Down the TBR Hole #14
Hi everyone! Today, I am going to be reviewing my TBR with another Down the TBR hole post!
For anyone unfamiliar with how this post works, the meme was created by Lia @ Lost in a Story. The idea is to review the books on your TBR to decide if you still want to read them. The rules are as follows: –
- Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
Let’s review the next ten books on my list!
Carrie – Stephen King
Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed… But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction…
I refuse to take Carrie off of my list. It is a book I really want to read, as it is one of King’s better known titles. If not the book, there are plenty of people who have seen the film. My parents fall in the latter category and they recommended it to me as well. It’s a keeper!
Verdict: Keep
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America’s greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront.
I have sat and read reviews of this book for about 20 minutes solid, and I am REALLY undecided. When I added the book, I expected a sociopathic murderer. It seems that there is far more to this book than I initially expected. I can’t decide if I want to read it or not. It is graphic in its descriptions and… shall we say, not very complimentary to women. A part of me wants to be repulsed and the other is curious about why others are massacring this book/author.
Curiosity killed the cat, but I’ll take my chances.
Verdict: Keep
In the Blood – Steve Robinson
Two hundred years ago a loyalist family fled to England to escape the American War of Independence and seemingly vanished into thin air. American genealogist Jefferson Tayte is hired to find out what happened, but it soon becomes apparent that a calculated killer is out to stop him.
In the Blood combines a centuries-old mystery with a present-day thriller that brings two people from opposite sides of the Atlantic together to uncover a series of carefully hidden crimes. Tayte’s research centres around the tragic life of a young Cornish girl, a writing box, and the discovery of a dark secret that he believes will lead him to the family he is looking for. Trouble is, someone else is looking for the same answers and will stop at nothing to find them.
In the Blood is the first book in the Jefferson Tayte mystery series.
I first became acquainted with this series when I found The Last Queen of England (book 3) on Goodreads. From there, I read about the first book and the synopsis is really interesting. I think the emphasis on the family genealogy makes for an interesting plot, so I’m going to be reading this book in the future.
Verdict: Keep
The Stone in the Skull – Elizabeth Bear
Goodreads – The Stone in the Skull
The Stone in the Skull, the first volume in her new trilogy, takes readers over the dangerous mountain passes of the Steles of the Sky and south into the Lotus Kingdoms.
The Gage is a brass automaton created by a wizard of Messaline around the core of a human being. His wizard is long dead, and he works as a mercenary. He is carrying a message from a the most powerful sorcerer of Messaline to the Rajni of the Lotus Kingdom. With him is The Dead Man, a bitter survivor of the body guard of the deposed Uthman Caliphate, protecting the message and the Gage. They are friends, of a peculiar sort.
They are walking into a dynastic war between the rulers of the shattered bits of a once great Empire.
Whatever it was that compelled me to add this to the TBR a year ago has pretty much gone.
I must have been looking for other fantasy books to read, but this one just doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
Verdict: Bin
Stalking Jack the Ripper – Kerri Maniscalco
Goodreads – Stalking Jack the Ripper
Presented by James Patterson’s new children’s imprint, this deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion…
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.
Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.
The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.
I just love the sound of this novel… and the historical ties hinted at within too. I used to watch Ripper Street – it was one of my favourite TV shows, before they stopped it! ARGH! Ahem, anyway… it’s the perfect time period. I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t all for a woman breaking the conventions society have built for her, because you know, they were oppressive.
Verdict: Keep
Consider Phlebas – Iain M. Banks
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.
Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.
I added this because I saw a great review for it I’ve been trying to incorporate more sci-fi into my reading, but on looking back at this, it might be too much. I’m not great when it comes to technical details and I just feel this is going to be a bit too hard-hitting for me.
Verdict: Bin
The Scorch Trials – James Dashner
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.
I enjoyed reading The Maze Runner last year. It was the rare exception in which I had watched the film first. Did I love it enough to continue with the series? I’m not so sure anymore. I feel that the demographic the series was written for doesn’t really suit me anymore. If I were to read this, I think it would be forced… and that’s not a way to enjoy a book. Time to call it a day, I think.
Verdict: Bin
Invictus – Ryan Graudin
Time flies when you’re plundering history.
Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far’s birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he’s ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past.
But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far’s very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems.
I like the time travel concept behind this plot. It is one of the science fiction themes I CAN get my head around. I’m also intrigued by the heist on the Titanic, as it grounds the story to something familiar. Sometimes, time travel (for me anyway) can get confusing if it is all based in the future, or without some kind of “landmark”. I think this will make an enjoyable read, so it’s staying on the list.
Verdict: Keep
99 Red Balloons – Elisabeth Carpenter
Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?
When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.
What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?
Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…
I was so sure I was going to enjoy reading this book when I originally added it to the list. Having read the synopsis again, I stand by my decision. It’s the kind of drama I would watch on TV… if I watched TV. I hardly watch it lately and yet I’m stupid enough to pay for it! Anyway… I digress. This kind of mystery is right up my street. I think this may be getting bumped up the list.
Verdict: Keep
The Sun God’s Heir: Return – Elliott Baker
Goodreads – The Sun God’s Heir: Return
The Sun God’s Heir is a swashbuckling series, set at the end of the seventeenth century in France, Spain and northern Africa. Slavery is a common plague along the European coast and into this wild time, an ancient Egyptian general armed with dark arts has managed to return and re-embody, intent on recreating the reign of terror he began as Pharaoh. René Gilbert must remember his own lifetime at the feet of Akhenaten to have a chance to defeat Horemheb. A secret sect has waited in Morocco for three thousand years for his arrival.
I remember being really excited for this when I first saw it. I bought a copy straight away.
I’m not saying that I’ve changed my mind – I still think this will make for an enjoyable read. I am just a little less enthused than I was then.
I have a copy, so I’ll keep it and try it. You never know… I might come to love it! 
So… that’s the list! Have you read any of these books? Is there anything you would change? Let me know in the comments!
One thought on “Down the TBR Hole #14”