Catherine Cookson: The Rag Nymph

Catherine Cookson's The Rag Nymph tells about a girl named Millie who loses her parents one way or another, and ends up being taken care of by the local junk dealer Aggie. Millie is unhealthily beautiful, and that's why all the men want her. Whether is good for her or not.

There's one thing you learn from Catherine Cookson's books: it's completely normal and even desirable for a grown man to fall in love with a child. A man is a great hero if he can wait until the child is 16 years old. And of course a man also falls in love with a child he's been taking care of since the girl was 7.

Apparently all of Cookson's books are full of pedophilia. And yet when I was young I devoured them, and I don't think I questioned them at all.

 



Matthew Perry: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

 “I was so full of shit it nearly killed me.”

Matthew Perry's autobiography Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing tells a sad story about a sad man.

Matthew Perry was a narcissist, drug addict and womanizer. Well, he thought he was a womanizer, but really he was a self-absorbed misogynist. He thought that he made women laugh, but in reality he made them cry. His attitude towards women is sickening to read. Frankly, I don't understand women who give this book five stars.

A person who only wanted one thing: to become famous, and imagined that fame would fix all his problems.

Millions spent on drugs and rehab. I guess the money could have been put to better use.

It is unlikely that the cast of Friends will ever tell what it was really like to work with this self-described comedy genius for ten years. It would be interesting to hear especially Jennifer Aniston's side of the story. Perry had a crush on her, without reciprocating.

If you're still a fan of Friends, Chandler Bing or Matthew Perry, I definitely don't recommend reading this memoir. For many, this book has ruined the aforementioned things. When I was watching Friends, I didn't know anything about Perry's substance abuse problems either. What was I wondering about his sometimes bloated and even sweaty look.

What would Matthew Perry have become if he hadn't become rich and famous? The drugs should have been obtained in a slightly different way, and there would not have been money for expensive rehab treatments.

 

 

Matthew Perry took ketamine, went into a hot tub and died in October 2023. Would he have died from that amount of ketamine without going in the water? Ketamine is said to be an anesthetic. Probably not a very good idea to take it and go into the water.

It is always said not to speak ill of the dead. I probably would have written even worse about him if he was still alive, now I tried to restrain myself a bit. But of course I'm afraid that because of this blog post he will come to haunt me.

The book itself intrigued me like that famous (pun intended) train wreck, I couldn't look away and I read it in a couple of days.

Whenever I finish a book, I always go to Goodreads to read its reviews, especially the one-star reviews.

So would I give this book only one star? No. As some have said, the book itself should be criticized here, not the author or his life or life choices. As many readers have stated, the book is a bit difficult to understand because it jumps around in different time periods. Chronological order would have been better. But otherwise, I would give this macabre social porn 3-4 stars out of five.

And yes, I didn't add this book to my library reserve list until after Perry died. I was interested in it before, but not enough.

Amanda Reynolds: Lying To You

Amanda Reynolds' psychological thriller Lying To You is a completely pointless book.

Plot description: Ten years ago, something terrible happened between a teenage girl Jess and her male teacher. The teacher went to jail for a while. And now Jess has to return to her former home village to organize her mother's funeral. Old grudges sit deep, and what really happened on prom night?

The narrative style is even more boring than boring. 95% is completely useless description of things that are of no interest to anyone. Like when the main character cleans her dead mother's gross cabin. Only a small part of the text is the kind that really moves the plot forward.

There is no tension or plot twist in this book at any point. No surprising revelations. Nothing to make this a thriller.

 


Only after reading the book to the end did I check if I had read anything by Amanda Reynolds before. So why did I pick up this book? And yes, in January 2023 I read Reynolds' book Close To Me, and I think I liked it more than this one. Even a tv-series has been made of this book, it's on Viaplay and I intend to watch it.

Few authors who write psychological thrillers really know how to write engagingly. Most of them focus too much on the description of boring everyday life, which I don't think belongs to thrillers.

Freida McFadden: The Inmate

Brooke, a young single mother, moves back to her hometown and starts a new job at a nearby prison. She has failed to tell her employer that her high school boyfriend is one of the prisoners. And that Brooke herself was instrumental in getting Shane there.

Freida McFadden's psychological thriller The Inmate was a suitable read for the Christmas holidays. The book is very gripping and I couldn't wait to read more.

One might think that they know right from the beginning who is guilty, but The Inmate does not disappoint, there are enough twists and surprises until the end.

One thing at the end was too unbelievable in my opinion, it's probably better not to reveal what. As usual, it was annoying how it was repeated that ten years is such a long time that everything is forgotten. It certainly is not.