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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
Well. This was pretty good. The story; a hitman with heart gets an assignment he doesn't like which leads to some extremes, was compelling and it was a swift read. Short, at two hundred pages, and a page turner. But... I dont think this is going to stick with me. Definitely not as good as his Harry Hole novels... which is fine. But, well, is fine fine? I liked it but it wasn't excellent and this guy has written plenty of excellent books.
Jo Nesbø is honestly the king of Scandinavian thriller. Only 166 pages, easy to finish in one go, but written perfectly and does not have any predictable plot twists - whatever you think will happen is usually turned around completely. Really one of my favourites this year.
Expected more from the idea-person behind the TV series Occupied. Pretty standard hitman with a good heart kinda stuff.
2 stars in the true Goodreads "it was ok" sense. Probably wouldn't have finished if it were much longer.
I dislike disliking translated books because you never know what's lost there, but alas.
2 stars in the true Goodreads "it was ok" sense. Probably wouldn't have finished if it were much longer.
I dislike disliking translated books because you never know what's lost there, but alas.
Ever have someone tell to read an author and you have every intention to do so but a year passes and you still haven't but then you eventually do and you're all like why the fuck did I wait so long?
Fantastic book: great voice, grim and twisted, thoroughly enjoyable use of foreshadow, full-bodied characters. Probably going to find room for a Nesbo or two every year from here on.
Fantastic book: great voice, grim and twisted, thoroughly enjoyable use of foreshadow, full-bodied characters. Probably going to find room for a Nesbo or two every year from here on.
This was a perfect example of the text being elevated by the audio narrator. The audiobook is read by Patti Smith (yes, singer/poet/artist Patti Smith) - and she has a voice that was born to read noir. The story itself was OK for me. It's pretty standard issue dark noir and my complaints about it are ones I have with a lot of books that fall in this genre. Namely all the female characters tend to be thinly drawn and mere vessels. I also missed not having more dialogue. There really isn't a whole lot to speak of, and I think if I had read this in print it would have been a struggle for me to get through (and this is a short book). On audio the lack of dialogue is a bit more palpable.
Nesbo got a little artsy-fartsy with the plot at times, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending - but as this was my very first book by him, I found it to be an interesting experiment. I wasn't in love with this, but again Smith's narration is really good, and I'm open to reading/listening to something else by the author in the future.
Nesbo got a little artsy-fartsy with the plot at times, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending - but as this was my very first book by him, I found it to be an interesting experiment. I wasn't in love with this, but again Smith's narration is really good, and I'm open to reading/listening to something else by the author in the future.
Packs quite the punch for such a little book. This is my first Nesbo and I am intrigued. Not for the squeamish. I listed to it and Patti Smith - yes, that Patti Smith. I think it really added to the story.
Picked this up off my shelf to get out of a reading slump. It wasn't a mystery, per se. It's a novella following a kind-hearted(?) hitman who just wants to do the job he's really good at. But he gets tangling up in a messy situation. The whole thing read old-fashioned to me, somehow. It was dark, but I liked Olav, he was very human.
Worst Jo Nesbo book ever. I looooove the Harry hole series and lose myself in those books immediately. However, I didn’t feel like picking up this book and getting lost in it at all. I wasn’t interested or invested in the story.
I’m giving this book 2 1/2 stars. I found certain parts of the book were confusing to me.
I really like Nesbo's style (or the translator's at any rate). I listened to the autiobook of this one, and I really didn't like the narrator, but stuck with the book because the story was engaging.