Scan barcode
ericasbookshelves's reviews
65 reviews
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
I’ve always found the Dyatlov Pass Incident to be a very fascinating case, but often find it gets convoluted and mildly confusing when reading/listening to things about it, I think this did a good job explaining everything that happened leading up to the tragedy. Although the author also included the story of him going to russia to investigate, which was an interesting addition, but I wish it wasn’t factored in Every other chapter. Some of those chapters were full of personal anecdotes that could have been left out(things about his family or his health) and switching back and fourth ended up causing me to be pulled out of the Dyatlov chapters. I think the theory put forth by the author at the end was very convincing and I liked reading about that. I feel like he dismissed and went through the other theories at lightning speed and I wish he spent more time on them and why people think those are plausible. Overall, I found the book interesting and engaging and would recommend it to people both familiar and not familiar with the case.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail
Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
this duology should have worked for me but it just didnt. The Premise of the books were good, I found the first book to be a fast read but didn’t think much happened. Somehow I felt like less happened in this book, even though I know that’s not true. it’s a whole lot of tell not show and it’s full of repeating thoughts and feelings from the characters. The characters felt two dimensional and everyone’s motives were all over the place a lot of the time, side characters felt like NPC’s from a video game. There were parts of the plot that I think were good in theory but felt overly confusing because they weren’t explained well. Overall, I wasn’t a fan of this duology but I’m going to try other books from this author in hopes to find one that works for me
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
dark
emotional
sad
medium-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? Yes
4.0
What a dark book, seriously not for the faint of heart. I actually think I made a mistake listening to the audiobook as once i got further into the book, it was difficult to listen to because of the content and I think reading it would have made it slightly easier. Trigger warnings for literally everything, this is easily the most disturbing book I’ve ever read, it’s based off the Sylvia Likens case which is an absolutely horrendous case of abuse, torture and murder. This isn’t an easy read, both because of the subject matter and the writing, it’s very abrupt, blunt, and makes you feel like you’re there, which works in the exact way I imagine Ketchum wanted it to. This made me feel disgusted and angry, I wanted to scream at multiple points while reading it and some scenes are absolutely burned into my mind. Overall, this is an incredibly well executed book that I’m hesitant to recommend to anyone, if you do choose to read it.. be prepared, this will stick with you
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Confinement, Murder, Rape, Death, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Blood, and Bullying
The Forest City Killer: A Serial Murderer, a Cold-Case Sleuth, and a Search for Justice by Vanessa Brown
dark
informative
medium-paced
2.75
Interesting story if you live near London, ON or are familiar with the area as I didn’t know any of this had happened even with living so close. I Found some sections of the book flowed and connected really nicely while others were written very strangely and made me have a hard time keeping track of things because of how they were introduced and connected. Personal anecdotes were included which sometimes gave a good idea of what London was like at the time but other times seemed to be put in even though the provided no substance or reason to be there. The footnotes were also weird in the ebook version, they were at the end of the chapters instead of the bottom of the page which then made me forget what the footnote was even referencing by the time I got there
Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
A fast read that was interesting enough to keep my attention but i felt like not a lot happened and i never found myself attached to any of the characters