Scan barcode
renila's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
diana_blackmoon's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book and I got on the wrong foot from the start.
After some basic setting, there is a scene where a character goes to the psychologist. It is heavily implied that if she did not she would be protected by police due to her claims of a harmful person existing somewhere. Now, why would that be you ask? Because the psychologist/psychiatrist looks at her medical history and finds out she was taking antidepressants in college. This fact is very heavy-handed and the main character is accused of lying and fantasising. I understand it was a plot device for the book to work but I was not too fond of it. I continued the book when a similar thing happened again. No one reports a person missing because she used to have depressive episodes and sometimes she withdrew from the world. When someone tried to report her missing the police it didn't work either.
By now I was really annoyed about those two elements and felt like maybe it should have more commentary on how harming is to view mental illness like this. Instead, the only person that got scolded in the end was a policeman that had no specialist knowledge and believed the verdict of a professional. The psychiatrist is never confronted. Never mentioned again.
I was surprised that the book was published in 2003.
After some basic setting, there is a scene where a character goes to the psychologist. It is heavily implied that if she did not she would be protected by police due to her claims of a harmful person existing somewhere. Now, why would that be you ask? Because the psychologist/psychiatrist looks at her medical history and finds out she was taking antidepressants in college. This fact is very heavy-handed and the main character is accused of lying and fantasising. I understand it was a plot device for the book to work but I was not too fond of it. I continued the book when a similar thing happened again. No one reports a person missing because she used to have depressive episodes and sometimes she withdrew from the world. When someone tried to report her missing the police it didn't work either.
By now I was really annoyed about those two elements and felt like maybe it should have more commentary on how harming is to view mental illness like this. Instead, the only person that got scolded in the end was a policeman that had no specialist knowledge and believed the verdict of a professional. The psychiatrist is never confronted. Never mentioned again.
I was surprised that the book was published in 2003.
veronique5199's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
scoobygirl93's review against another edition
DNF'd at page 11
Just not enjoying the writing style. Starting to think maybe this author just isn't for me.
Just not enjoying the writing style. Starting to think maybe this author just isn't for me.
not_a_real_wombat's review against another edition
3.0
A detective that is a very detectivy detective. I'm unsure what to think of the actual outcome but it was alright I guess. Wouldn't recommend this book nor discourage one to read it.
myweereads's review against another edition
2.0
“The cold air hit me in the face, as if someone had slapped me. I gasped and my breath plumed up in the air. My eyes stung with the cold glare of light.”
Land Of The Dead by Nicci French is the story about Abbie Devereaux who has been abducted and is trapped in a basement. She is aware that her captor is there watching her, she knows she has to stay alive and with a miracle manages to escape from one hellish situation to another.
This is definitely a fast paced psychological thriller that can be read in one sitting. The book starts off for the point of view of Abbie. She uses her senses to describe where she is and tries to put together what is happening to her. The author is great at putting Abbie’s torment into view for the reader. You get a sense of everything she’s going through, the intensity of this is all present throughout the book even when she manages to escape and tries to go back to her normal life. It’s here where the story throws a curve ball. As a wee warning it is quite descriptive at times when Abbie is struggling just in case anybody is sensitive to that kind of content it appears now and again not a lot.
From this point the novel has many high and low points for me. The personal struggle of the characters was written very well however at times it became quite far fetched with how the protagonist is dealt with and the absolute bummer for me was the ending, I wasn’t a fan of it. I know this book is a favourite for quite a few fans of Nicci French’s work however this being my first read by her I was a little disappointed with it. I wanted to like it and for the first half I did. The idea of it all was good, there were some clever twists, the personality of the characters was strong but too often the story took directions which didn’t make sense to me.
Land Of The Dead by Nicci French is the story about Abbie Devereaux who has been abducted and is trapped in a basement. She is aware that her captor is there watching her, she knows she has to stay alive and with a miracle manages to escape from one hellish situation to another.
This is definitely a fast paced psychological thriller that can be read in one sitting. The book starts off for the point of view of Abbie. She uses her senses to describe where she is and tries to put together what is happening to her. The author is great at putting Abbie’s torment into view for the reader. You get a sense of everything she’s going through, the intensity of this is all present throughout the book even when she manages to escape and tries to go back to her normal life. It’s here where the story throws a curve ball. As a wee warning it is quite descriptive at times when Abbie is struggling just in case anybody is sensitive to that kind of content it appears now and again not a lot.
From this point the novel has many high and low points for me. The personal struggle of the characters was written very well however at times it became quite far fetched with how the protagonist is dealt with and the absolute bummer for me was the ending, I wasn’t a fan of it. I know this book is a favourite for quite a few fans of Nicci French’s work however this being my first read by her I was a little disappointed with it. I wanted to like it and for the first half I did. The idea of it all was good, there were some clever twists, the personality of the characters was strong but too often the story took directions which didn’t make sense to me.
drbelladonna's review against another edition
3.0
Mijn eerste boek van Nicci French, waarschijnlijk niet mijn laatste maar ik moet ontzettend wennen aan de schrijfstijl. Het plot zelf vond ik super verwarrend en ik had er meer van verwacht. Het einde was echt bagger, zoals wel meer mensen is opgevallen aan de reviews te lezen.
ank's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
ncrabb's review against another edition
4.0
If claustrophobia is something you have a problem with, this book may not be your thing. So horrifying and gripping was it for me that I found myself literally hyperventilating a time or two, and that's not me given to my usual flare for the melodramatic. Open this book and enter with jarring horror the life of Abbie Devereaux, a 25-year-old woman who has made some bad choices, none of which prepare her for the horror she faces as you and I enter her life.
She is bound and gagged; she is apparently buried below ground, and she can see nothing. The air is heavy with the scent of her urine and excrement, and among other things, her assailant is whispering to her the names of other girls who died under circumstances similar to hers.
If that horror isn't enough for you, things become even worse for Abbie when she escapes. Escape she does, but now she faces the even worse horror of not being believed by anyone.
Because of choices she has made, London's police, always portrayed by these authors as ham-handed fools who couldn't catch a real criminal if he showed up with a banner and a confession, won't acknowledge that she may indeed have been abducted.
Her memory loss alone is frightening. Usually, in the hands of lesser authors, memory loss is a rather threadbare cliche. Not so here. It is an integral part of the story. Not only must Abbie prevent her death yet again, she must fill in the horrifying pieces of her memory. Indeed, if she fails to do that, she will inevitably be recaptured and murdered this time.
I have a good bit of ambivalence toward the characters these authors create. Usually, they're a bit too quick with the casual orgasm, a bit too boozy, a bit too familiar with one cigarette after another for me to do much more than hold them at arms' length most of the time. But Abbie Devereaux is just a bit softer around the edges in some ways. It's a bit less easy to perfunctorily dismiss her out of hand with a casual shrug and page turn. Yes, some of her bad choices contributed big-time to her difficulties, but who among us can honestly say that we are not the product of some of our bad choices as well as our good ones. For some inexplicable reason, I felt a good deal more sympathetic toward Abbie than I do many of the characters these authors create.
The bottom line is, if you enjoy a bit of horror and suspense in what you read, and if you can get around some of Abbie's harder edges, you'll likely be riveted to this book.
There is some strong language here and a couple of scenes of sexual descriptions, but these authors create a believable heroine framed in the frozen terror of a London winter.
She is bound and gagged; she is apparently buried below ground, and she can see nothing. The air is heavy with the scent of her urine and excrement, and among other things, her assailant is whispering to her the names of other girls who died under circumstances similar to hers.
If that horror isn't enough for you, things become even worse for Abbie when she escapes. Escape she does, but now she faces the even worse horror of not being believed by anyone.
Because of choices she has made, London's police, always portrayed by these authors as ham-handed fools who couldn't catch a real criminal if he showed up with a banner and a confession, won't acknowledge that she may indeed have been abducted.
Her memory loss alone is frightening. Usually, in the hands of lesser authors, memory loss is a rather threadbare cliche. Not so here. It is an integral part of the story. Not only must Abbie prevent her death yet again, she must fill in the horrifying pieces of her memory. Indeed, if she fails to do that, she will inevitably be recaptured and murdered this time.
I have a good bit of ambivalence toward the characters these authors create. Usually, they're a bit too quick with the casual orgasm, a bit too boozy, a bit too familiar with one cigarette after another for me to do much more than hold them at arms' length most of the time. But Abbie Devereaux is just a bit softer around the edges in some ways. It's a bit less easy to perfunctorily dismiss her out of hand with a casual shrug and page turn. Yes, some of her bad choices contributed big-time to her difficulties, but who among us can honestly say that we are not the product of some of our bad choices as well as our good ones. For some inexplicable reason, I felt a good deal more sympathetic toward Abbie than I do many of the characters these authors create.
The bottom line is, if you enjoy a bit of horror and suspense in what you read, and if you can get around some of Abbie's harder edges, you'll likely be riveted to this book.
There is some strong language here and a couple of scenes of sexual descriptions, but these authors create a believable heroine framed in the frozen terror of a London winter.