind somebodies back or something super small, something that alone, nobody would kill themselves over, may just be the straw that breaks the camels back. The one thing that makes the burden too hard to carry anymore. So it's incredibly important that we be mindful of how our actions affect others.

I am so disappointed and so jealous. I'm jealous of those who read this book and loved it so much they gave it 5 stars. I can see why it's a classic and I can see why so many would love this book but I did not.
Parts of it (especially Book 2 - Chapter 9) read like an economic and political textbook and I found myself so disinterested and bored that I was tempted to skip chapters. I Feel as though I could have really enjoyed and gotten into the story if the political and economic details hadn't gotten in the way so much, but I suppose that's what makes this book a classic. I again wish that I loved it, I wanted to because it's a classic and everyone loves it, but I didn't love it or hate. There are powerful messages and imagery in this book and I'm not at all sorry that I read it, but overall I just thought it was "Okay".

This book was so very brilliantly done! It was a very intimate look into her life and feelings. Some of her poetry is beautiful.
I HIGHLY recommended that you get it in hardcover, though. I had a very difficult time seeing much of it because no matter how I tried my device just wouldn't render some of the images in a high enough resolution.

The ebook edition actually contains this warning at the beginning of the book. (I keep my e-reader in Night Mode)


Keep this in mind if you decided to give this book a try, which I would highly recommend for anyone interested in Marilyn Monroe.

Okay...There are so many things I didn't like about this book I don't know where to start. I made a list of the things that bothered me. They aren't in any particular order but are numbered.

1. The Search AKA "How to train dogs" had a lot of dialogs completely devoted to training dogs and dog behavior. Multiple times I found myself thinking "Am I reading a training guide or a romance mystery?"

2. I Kept waiting for something to happen, the tension would build and then I was left thinking "Oh, is that all?"

3. The ending felt like it should be satisfying, but it just wasn't for me.

4. As someone who has been a victim of violence, I call complete bullcrap on the fact that she left her doors unlocked or open all the time because it had been 8 years and she had her dogs. No, that's not how it works. It's been 10 years for me and I constantly look over my shoulder even when I know rationally I have no reason to. It's unrealistic and it bothered me badly.

5. Fiona and the fact that she was just like "Hi new client! I know you JUST hired me to train your puppy but allow me to tell you my life story and all about the time I was almost murdered, who cares if you're a complete stranger!"

5. Simon. I think He was the thing that Bothered me the absolute most. Never have I EVER read a romance novel where I couldn't stand the "hero". NEVER.
But I couldn't stand him. He was a dick.
Here are some actual quotes from him, keep in mind that this woman he's talking to, that he supposedly loves, went through a traumatic, terrifying ordeal and now it's happening all over again...
"If you’re going into brood mode, it’s going to piss me off.”
"Brood, if you need to, as long as I’m not around."
At one point he basically told her he didn't like her when she was upset and so he wanted her to not be upset.
I understand that he was supposed to come off as a real guy, with real flaws and not some perfect male but he's just a dick!
If I was Fiona, I would take his complete inability to comfort and his unhealthy aversion to any emotion that made him uncomfortable as a clear sign that he was completely emotionally unavailable. But no. Not her, "Oh this couldn't be a bad sign at all! I'm going through one of the hardest things I've ever faced in my life but better not let it get to me or I might make this dick upset and uncomfortable! Oh but I love him so much..."
Plus there is the fact that He'll get all angry and put his foot down and argue up and down with her about taking a shower and getting some rest and countless other things that aren't all that important but is all like
"It won't do me any good to argue with her about facing the guy trying to kill her so I guess I'll just get out of her way..."
when she decides she's going to go confront this guy that's been terrorizing her for months"

Overall, It was too long, too padded with dog training info, the hero was a unlikable dick, and nothing much happened except dog training and Simon squirming like a worm from having to deal with icky emotions.

I am ashamed to say that I was unaware of the blog when I picked this up. The whole thing is written in a hilarious and charming way. Some of it had me dying with laughter, while others had me nodding furiously at how relatable it was. One of the stories is called "Depression" and it is about Allie Brosh's struggle with the disease. I've dealt with anxiety and depression since I was a teenager and I've never been able to convey nor ever heard it conveyed so accurately, what It's like to suffer from depression. But even that section is handled with humor. I love it.

It was hilarious and very relatable, especially being an introvert who often has trouble adulting lol like me. A lot of these comics I had already seen around the internet so that kind of dampened it for me which is why I took a star.

A decent quick read. It's a very sweet story about finding happiness and love after hardship. Despite how it might seem it has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays, the parts in the cabin in the snow take place in the spring and the other 60% of the book takes place nowhere near snow or the holidays.
If you're bothered by Insta-Love it's has a little of that. But I still enjoyed it, it was very sweet.

I really didn't know what to rate this book. I bounced between 3 and 4 stars multiple times.
The pros are that it's a great story, it is intense and sometimes I found myself almost holding my breath wondering what would happen. It's creepy and unsettling and the characters are so fleshed out and well written that it's just really hard not to love this book. It's hard not to love them.
The cons are that it's a 500-700 page story told in over 1000.
Why did Stanley Uris' wife need so much backstory? Seriously she had absolutely nothing to do with the story.
We were told, at length, exactly why Henry Bowers had the farts for a scene that wasn't really all that important.
The whole bit about Claude Heroux almost put me to sleep.
Basically, Stephen King has an amazing ability to bring you to the edge of your seat and scare the crap out of you, while making you care deeply for very well written characters. But he also has a bad habit of over detailing, overwriting and it can make parts of this book drag on to the point where by the end you just want it to be over.
The sex scene with the kids. SERIOUSLY? I don't understand why that needed to happen. It seems to me that Stephen King could have written anything he wanted there but for some reason decided that
1. 11-year-olds having sex was the way to go and
2. The only girl there's biggest contribution is sex? Again I ask, Why?
I felt like I was reading something I shouldn't be, I felt dirty and it was just disturbing and maybe that's why this book is just so unsettling.
Despite the complaints and some are really huge, I would still recommend this book. It's something you have to read at least once!

This is actually been difficult for me. On the one hand, I can see why the book gets 5-star ratings. It's clever how the author makes us feel like we have Stockholm syndrome too, makes us feel uncertain and confused about how we feel. Or at least I can see how some people can be unsure of how they feel. For me, Ty did not bewitch me as he seems to have everyone else. Yeah as far as kidnappers go and, considering how things could have turned out if it had been your run of the mill rapist or murderer, Ty is not all that bad. I was not bewitched because he was written to be attractive. Which makes me wonder if Gemma would have felt differently if it had been some unattractive man. But no I still saw him as a disturbed kidnapper I mean he stalked her when she was 10 and he was almost nineteen! We call that a pedophile where I come from. The first 75% of this book is boring. I take that back, the beginning isn't boring, but when they get into the desert, Snoozefest. It's not until 75% through the book that it gets interesting again. I dozed off a lot trying to read this book. Overall I thought it was meh.... It was just okay. But I can see how people would love it.
It is something I would recommend to people simply because I understand that this is probably something unique to me.