Review: 21 Hours

21 Hours by Dustin Stevens

The synopsis can be found here on GoodReads. I suggest reading it before this review.

4 / 5 Stars

The writing style and characters really make this book enjoyable. I've never read a book that was primarily a thriller, so this was a first for me. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It's a bit dark, but there's nothing too heavy, explicit or disturbing contained in this book.

First Impression

Neither the title or the cover give much away about this book. I personally don't associate much with 21 hours, perhaps if it was called 48 hours then I would associate it with child kidnapping on first sight. Meanwhile the cover is fairly ambiguous - a bridge over water with a city background. Nothing much there to hint at the contents of the book besides the fact that there will be some scenes in the city.

On the other hand the synopsis is very informative. I like that. It tells me what's going to on and pretty much lays out the plot. While I felt indifferent to the title and book cover, I knew I wanted to read this book when I read the synopsis. That might have something to do with my love for CSI and true life crimes.

Genre

This is marketed as a thriller and yes, it certainly ticks that box. It's exciting, crime related, has good fight scenes and even some gun action. It's a good read for those who like crime - though most of the book is not told from the point of view of professional crime investigators (if that's your preference).

Writing

Stevens' has a refreshing, no-frills writing style. There are no wasted words, no melodramatic description and no boring fluff to wade through. Everything written adds to the plot or describes the scene. The sentences are varied and so is the language (though there is some repetition, such as the metallic taste of blood). Despite this, I found it pretty easy to read and follow, even when I was tired.

Characters

The main character is O and we follow him on his dangerous journey to save his niece, Annie. At first we're told he's an ex-convict so we imagine he's a big, tough man. No doubt he will breeze through all the obstacles standing in his way, right? Wrong. This book doesn't kid itself with Hollywood conveniences. There's no perfect shots or convenient leads. O is forced into an underworld that pushes him to the edge of his physical limits. Beaten, battered and bloodied, O will not stop until he has Annie safe and sound. His anger and his fear make him a realistic character. All these qualities make it easy to become drawn into this thrilling story.

Other characters involve Lex. Stevens makes her emotions transparent. We watch as she falls apart as the chances of finding her daughter diminish. We even see her at breaking point. This isn't a one track thriller where only our tough hero and unfortunate victim matter. We have the distressed mother, the hospitalised boyfriend, even in-laws who are far from friendly and outsiders who play important roles in the story despite their minor parts.

The bad characters in this book are colourful - to say the least! They all have their own quirks and set up. Stevens' describes each criminal's lair well, allowing us to really be in the scene and also implying the nature of each baddie.

Plot

I've watched enough CSI to have some idea of how the book would go, but I'll be honest and say it didn't really follow the plan I had in my head. I predicted lots of police involvement, but for the most part O is alone. I think this makes the book more thrilling because he has no one to rely on. There's no back up. There's no lab, IT expert or combat trained partner. Just one man whose only qualifications are working on a ranch and a stint behind bars.

I liked the beginning. It was amusing and, for a moment, I thought his time at the ranch would last longer, just to get the reader comfortable and well acquainted with the character. Instead the scene is interrupted with a phone call. At first it didn't seem like a big event, but as Steven elaborates it's clear to see something is seriously wrong.

I thought that Stevens would end the book at finding Annie. What I mean by this is that they embrace (or something similar) and that's it. Rather than leave us at this point - where further misfortune could follow - Stevens extends the end of the book. He ties up the story in a fulfilling way by going some time into the future and letting us know that everything is going well for the once torn family (and hinting at some relationship between O and Watts - did anyone not see the insinuation coming?).

I felt like Stevens' had a real grip on where the story was going. There was no painful slowness or pauses. Every sentence helped keep a good pace which kept me interested. Obviously, as this book is told from the first person perspective of O, we don't get a broad overview of everything. We don't get into the minds of the criminals or what happened to the kidnapped children while they were missing. Lots of characters enter to serve their part and then are brushed aside. Some readers might not like this, but it makes perfect sense. The lens through which we experience this story is O's, he's a man who only cares about finding his niece and is aware of the limited time frame. Would he really waste time reflecting on people that have nothing to do with the task at hand?

Likes & Dislikes

+ Straight forward, yet detailed writing style.

+ Colourful and emotive characters.

+ A well deserved and satisfying happy ending.

- O waits till the last moment to tell Watts about the warehouses on the docks - if he told her sooner then he could have had much needed back up (so it seems silly he didn't).

- Where there should be a double 'l' in words, the second 'l' is magically missing (e.g. 'hell' appears as 'hel').

- The formatting of the book is really off. The page numbers are in with the book text and the lines are artificially broken so it can make it visually distracting.

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Review: The Cleansing

Book Summary

After the earth suffered from a series of severe natural disasters that claimed many lives, people are still fearful years later. America allows in foreigners from other devastated areas to assist with rebuilding. As a result, a new wave of immigration occurs, and now Americans are in the minority. They are discriminated against and blamed for global warming.

 When a foreigner becomes president of the United States, he devises a plan that will prevent Americans from standing in the way of his tyranny. He forces them to attend the Earth Education Program, where they are supposed to learn how to take better care of the environment.

The story follows John and Annie Weber, an American couple, who discover that the program is more malignant than it appears. As a massive genocide takes place, John and Annie struggle to survive in this new world.

Star Rating

5 / 5

I really enjoyed this book. It's depth surprised me. The character development in this book is superb and by the end of the novel you really feel connected to the characters. What makes this book even more amazing is how the plot is handled. It's pacing, subplot interjections, flashbacks, and plot twists kept me hooked. In a distant future I suppose the events in this book could become a possible reality. I think that the potential possibilities is what makes certain dystopian novels truly chilling. This is a great dystopian novel, and I think anyone who likes thrillers or drama would appreciate this book.

Review

Throughout the book we see racism directed at Americans through laws. Having studied the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s I can see some similarities and, in the beginning, it was interesting to see things turned around on Americans. It wasn't long until their treatment stopped being an interesting 'how would you like it' and turned into something that registered as just wrong to me as a reader. The main characters in this novel, John and Annie, are a somewhat average couple. I think this makes it a lot easier to relate to the feelings of the characters. They aren't action heroes, they aren't the strongest or most intelligent, they aren't anything particularly special. They survive the story by their own skills, personal strengths, love and luck. But, as in all true dystopian novels, they are doomed to fail. We follow these two characters, share in their heartbreak and joys. We feel everything they do. In fact, towards the end of the book, I was close to tears (and I don't often cry over books!). I was happy to see that, at the end of the book, a sequel is planned. While I do hate cliché or unearned happy endings, I would like to think that the fictional world of this book can right the wrongs of Julian. So obviously I will be reading the rest of the series!

The book is sometimes interrupted by subplots of other characters. At first I thought it was strange, then I began to like it. The other perspectives helped give a bigger view of what was happening in the world and how other people were living or suffering. I found the chapter dedicated to John's parents to be very chilling and, for that reason, enjoyable because I didn't see it coming. I thought there would be some side note as to what happened to them, or that they would be left as deaths that happened off screen, presumably at the Earth Program. Laura and Stephanie's subplot was also interesting because their story gave the book its final, horrific chapter. Evans shows that she isn't limited to following just the 'main' characters in a book, and that she can weave a bigger picture using minor characters to spice up the novel.

This book was definitely easy to read, the length was perfect and I enjoyed the pace. For me, Evans ticked all the right boxes. Despite Annie's inability to bear children and her irritability (and bitterness) towards her family and friends who had children, Annie never came off as a character who was petty or annoying because of that aspect of her character. To me, her feelings and thoughts were justified, and so I liked her very much as a character. Furthermore, I felt John had a vulnerability about him which made him believable because he wasn't Mr Action Man.

  

While it isn't a negative point, I did foresee Annie getting pregnant, or at least a pregnancy scare, in the book because of the mention of nausea. Perhaps my mind was just making huge assumptions because of one word. However, there was a lot I didn't foresee. In this book I felt there were quite a few twists in the story. For example, when Annie and John are sent for 're-education' I thought the worse that would happen would be rigged exams to keep Americans locked up permanently. I ended up thinking the characters were just being a bit paranoid, but when the soldiers began to shoot at the Americans I realised how Evans had created a place where Americans were lulled into a false sense of security - and I too had been taken in by it! Moreover, I certainly didn't see one of the good guys mercilessly taking the life of a spy. As a reader I know it's what should always happen, but good characters do tend to refrain from outright murder, or there's more emotional anguish written. And, of course, the last note I made on this book was 'omg'. I definitely didn't think the ending would happen in such a way. I hope I haven't given too much away about this book, but it's rather difficult to explain how much of a pleasure it was to read without nodding to all the twists and turns in the book.

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Review: The Doll Collection

Book Summary (written by me)

Gloria wants to be like Princess Diana. She wants a husband and a baby, just like any other woman, right? But Gloria has a problem with people saying 'no'. Scorned by people throughout her life she has learned to take matters into her own hands. Manipulation and murder. A simple recipe to get what she wants, and get her own back on those who fail to 'play nice'.

Review

The Doll Collection by Joanna Stephen-Ward is a book I started because I thought it looked creepy (from the name and front cover). The book failed to creep me out and I don't think it lived up to the blurb on Amazon.

"Murders that look like accidents. Accidents that looks like murders. 
A psychological thriller.

A couple and their young son burn to death in a house fire. A girl dies from a nut allergy. A woman falls under a train during the rush hour. An accountant falls down the steps to his basement. Their deaths appear to be accidents. Only Gloria knows they were murders, because she murdered them.
Each time she kills someone she buys a doll.

A shy young man who has had a nervous breakdown, advertises for a lodger to solve his financial problems. Gloria moves in. He has no idea she has already murdered six people. His life becomes a nightmare. As her character becomes more twisted, it is no longer enough to kill her victims. First she must wreck their lives and witness their suffering. "

This was what the book should have been about. Gloria's previous murders are all brushed over vaguely so already a majority of the blurb's advertised victims aren't greatly described.

The only time I felt empathy for any character in this novel is in the beginning when Gloria overhears Garry insulting her on the phone. Given the brief information offered to the reader it seemed rather rude, uncalled for and very damaging to anyone's self esteem. When Gloria goes on to kill him, as a reader, I think I can understand her torment. However, beyond that point I had no sympathy or attachment to any character. Gloria is an ignorant and dislikeable character. She is bossy and manipulative - without a doubt she is deranged. This is what we want in a villain, right? Yes, but, and there is a big but, as an author you need to give main character's greater depth than Stephen-Ward gave Gloria, if we dislike her then we want to really hate her. If she has become evil as a result of other people then we need detailed back story to feel pity for her in spite of her evil deeds.

Even the 'good' characters in this novel came across as flat or unrealistic. Maurice, for example, has no back bone at all and seemingly never reveals anything about Gloria's evil scheming. Not even to Odette whose cat is murdered by Gloria. I understand that he might be shy and maybe even scared of Gloria later on in the novel, but to let a strange woman, a lodger, move into your bedroom and perform sexual deeds on you seems to be crossing the line of shy to pitiful. It is because of this that I didn't really care that Maurice got a happy ending - I'm just happy one of the cats survived (I love cats). I didn't find any of the good character's particularly likeable, at best I felt neutral towards them.

There were a few typos and words missing here and there. I figure that is to be expected of self published authors, so that doesn't bother me too much. I was just disappointed that the story fell so far of my expectations after reading the blurb. I expected to read a woman's doll collecting journey. I associate dolls in horror or thrillers which something creepy and sinister, but the dolls were not even a major part of the novel. Gloria does not even seem to spend a significant amount of time searching for the 'right' doll to match her victims. I would have thought this would be important if the dolls are so important to her. I found Gloria's death to be an anti-climax after all the talk of murder.

The positives of this book are that it's teen friendly or low reading level adult friendly. The language is simple and direct. The story leads the book so people with short attention spans won't get bored. Although, there is no guarantee that you won't get terribly bored of the conversations between Gloria and her 'husband'.

 Front Cover

I think the front cover could do with a bit of an update. When I think about it, I can see why a bride doll, fire and coffin are components of the front - it's a give away to the ending, right? - but the overall composure looks a little amateur.

Favourite Quote

‘I found some disgusting things.’‘What?’‘Library books.’

This did make me laugh.

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