plantladyreader's reviews
561 reviews

This is the second SK novel I have read, and I will say right off the bat that this one was much better than Cujo. With Cujo, I felt like everything was way too descriptive, and it could've been a book that was less than 100 pages. With Carrie, I wanted more of everything!

If you've seen the movie, you know the general plotline, so I went into this read knowing the story. Carrie is the daughter of Margaret White, notorious in the small town for being hyper-religious, and has grown up constantly under her mother's scrutiny. When Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic powers, she fears her mother's reaction. Constantly bullied during school, Carrie's tolerance reaches a breaking point when she is the victim of a cruel prank at the prom. Her ever-growing powers cause her to seek revenge in a truly horrifying and devastating way.

I really enjoyed the movie for this one, so I felt like I could go into it knowing I'd enjoy reading it more than my previous SK read. Typically, the book was much better than the film. Getting to know Carrie more personally, and the struggles she faces not only at home with her hyper-religious mother but also socially at school with her peers, really helped create a sense of empathy towards her. You can see why she snapped in the way she did. As I was reading this, it took me back to high school. I was one of those people who was nice to everyone, regardless of reputation or who they hung out with. I always thought that you never knew what someone was going through, and you never know what someone is capable of. Reading about Carrie's struggles really helped solidify those choices I made as a teen, and still make today.

One of the truly enjoyable points of SK's writing in this one was the inclusion of newspaper articles, police dispatches and writings from survivors. It really made this story believable, and definitely had me second guessing whether this actually happened in a small town in Maine

I can’t state enough how much I LOVED this book. Madeline Miller is an amazing author. Her writing style takes you into this amazing world of history she is presenting, and makes it so easy to picture the characters and their surroundings!

This book had an unexpected relationship in it that I was rooting for the entire time, and ended in such a beautiful way. Based around actual historical events of Ancient Greece and the people who were involved, Miller does an amazing job in educating you on an historical Greek war and Greek mythology, while also developing the characters in a way that makes you fall in love.

I would DEFINITELY recommend giving this novel a read, and will be reading it again in the (potentially near) future.

This novel was so amazingly beautiful. It has definitely made it to the list of my favourite books of all time, and I will recommend it until I turn blue.

We follow two sisters in the lead up, and during, the Second World War. They are very different, in both age and personality, yet both manage to have an inspiring impact on the events of the war in France. We also follow another character, set in the 1990s, and we don't learn her name until the very last chapter - this was a heartbreaking twist for me.

Isabelle is the youngest of the sisters, and much more rebellious than her sister. We learn that she has felt unsettled for her entire life, and at 18 she is once again heading back to the father that doesn't want her.

Vianne is the older of the two sisters, and must live with a husband fighting in the French army, a budding-teenage daughter, a Jewish best friend, and her home being taken over by the German army. We get the vibe that she has had to be responsible for Isabelle from a young age after the death of their mother, and that their relationship is rather strained because of it.

I can't say much without spoilers, but I loved the strength of the women in this book. Each takes a stand for their country and the people they love in such a different, but equally important way. Both impact the lives around them for the better, and it takes an outrageous amount of strength and courage for them to succeed.

This book was truly a powerful read - the emotions I felt while reading it were unmatched by anything I've read in a very long time. If you're a fan on historical fiction, you definitely need to add this to your To Be Read list. You'll be very happy you did.

5

This was a family saga set in the Australian Outback spanning over half a century, following the Cleary family as they move from New Zealand to the vast sheep station Drogheda in Australia. We first meet the family as they are struggling to make ends meet and feed all the mouths in their family. Fiona is constantly pregnant, but struggles to connect with any of their children except Frank, the eldest son, and the father Paddy seems gruff and distant as he works to keep food on the table. As the family grows and moves to Australia, we follow the hardworking men as they keep Drogheda profitable, while Fiona and Meggie keep a home with Paddy's rich older sister, Mary. The focus of this story is mainly on the only daughter, Meggie, as she catches the eye of Father Rather de Bricassart, and we follow the relationship between the two of them as it grows. This story spans droughts, fires, horrible marriages, grandchildren and World War Two, keeping the story from becoming a bit dull.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Thorn Birds. With it being such a large book centred entirely around one family and mainly, one daughter, I was worried I would find this a slow-paced chore to read. I was very pleasantly surprised. The book is broken into seven sections, with a new character being the focus of that section, but they all still seem to wrap around to Meggie, and we are still able to follow her journey.

Meggie is a character who I can relate to on some levels. While she's the only daughter of Fiona and Paddy, she idolizes her older brother Frank and wants to be more involved in helping the men on the farm, as opposed to sitting inside "keeping a home". She turns out to be a very resilient woman, but has to encounter a lot of trials and hardships until she grows into that woman, which definitely kept me interested in reading about her. While her suffering was difficult to read about at times, I really enjoyed her growth, and in the end she ends up getting what she wanted. Her life does not end in entire happiness, but she does learn to be thankful for what she has and accepting of her fate.

This book may be a bit intimidating, but it did not feel like a long read, and I was constantly wanting to read on to discover what was going to happen.

4

Another Jane Austen novel with a lively female lead. Emma is definitely one of my favourite Austen characters, as she is so relatable with her lively personality and wild ideas.

Emma thinks of herself as the ultimate matchmaker. Having decided she needs to care for her elderly father, she sets her mind to finding love for all her friends. She even goes so far to help "refine" her friends, and find them matches above their station. She is very assertive, sometimes to a fault, and is constantly on the lookout for potential romances.

I enjoyed this read because of Emma's charm. She was sometimes so blind to the happenings around her, and her opinions of people of the lower classes was typical of a young woman of high society breeding. In the end, she (somewhat) learns a valuable lesson and has a happily ever after of her own! It did however read very slowly, as classics do, and I really lagged on getting through it. I was reading other books throughout my read of Emma, and pretty much only read it at night before I went to sleep

I have to say, Stuart Theron did an amazing job with this one! He definitely has a creative mind, and he managed to write a thriller in a way I’ve never seen done before! It’s like The Great Gatsby meets The Dinner Party, and I loved it!

As the synopsis states, we’re invited to a party where a murder will be committed, and we have 8 hosts to solve the murder. I really enjoyed how Turton described the thought process behind each of the hosts, and how they all dealt with the situation at hand. It was an interesting perspective to have some characters who were more cunning than others, more physically fit, more ruthless, and who had more connections to the family involved! It was such a creative way to surround the same situation with different perspectives. I’ve never read a thriller like it.

And while I’m continuously calling it a thriller, the description is not as simple as that. In my mind, the “villain” changed faces a couple of times throughout the book, and the way each host viewed different people! I was constantly suspicious of certain characters, and not the least suspicious with others! But within a few chapters my whole perspective had changed! It took me on a wild journey, but not in the same way a regular thriller novel usually does. I was more curious about the journey our narrator was taking, and less wrapped up in who was killing who.

I really love thrillers that make me think, and that I can’t figure out immediately! It makes it more enjoyable to read, because I can’t predict the ending, and it’s a surprise twist with how it plays out. Turton definitely achieves this with The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and I will for sure be looking out for more of his work.

4.5