Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.5 AVERAGE
2.5 AVERAGE
dark
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:
No
---------------------------------------------
Information:
One of my owned books
---------------------------------------------
Review:
Very badly written
---------------------------------------------
Review previously placed on my blog:
Review previously placed on my blog:
I'm currently reading Cari Mora by Thomas Harris. I'm reading a copy I got from a free little library.
I'm not super enjoying this. I think it's not very well written. The story itself is okay. It's a fast read with some good parts, so therefore I'm continuing, but this won't be a high rating.
It became even worse going forward. There were some very gruesome parts, but they were so casually written that it didn't really have an impact. The story itself wasn't interesting at all. The "creepy thing" wasn't creepy at all. The worst part was the writing. This was so badly written. I don't recommend this, especially if you loved his Hannibal Lecter series as I did, because this will be a huge disappointment. I gave it 2 stars.
---------------------------------------------
I feel like this book had a lot of potential and then just fell flat. Hear me out, Harris hasn’t written a book in 13 years, so to have a book that’s only 300 ish pages where the whole plot seemed super rushed was kind of...lame?
Don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed the novel. Cari is a badass and i would love to hear more of her story, but i’m sad that i didn’t get more of her story because this book was so short. And the villain?? TOTAL creepsville, but we barely got to see him! It was a few creepy things, mainly things that he was thinking about, and then it was just over!
So i liked this, i would give it a 3.5 star rating. I liked it but i would have liked more than what it was.
Don’t get me wrong, i enjoyed the novel. Cari is a badass and i would love to hear more of her story, but i’m sad that i didn’t get more of her story because this book was so short. And the villain?? TOTAL creepsville, but we barely got to see him! It was a few creepy things, mainly things that he was thinking about, and then it was just over!
So i liked this, i would give it a 3.5 star rating. I liked it but i would have liked more than what it was.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I'd say 4,5/5 but then again why not 5?
Spoiler-free but very detailed review:
What it comes down to with this book is if you like Thomas Harris’s writing style or not, because apparently this is one of these hate-love things that people can’t seem to agree upon. For me that was easy - his writing style is probably my most favorite. I knew I needed to read this book. My hopes were to get a novel that keeps me interested like a good thriller should, but also gives me the same creepy, horror-like feeling the Hannibal series did, but in a different setting, and of course a book that is written in Thomas Harris’s signature writing style. Short summary: I got what I wanted.
Now, I want to be a bit more elaborative. First off - the plot. Basically, it is a kind of mobster setting combined with some serial killer vibes, current politically discussed issues like immigration, border criminality and such. Now, I cant judge if this was all portrayed correctly, but considering Harris’s background and the way he writes about it in such detail, it seemed very accurate to me (like very accurate usage of certain special terms, police work, weapons and chemicals among others). The plot itself was interesting, at times a little bit foreseeable but I didn’t mind that since it was captivating nonetheless. I especially liked the second half up until the ending a lot.
I don’t think I’ve read many books set in Florida, so the setting was very new and interesting to me. I always like how Harris incorporates wildlife, but also architecture, art, culture and lanscape into his writing to make the places feel alive and vivid. Animals especially play an interesting part in this novel. Harris has a way of describing things almost romantically but then kind of brings in the grotesque - e.g. he describes the beauty of a certain animal but then points out how deadly and merciless it is when it needs food. I love that contrast because it makes we tend to romanticize animals, especially wild animals, a lot.
The story is written in what I suppose is an omniscient narrater - he is everywhere he needs to be and knows things from the outside. That is very fitting to the story since it has many different locations mentioned or visited from Miami over Haiti to Bogotá. It also allows us to meet characters we wouldn’t have met otherwise and get to see things we wouldn’t have seen. The storytelling is quite complex, there are flashbacks that let us know more about certain characters and also many additional information that is necessary to understand the plot like knowledge about bombs, weapons etc. Very useful and not too much. There is also switches in who we are with in a scene but this is done very well, not confusing to me at least, and added a lot of depth. It felt to me like in a show where the camera moves fluently instead of using cuts to show the different characters.
Let me talk characters. Cari Mora is just an amazing female protagonist considering the book is written by a man. She reminded me a bit of Clarice from the Hannibal series as in she is very strong, can handle herself and is surrounded by man who lust after her (which is what happens to young women in male-dominated fields). Now, Hans-Peter Schneider is no Hannibal Lecter, but that was to be expected, though he shares a few characteristics with him like his love for drawing (and the fact that he likes to murder people). Well, Hannibal may be a cruel serial killer but he is an educated and mannered one, very composed and stylish (?) in a way. Hans-Peter is not, he is a quite plain sociopath who kills, mutilates and sells people or their organs. And he also isn’t the only one in the book who is a criminal or murderer but he makes the other criminals seem almost harmless. They are after the money and while he is as well, he also does things because he has certain fantasies and very sick customers. Other characters as you’d expect are from law enforcement, some family members and part of the criminal groups, lawyers and so on. Some of them are more detailed than others and I quite enjoyed how Harris brought them in way before their main part in the story to show their motivations, backgrounds and skills. That made it very round at the end and nothing seemed far-fetched to me.
What makes Harris’s writing style so great in my eyes is how he describes scenes or settings, sometimes in fractures, with certain details that wouldn’t even come to mind at first but seem natural. Some details seem pointless at first but then turn out to be super important. I like that a lot. Also, his characters never seem ooc, their dialogue is always matching, they’re actions seem fitting and he doesn’t hesitate to describe the sick thoughts in their brains or even the very sick things they do. As with Stephen King, you wonder how he comes up with these kinds of things.
What got to me the most was the ending - that was one of hell of a ride. My pulse quickened and the writing was so fluent that I sped through the last ten pages as if it were one. Wow.
I get that some people were disappointed because they probably expected another Hannibal series like book. In a way it is but in a way it isn’t. There are references to Hannibal, I mean Hans-Peter and Hannibal, Cari and Clarice, the names alone don’t seem coincidental, also some other aspects like the birds, the drawing, mentions of a possible mind palace on Schneider’s side as well, kidneys as the only specific organ described - you will recognize these things as a Hannibal series fan and Harris is not one for coincidences.
But I don’t get the bad rating at all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a quick read as well, so I recommend you build an opinion on your own if you’re unsure. And nope it's not a new Hannibal, how could it be (?) but it's still a damn good novel. People complain about things that are on a way higher level than with other thrillers, I feel.
TL;DR: I enjoyed it a lot, combines Harris's great writing style, a cool setting and plot idea and interesting characters with complex storytelling. It's not Hannibal and it doesn't have to be!
Spoiler-free but very detailed review:
What it comes down to with this book is if you like Thomas Harris’s writing style or not, because apparently this is one of these hate-love things that people can’t seem to agree upon. For me that was easy - his writing style is probably my most favorite. I knew I needed to read this book. My hopes were to get a novel that keeps me interested like a good thriller should, but also gives me the same creepy, horror-like feeling the Hannibal series did, but in a different setting, and of course a book that is written in Thomas Harris’s signature writing style. Short summary: I got what I wanted.
Now, I want to be a bit more elaborative. First off - the plot. Basically, it is a kind of mobster setting combined with some serial killer vibes, current politically discussed issues like immigration, border criminality and such. Now, I cant judge if this was all portrayed correctly, but considering Harris’s background and the way he writes about it in such detail, it seemed very accurate to me (like very accurate usage of certain special terms, police work, weapons and chemicals among others). The plot itself was interesting, at times a little bit foreseeable but I didn’t mind that since it was captivating nonetheless. I especially liked the second half up until the ending a lot.
I don’t think I’ve read many books set in Florida, so the setting was very new and interesting to me. I always like how Harris incorporates wildlife, but also architecture, art, culture and lanscape into his writing to make the places feel alive and vivid. Animals especially play an interesting part in this novel. Harris has a way of describing things almost romantically but then kind of brings in the grotesque - e.g. he describes the beauty of a certain animal but then points out how deadly and merciless it is when it needs food. I love that contrast because it makes we tend to romanticize animals, especially wild animals, a lot.
The story is written in what I suppose is an omniscient narrater - he is everywhere he needs to be and knows things from the outside. That is very fitting to the story since it has many different locations mentioned or visited from Miami over Haiti to Bogotá. It also allows us to meet characters we wouldn’t have met otherwise and get to see things we wouldn’t have seen. The storytelling is quite complex, there are flashbacks that let us know more about certain characters and also many additional information that is necessary to understand the plot like knowledge about bombs, weapons etc. Very useful and not too much. There is also switches in who we are with in a scene but this is done very well, not confusing to me at least, and added a lot of depth. It felt to me like in a show where the camera moves fluently instead of using cuts to show the different characters.
Let me talk characters. Cari Mora is just an amazing female protagonist considering the book is written by a man. She reminded me a bit of Clarice from the Hannibal series as in she is very strong, can handle herself and is surrounded by man who lust after her (which is what happens to young women in male-dominated fields). Now, Hans-Peter Schneider is no Hannibal Lecter, but that was to be expected, though he shares a few characteristics with him like his love for drawing (and the fact that he likes to murder people). Well, Hannibal may be a cruel serial killer but he is an educated and mannered one, very composed and stylish (?) in a way. Hans-Peter is not, he is a quite plain sociopath who kills, mutilates and sells people or their organs. And he also isn’t the only one in the book who is a criminal or murderer but he makes the other criminals seem almost harmless. They are after the money and while he is as well, he also does things because he has certain fantasies and very sick customers. Other characters as you’d expect are from law enforcement, some family members and part of the criminal groups, lawyers and so on. Some of them are more detailed than others and I quite enjoyed how Harris brought them in way before their main part in the story to show their motivations, backgrounds and skills. That made it very round at the end and nothing seemed far-fetched to me.
What makes Harris’s writing style so great in my eyes is how he describes scenes or settings, sometimes in fractures, with certain details that wouldn’t even come to mind at first but seem natural. Some details seem pointless at first but then turn out to be super important. I like that a lot. Also, his characters never seem ooc, their dialogue is always matching, they’re actions seem fitting and he doesn’t hesitate to describe the sick thoughts in their brains or even the very sick things they do. As with Stephen King, you wonder how he comes up with these kinds of things.
What got to me the most was the ending - that was one of hell of a ride. My pulse quickened and the writing was so fluent that I sped through the last ten pages as if it were one. Wow.
I get that some people were disappointed because they probably expected another Hannibal series like book. In a way it is but in a way it isn’t. There are references to Hannibal, I mean Hans-Peter and Hannibal, Cari and Clarice, the names alone don’t seem coincidental, also some other aspects like the birds, the drawing, mentions of a possible mind palace on Schneider’s side as well, kidneys as the only specific organ described - you will recognize these things as a Hannibal series fan and Harris is not one for coincidences.
But I don’t get the bad rating at all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a quick read as well, so I recommend you build an opinion on your own if you’re unsure. And nope it's not a new Hannibal, how could it be (?) but it's still a damn good novel. People complain about things that are on a way higher level than with other thrillers, I feel.
TL;DR: I enjoyed it a lot, combines Harris's great writing style, a cool setting and plot idea and interesting characters with complex storytelling. It's not Hannibal and it doesn't have to be!
This. Book. Sucks.
I don't pay much attention to the average Goodreads rating, and especially not on a new release. People will often rate books they haven't read or finished yet, and I think most people rate books higher than they should. At the time I read this book, the average rating was 3.04 which is quite low for this website. I should have taken it as a warning.
This book is about a woman who lives in Miami. The Cartel shows up one day, interested in money that is supposedly hidden inside the house. Drug deals go down. Some people get shot. There's a creepy hairless man. It has the bits and pieces of a good crime thriller, but this book has no heart. I didn't care about a single character. I couldn't keep track of who was who most of the time. I didn't see the point.
I think this book would make a good script for a Steven Seagal movie.
I don't pay much attention to the average Goodreads rating, and especially not on a new release. People will often rate books they haven't read or finished yet, and I think most people rate books higher than they should. At the time I read this book, the average rating was 3.04 which is quite low for this website. I should have taken it as a warning.
This book is about a woman who lives in Miami. The Cartel shows up one day, interested in money that is supposedly hidden inside the house. Drug deals go down. Some people get shot. There's a creepy hairless man. It has the bits and pieces of a good crime thriller, but this book has no heart. I didn't care about a single character. I couldn't keep track of who was who most of the time. I didn't see the point.
I think this book would make a good script for a Steven Seagal movie.
Ar kada nors jus aplanko tokia nuotaika, kai filmą įsijungiate vien dėl garsinio fono, o tas visas dvi valandas tiesiog praleidžiate telefone? Man dažnai tokiais foniniais tampa veiksmo filmai, kur siužeto beveik nėra, o viskas paremta vien sprogimais ir susišaudymais. Būtent tokio tipo skaitalas ir yra Thomas Harris Kari Mora. Tik šiuo atveju, ten rasite daugiau susišaudymų, nereikalingo dramatingumo ir vyrų pakvaišusių dėl aukso. Visuomet maniau, kad aš ganėtinai dosniai daliju knygoms įvertinimus, bet šįkart nebuvo absoliučiai nieko, kas paskatintų įvertinti geriau. Bet apie viską nuo pradžių.
Visą pasakojimo esmę būtų galima sutalpinti į kelis sakinius. Dvi grupuotės sužino, jog Pablo Eskobaro buvusiame name Majami Biče yra paslėptas nemažas kiekis aukso luitų. Didžiausia problema yra tai, jog Eskobaras tą auksą apsaugojo taip, kad beveik niekas negalėtų jo pavogti. Vienai grupuotei vadovauja Hansas Peteris, kuris dar ir turi maniakiškų polinkių, t.y., pardavinėja organus arba užsakovams perdaro pasirinktas aukas, taip, kad patenkintų jo poreikius. Gal kaip personažas jis ir būtų savotiškai įdomus, jeigu autorius nebūtų patingėjęs paaiškinti, kodėl jis tapo būtent tokiu, kodėl jaučia malonumą darydamas tokius darbus, bet skaitytojas viso labo gauna du puslapius, kur šitai bandoma analizuoti. Kitai organizacijai, o gal vertėtų sakyti sektai, vadovauja “mokytojas” apie kurį, deja, bet nesužinome praktiškai nieko. Ir į visą šitą peklą yra įmaišoma ir mergina Kari Mora. Jos vardu pavadinta visa knyga, bet ji minimama gal tik ketvirtadalyje knygos ir tikrai neįneša tokios jau sumaišties, kaip pateikiama knygos aprašyme. Romane dar buvo visa puokštė kitų personažų, bet jie arba atlikdavo trumpalaikį vaidmenį, kaip pasirodau ir mane nužudo, arba buvo niekuo neišskirtiniai.
Iš tiesų, pasirodė, kad autorius visą knygą sudėliojo iš atskirų gabaliukų, šokinėdamas nuo vieno prie kito, taip ir nesužinodamas prie ko būtų verta sustoti ilgiau. Niekas neišdirbta iki galo, o ir dažnai atrodo, kad išbraukus tam tikrus epizodus nieko neprarastum. Gal rašyta buvo paskutinę naktį, bet tikrai nesėkmingai. Mano kantrybės taurę oficialiai perpildė skyrelis iš aligatoriaus perspektyvos. Kokią tai turėjo prasmę negaliu pasakyti, bet susipažinau su jo maisto ieškojimo ritualais. O ir pabaiga tokia nuspėjama, ir tiek kartų matyta, kad pasidarė labai neaišku ar tikrai šią knygą parašė Thomas Harris.
Kari Mora - daug kraujo, mažai esmės. Būtent šitaip galima apibūdinti šią knygą ir nuoširdžiai sakau, jog gyvenime tikrai nieko neprarasite, jeigu neperskaitysite šitos knygos.
Visą pasakojimo esmę būtų galima sutalpinti į kelis sakinius. Dvi grupuotės sužino, jog Pablo Eskobaro buvusiame name Majami Biče yra paslėptas nemažas kiekis aukso luitų. Didžiausia problema yra tai, jog Eskobaras tą auksą apsaugojo taip, kad beveik niekas negalėtų jo pavogti. Vienai grupuotei vadovauja Hansas Peteris, kuris dar ir turi maniakiškų polinkių, t.y., pardavinėja organus arba užsakovams perdaro pasirinktas aukas, taip, kad patenkintų jo poreikius. Gal kaip personažas jis ir būtų savotiškai įdomus, jeigu autorius nebūtų patingėjęs paaiškinti, kodėl jis tapo būtent tokiu, kodėl jaučia malonumą darydamas tokius darbus, bet skaitytojas viso labo gauna du puslapius, kur šitai bandoma analizuoti. Kitai organizacijai, o gal vertėtų sakyti sektai, vadovauja “mokytojas” apie kurį, deja, bet nesužinome praktiškai nieko. Ir į visą šitą peklą yra įmaišoma ir mergina Kari Mora. Jos vardu pavadinta visa knyga, bet ji minimama gal tik ketvirtadalyje knygos ir tikrai neįneša tokios jau sumaišties, kaip pateikiama knygos aprašyme. Romane dar buvo visa puokštė kitų personažų, bet jie arba atlikdavo trumpalaikį vaidmenį, kaip pasirodau ir mane nužudo, arba buvo niekuo neišskirtiniai.
Iš tiesų, pasirodė, kad autorius visą knygą sudėliojo iš atskirų gabaliukų, šokinėdamas nuo vieno prie kito, taip ir nesužinodamas prie ko būtų verta sustoti ilgiau. Niekas neišdirbta iki galo, o ir dažnai atrodo, kad išbraukus tam tikrus epizodus nieko neprarastum. Gal rašyta buvo paskutinę naktį, bet tikrai nesėkmingai. Mano kantrybės taurę oficialiai perpildė skyrelis iš aligatoriaus perspektyvos. Kokią tai turėjo prasmę negaliu pasakyti, bet susipažinau su jo maisto ieškojimo ritualais. O ir pabaiga tokia nuspėjama, ir tiek kartų matyta, kad pasidarė labai neaišku ar tikrai šią knygą parašė Thomas Harris.
Kari Mora - daug kraujo, mažai esmės. Būtent šitaip galima apibūdinti šią knygą ir nuoširdžiai sakau, jog gyvenime tikrai nieko neprarasite, jeigu neperskaitysite šitos knygos.
It was an okay story. Had some funny moments. But likes a lot of the reviews said, the main bad guys were pretty cheesy. Seems like the author was trying too hard. Still I read it fast. And it kept me entertained. Very light read.
Damn. I’m gutted to be abandoning this book but it’s just so boring! The Silence of The Lambs is one of my favourite books ever, so I was eager to buy this and devour it. But reading it feels like wading through mud. Sorry Mr Harris, this one just isn’t doing it for me.