curiouslykatt's reviews
1089 reviews

Ari Thór, a rookie cop moves to a remote fishing village in northern Iceland, it’s suppose to be easy and a temporary posting. Nothing ever happens in the small village where nobody locks their doors at night.
Wrong.
We get a bloodied woman left in a frozen garden and an old guy is found dead.
SUSPENSE.
DRAMA.
WHODUNNIT.

Much like a barren ice land, of well, Iceland, this book had a whole lot of nothing for a good long while.

I’m not a newbie for Scandinavian lit, so I know the drill. Plain language. No metaphors. Straight to the point. No frills. All of this contributes to Nordic Noir books feeling more realistic than say their counterparts in North American thrillers and mysteries. For newbies of Nordic Noir in can be a bit jarring getting used to the pacing and the oversimplified language and style writing.

I was excited to pick up my first Icelandic Scandi Noir Lit as the genre is typically dominated by Swedish authors so it was nice to pick up something different. More herring less meatballs.

This story is slow as frozen molasses. We don’t get a dead body until Chapter 20….now that’s not the say there isn’t some tension build up, but truly, nobody died for like 100 pages. It’s a murder mystery…. We can’t really demistify our mystery until we get our murder.

Jónasson does ramp up the drama and suspense but all the good bits are in the last few chapters. The man had the audacity to end on a semi cliff hanger that makes me want to read book two because now we have some DRAAAAMMMAAA.

If you can stick with it, it’s a fine read.
But I wouldn’t blame you if you bail before you even find out who died. Like I said. It’s really slow.

Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Naomi’s Room is told from the perspective of her father Charles Hillenbrand, sometime years in the future following her disappearance and ultimate death. That’s not a spoiler it’s literally the opening line of the synopsis. Charles shared his story from the death of his daughter to present day. All within 212 pages.

This is such a well written ghost story, I couldn’t read it at night. I was getting too scared and too in my head, every little creak of my house sent a screaming “NOPE” through my whole body. Feet needed to be tucked under covers. Lights turned off and once I closed my eyes nothing was going to make me open them up until the morning. GHOSTS BE GONE.

There’s really no way to talk about this without major spoilers, but if you’re ready to get elbows deep into a really good and a really scary horror book you’re going to want to dive into this one.

The Spite House by Johnny Compton

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Survivors(readers) of The Final Girl Support Group, we meet Thursday nights at 6:06pm. Bring snacks. Bring wine because we need to unpack this one together.

I’m going to start saying I have yet to be disappointed in a book by Grady Hendrix and this one is my fourth. In a time honoured classic there’s a first time for everything, so this one was a bust for me.

Right from the hop something felt off about the writing of this one and bless @see.kat.read for letting me voice memo her along the way explaining my weird melange of feelings as I was reading.

One) Hendrix this far has never written a male lead. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it’s a weird vibe now I can’t shake and it really hit me in the face while reading this one. Mainly due to the fact this is such a female heavy focused story.

Two) something about the pacing of this one didn’t work for me and in conjunction with the writing style it was too chaotic and messy for me. This is a Kat the reader issue, because I love slasher films and the final girls but I enjoy them in the apex of their survival fight. So examining them thereafter when of course they would be messy, riddled with panic, and on the brink of insanity, makes sense, but those aren’t the girls I love. I’m the problem here.

Three) There are some great Easter eggs for Slasher film lovers, throughout you’ll be seeing bits and pieces from your favourite films which is a nice touch.

Four) I don’t know how much of this was meant to be a satire, a parody, and an homage to Final Girls. I really didn’t grasp what Hendrix was trying to do with this one. Again a Kat the reader issue. I’m the problem.

There just weren’t enough good points for me to love this one, and by the last third I just wanted to be done.

If this is your first Hendrix book and you didn’t like it, try another one because I really feel his better writing is elsewhere. This one is not the one.

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curiouslykatt's reviews 1089 reviews

curiouslykatt's reviews
1089 reviews