#COLLABOREADS: Thrillers pre-2010
With Halloween just around the corner and a crisp autumn chill in the air, Amber and I decided it would be perfect to make this month's theme thrillers. We clarified it with pre-2010 to avoid what we knew many people would gravitate to...Gone Girl. I read it, I liked it, but we wanted a little more diversity in the books everyone selected.
If you've never heard about #COLLABOREADS, welcome to the fourth month of our fun little online book club! We pick a theme every month (so everyone's reading different books) and then all link up and share our thoughts (with a handy-dandy R.E.A.D.S. acronym usually) and link up and become BFFs. You can read more about this whole thing here.
Thrillers aren't usually my first choice, so this was a little bit of a stretch for me! When I saw this one from the popular Donna Tartt, I knew it would be a book I could get through without too much creepiness or scariness, and I was right!
Here's my review of The Secret History. Here's Amber's review of her choice! Link up with your thriller review below! If you didn't join in this month, we would love for you to join us for non-fiction November!
Riveting.
What part of the book could you NOT get enough of? Well, the very first sentence of the prologue mentions that Bunny is dead and that the author had something to do with it...so from the start, I was hooked on figuring out how and why and the whole story behind his death. Prologues with teasers like that always intrigue me (which is the whole idea) and keep me reading and keep me guessing. The book jumps back in time after the prologue, so that suspense and mystery kept me turning pages to get to the real juicy parts of the plot.
Elements.
How did you relate to/care for the characters? I honestly didn't love or connect very much with any of them. Their lifestyles and interests and actions baffled me most of the time, and they seemed really distant. I found their professor to be an interesting and more warm-hearted man, but the core characters (the group of students) were pretty uninteresting to me.
What's your thought on the plot line and twists and turns? This book, like I mentioned, took some time to really get going. Honestly, it wasn't super thrilling to me. The reviews on the back said things like "suspenseful from start to finish" and "a haunting, compelling, and brilliant piece of fiction," but I don't agree. I thought it was good, yes, and I wanted to keep reading, but not for any hugely compelling or suspenseful reason. It was mostly because I wanted all the dots to connect so I could tie up the loose ends in my brain and move on.
Associate.
What other books are like this one? I don't think I've read similar books to this one (it's not my typical go-to genre) but it kept reminding me SO MUCH of the show How to Get Away With Murder. So many parallels, although I think the show is more intense because it's so visual. If you like HTGAWM, you'll probably love this one!
Design.
What did you think of it? I think the cover is just eh. It didn't grab me, didn't really catch my eye at all. It could have been so much more dramatic and representative of the story instead of just being a vague allusion to the Greek culture that the students studied.
Stars.
How many out of five do you give this book? Would you recommend this book to a friend? This book gets a solid 3 out of 5 stars in my book. It was good, but not extraordinary, and certainly not particularly thrilling. Maybe shows like HTGAWM have jaded me with all of their blood and gore and drama and intense, suspenseful editing...
LET'S LINK UP NOW.
Share your post here, and go leave love in the comments for everyone else! You'll probably add a bunch of books to your to-read lists too, so get those ready.
Also, make sure you read Amber's review HERE!
And finally, for NEXT MONTH:
The topic for November is "NON-FICTION NOVEMBER" and we hope you'll find a book, read it throughout November, and link up with your review on November 30!
Want some suggestions? Start here!