Category: 2/5

2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, E-Book, Fiction, L, NetGalley, RATING, Read in 2014, READING CHALLENGES 2014, Review Book

2014.32 REVIEW – The Three by Sarah Lotz

Tara

The Three
by Sarah Lotz

Copyright: 2014
Pages: 395
Rating: 2/5
Read: July 5-July 15, 2014
Challenge: What’s in a Name
Yearly count: 32
Format:  E-Book
Source: NetGalley
Series: N/A

The ThreeBlurb: Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he’s right?

The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn’t appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage.

Dubbed ‘The Three’ by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioral problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children’s behavior becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival…

Review: I received a copy of this book for free via NetGalley, all opinions expressed below are my own.

I originally saw this book mentioned in a Shelf Awareness email. It sounded really good and I was excited when I got the notification saying that I had been approved for a copy on NetGalley. Then I do like I seem to do with every single e-book I get … I let it sit. And sit. And sit some more. I decided it was time to clear this book off my review list and loaded it up onto my Nook and took off with it.

Now that I’ve finished this book, I’m just confused. First of all this book is billed as “horror.” To me there’s not a lick of horror in this book. I can’t even bring myself to call it creepy in any way, shape or form. I think horror fans are going to be sorely disappointed by this book.

The premise behind the book sounds really interesting. But the execution was just lacking in my opinion. I was okay with the book within a book format, but then it took a really strange turn at the end that I didn’t understand. The ending was so ambiguous and I did not like that at all.

Obviously the book wasn’t horrendous, because I finished it. But it just didn’t work for me.

2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, N, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Coroner by Thomas T. Noguchi, M.D.

Tara
Coroner
by Thomas T. Noguchi, M.D.
Copyright: 1983
Pages: 252
Rating: 2/5
Read: Feb. 23-27, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read

First Line: In my memory, as I write, there is a montage of tragic scenes.

Dr. Noguchi was the “coroner to the stars.” He performed the autopsies of individuals like Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy and Janis Joplin. He was also highly controversial in some of his findings. In this book he finally reveals his true thoughts and feelings behind some of the details of his most famous autopsies.
I didn’t care for this book. It started out really good but it just seemed to be quite repetitive near the end. I was really disappointed in it. When I read the description on PBS I thought it would be a lot better and I regret using a credit to order this book. I wouldn’t recommend this book whatsoever.
2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, H, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Aruba by Dave Holloway

Tara
Aruba: The Tragic Untold Story of Natalee Holloway and Corruption in Paradise
by Dave Holloway
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 203
Rating: 2/5
Read: Feb. 18-23, 2008
Challenge: Triple Eight – True Crime Category
First Line: I cannot tell you how much it hurts to lose a child.
This is the story of the Natalee Holloway case from her father, Dave Holloway’s perspective. I remember following this case and watching it unfold in horror in 2005. I could not believe that such a beautiful young lady could simply vanish off an island. I was also shocked that these parents let 100+ 18-year-olds go off to Aruba with only 7 chaperons! But my feelings aside, I felt that this book was really lacking in feeling. I felt as if I was just reading a true crime book written from the perspective of a person who had no involvement in the case whatsoever. All I could feel was anger coming from Dave Holloway when he should have been writing a more heartfelt story in my opinion. I just didn’t care for this one at all.
2/5, AUTHOR, Book Review, G, Nonfiction, Read in 2008

Objection! by Nancy Grace

Tara

Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System

by Nancy Grace
Copyright: 2005
Pages: 314
Rating: 2/5
Read: Dec. 31, 2007 – Jan. 3, 2008
Challenge: No challenge; personal read
First Line: ” ‘I was just doing my job.’ That’s the tired excuse offered up by every defense attorney whenever they’re asked how they do what they do — how they pull the wool over jurors’ eyes to make sure the repeat offender they’re defending walks free.”
Nancy Grace … you either love her or hate her. The same will go for her book; you will either love or hate it. Personally, I could have done without reading it. She spent a lot of time going over the same thing, really pounding it into the reader. Anyone who has seen her on television knows that she is very opinionated, her book is very much the same as her show. Although I usually watch her show when a big case is going on (Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, Natalee Holloway, etc.) I probably could have skipped the book because it was slightly disappointing. I only recommend this book if you are a die hard Grace fan.