Pierre Lemaitre: Three Days and a Life

Something terrible happens to 12-year-old Antoine while he's playing in the forest. A long ordeal begins. And yes, the official description of the book reveals way too much. That's why I usually skip reading them these days.

Pierre Lemaitre's book Three Days and a Life (Trois jours et une vie) can be read quickly, in a couple of hours. Not much actually happens in the story, but enough nonetheless.

 

I've read one book by Pierre Lemaitre (Blood Wedding) before, and I had trouble getting started with it, but in the end I really liked it.

Jeffrey Archer: The Prodigal Daughter

It's been decades since I last read Jeffrey Archer's The Prodigal Daughter. It's a sequel to Archer's Kane & Abel, and I'm not sure I ever read the first part. Anyway, I heard only now that the first half of The Prodigal Daughter tells the events of Kane & Abel from a different perspective, and many people have criticized this.

The Prodigal Daughter tells the story of Florentyna, the daughter of Abel Rosnovski. Florentyna is brainwashed from childhood to achieve great things. Of course, she was born with a golden spoon in her mouth. But everything changes when Florentyna falls in love with what her father thinks is the wrong man.

And as is all too often the case, the back cover of the book reveals too much of the plot.

I really liked Archer's books when I was younger, and The Prodigal Daughter could very well be my favorite of them. But when Florentyna went into politics, the book became more boring in my opinion. 

I did cry twice while reading this book. When a certain character died, and also at the end of the book.

 

And it was only decades later that I discovered that there was a sequel to The Prodigal Daughter, Shall We Tell the President? Do I really want to know the rest of Florentyna's story?

S.K. Tremayne: The Drowning Hour

Hannah is stuck on an island. She can't get out of there because she's afraid of water. Luckily, the hotel she works at is located on this same island. A few months earlier, several hotel guests drowned. What exactly happened?

I've read S.K. Tremayne's books before, but The Drowning Hour is the worst of them. The book is absolutely incredibly boring, most of the text can be skipped without a worry. The events of the entire book could be condensed into a few sentences and nothing would be lost.

I already knew in advance that I wouldn't like this book, since the basic plot of the entire book is not interesting at all. I guess I should have skipped it.

And again, those characters are just disgusting. And of course, so sad and depressing.

 

Ashley Audrain: The Whispers

But sometimes it's the good people who do the worst things.

If you think that you want a child and/or a relationship, this book might change your mind.

A boy falls out of his window in the middle of the night, and is left hanging between life and death. What really happened? And what's wrong with the lives of the families in a seemingly idyllic neighborhood?

I didn't like the way Ashley Audrain's book The Whispers begins. Suddenly, a large number of people are thrust into the reader's face at once. Yes, the characters become familiar, but the beginning is difficult.

I probably read this book in less than a day. The whole time I was plagued by a heavy feeling, and I had to remind myself that it was because of this book, and not because of my own life. So this is yet another book about the depressing lives of depressing people.

 

I didn't even remember that I had read this author's previous book, The Push, which also deals with dark family drama.