Reviews

Reptile Memoirs by Silje O. Ulstein

maslis's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

lyktestolpe's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Er ikke en stor krimleser, men ble nysgjerrig på denne og hørte den på lydbok. Godt skrevet med mange twister underveis. Fint grep med at fortellingen bytter mellom fortid og nåtid så vi sakte får se hele bildet av hva som har skjedd. Noen ting trekker ned: boka føles litt for lang, og noen av fortellerstemmene mindre spennende enn de andre. Ronja er en litt flat karakter, og hennes eneste personlige konflikt er en flørt med en kollega som ikke ga meg så mye. Å ha slangen som en av fortellerstemmene er kreativt, men jeg vet ikke hvor mye det tilførte, og jeg tror faktisk jeg hadde likt boka bedre om det hadde forblitt et mysterium hva slangen mente om menneskene og situasjonene den var i. At den fikk være det den er: er dyr vi ikke kan forstå.
Syntes kanskje det ble litt vel utrolig til slutt - hvor diger er egentlig denne slangen?

Høy sjokkfaktor, her tipper jeg folk vil være forskjellige om de orker å lese eller ikke. En del ganske drøye ting som skjer, men jeg synes de reddes av godt språk og en forfatter som ikke overbeskriver det drøye.

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yliimehenry's review

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4.0

4.5/5. This was a great dark and twisty thriller. Really really good.

soederbacka's review against another edition

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4.0

Obehagligt på bästa sätt. Mycket utstuderat och välskrivet. Behandlar tunga trauman. Två tidslinjer och flera berättarperspektiv, så stundom tappade jag lite bort mig. De bästa avsnitten var själva kräldjursmemoarerna, där vi får ta del av en pytonorms inre värld.

charlottethebookharlot's review against another edition

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5.0

When a young girl goes missing the case seems straight forward until secrets lies that have been kept for years slowly start to unravel and then what appears to be a kidnapping turns into something far more tragic.

I had never read any Silje Ulstein books before but the synopsis sounded intriguing and I wasn't disappointed; the way that the book was written was perfect in that slowly more layers of secrets and truth were revealed and I found myself completely gripped. The juxtaposition of the present and past added to the novels interest and I was desperate to finish to see not only what happened to Iben but the whole cast of characters who even though some were flawed were so well written that I had to know their fates. A must read for anyone who is a fan of nordic noir - 5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

charlottethebookharlot's review against another edition

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5.0

When a young girl goes missing the case seems straight forward until secrets lies that have been kept for years slowly start to unravel and then what appears to be a kidnapping turns into something far more tragic.

I had never read any Silje Ulstein books before but the synopsis sounded intriguing and I wasn't disappointed; the way that the book was written was perfect in that slowly more layers of secrets and truth were revealed and I found myself completely gripped. The juxtaposition of the present and past added to the novels interest and I was desperate to finish to see not only what happened to Iben but the whole cast of characters who even though some were flawed were so well written that I had to know their fates. A must read for anyone who is a fan of nordic noir - 5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

seang81's review against another edition

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3.0

I remember reading Filth by Irvine Welsh once and thinking ‘Jesus, there’s chapters narrated by a tapeworm’. Brilliant novel with a perspective that resonated. Well, this novel is nothing like Filth, however, does have chapters narrated by a snake. Personally, I’m not sure what this adds to the novel I read - it’s a thriller! Take the snake chapters out though and I quite enjoyed this. The writing was great, the characters compelling and there are some twists that blew me away - the only issue is the amount of character perspectives which were difficult to keep track of. Take the snake away and it’s a little tidier! All in all, a good example of Norwegian crime writing.

m_h_dahl's review against another edition

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4.0

For en bok! Denne fanget meg fra første til siste side. Ubehagelig, guffen og til tider grotesk lesning.


Til tross for slangefobi, jaget nysgjerrigheten meg gjennom fortellingen. Det ble nesten som å få streng beskjed av en voksen om å ikke se på monsteret rundt neste sving - du klarer ikke la være å se - du ser på monsteret, enda du gremmes og får frysninger nedover ryggen - etterpå angrer du og blir mørkredd flere netter i strekk - og sånn var det å lese Krypdyrmemoarer. Jeg bare måtte lese boken ferdig. Selv om enkelte passasjer ble så ubehagelige og ekle at jeg ble fysisk kvalm og kjente tramene vrenge og bukle seg - noe som forøvrig ikke er utelukkende negativt fordi forfatteren faktisk vekker følelser med skildringene sine - på godt og vondt.


Slet litt med å skille enkelte av karakterene fra hverandre noen ganger. Kapitlene skrevet fra de ulike karakterenes perspektiver hadde til tider en relativt lik "ordlyd", noe som ble litt forvirrende og jeg måtte lese enkelte linjer på nytt for å få med meg hvem teksten egentlig handlet om og hvem sine tanker dette var.


Hadde det ikke vært for kapitlene skrevet fra slangens perspektiv - noe jeg syntes ble litt "smør på flesk" ettersom boken hadde vært vel så guffen uten - hadde jeg gitt boken fem stjerner. For dette er en bok jeg kommer til å huske - for så ekkel var den. Krypdyrmemoarer krøp seg innunder huden min med noen forstyrrende inntrykk og injiserte meg med pytongift i form av mer slangefobi - og jeg som før denne boken trodde ett sekund at fobien mot slanger var mildnet med årene, men den gang ei.

jakewritesbooks's review

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4.0

This is billed as a horror mystery but aside from a woman’s weird psychosomatic fascination with a snake, there’s not much in the way of horror, if that even qualifies as horror. That’s okay though; this is an interesting enough mystery tale with shifting timelines. I’m usually bearish on that as it doesn’t leave a lot of room for character development but Silje Ulstein does a good job drawing them out, along with the plot. This goes along with the better nordic noir efforts I’ve read. Nothing exceptional but got the job done and I wouldn’t pass up another chance to read Ulstein’s work.

pelargonia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75