Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

 12 October 2024 ~

It has been a while since my last book review and I can’t wait to post this latest read for you.. so here goes! 😍

📖 Incidents Around The House 

✍️ Josh Malerman • Published 25 June 2024 Format: #kobo ebook

📝 My Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5🌟

*** Spoiler Alerts ***

The latest work from Bird Box’s author is about a horror supernatural story told from the eyes of an eight years old Bella, who lives with her perfect parents in a seemingly beautiful house. The story is about Bella’s account of her encounter with a supernatural being whom she called “Other Mummy”. Her parents felt that she manifested this imaginary friend which turned out to be a real unholy entity but was not officially defined as a ghost.

The story has a strong start, but it did not manage to keep the suspense throughout and somehow lacked substance. It did not keep me to the edge on my seat unlike other usual horror stories, but it did keep me intrigued long enough for me to want to find out what exactly is the ending. It was kind of slow burn, and some characters. The plot twist about the parents in the end did come as a surprise though.

Still a strongly recommended read which may keep you glued in your seat from start till end.

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Verity by Colleen Hoover

   📖 Verity 

✍️by Colleen Hoover (Published 5th October 2021)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook 

2022.10.23 ~

So much praises has been rising from this latest bestseller from Colleen Hoover that I immediately picked it up when it was spotted on the shelf in my favourite local library. 😁 I love the cover design and the pages easy to flip. The moment I start, I had to finish! This is how good this book is and no wonder it is standing strong on the New York Times' bestseller glory board. And yes, I finished reading it in another one sitting. 😍

The story is generally gripping and moves on quite smoothly, and the plot twists are quite unexpected. However, there is just one minor detail in the story that I would question but I cannot find the answer ~ getting Lowen to co-author Verity's books was premediated, but why to such extend by the husband? 

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

The story commenced with a very interesting start, one that I would expect from a total thriller but as it moved past the first chapter, it began to reveal itself not so much. Hence I would rather classify it as a romantic thriller (a new genre perhaps?), as the story builds up majority on romantic details between the male lead (Jeremy Crawford) and his wife (Verity Crawford) and then him and the female lead (Lowen Ashleigh).

Lowen was a struggling author facing financial troubles when she was offered the deal of a lifetime, to co-author with her much admired author and gettting paid handsomely for it. She began working on the new series of books by moving into Verity's house and getting to know what is really going with Verity and her current predicament. As she accidentally discovered Verity's manuscript and became obsessed with the "truth" in it and Jeremy, she commit the unspeakable crime with him. Read the book if you can (I totally recommend and encourage it), and let me know if you share the same bothering thought as I do. 😁

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The Toybox by Charly Cox

  📖 The ToyBox (Detective Alyssa Wyatt Series #2) 

✍️by Charly Cox (Published 23rd October 2019)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook #audiobook

2022.09.21 ~ 12.05 am :

Following my last read on Charly Cox's Detective Alyssa Wyatts series and curious to move on to her next story in the series, I quickly picked up The ToyBox and finished in a flash! >v<

Charly Cox smart and considerate writing style continues into this second book in the series and I am impressed by how she has told the story with details and yet without explicit dark words to spark your imaginations. 

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

The Toybox unfolded months after All His Pretty Girls and Detective Wyatts and her family were just recovering from their own incident when her daughter's close friend went missing and sparked a new race against time investigation to save innocent girls from evil hands.

The Toybox touched on a sensitive and yet very real on-going crime happening in our modern world and the author has successfully shown readers insights into the dark scenes of actual events. It brought awareness to all who read the terrifying ordeals and sufferings of innocent girls being trafficked into sex rings and crimes. Though details were carefully not coloured, our wild minds can easily imagine the unspeakable. As what the book had wished, I do hope this will bring greater awareness to the public and hope governments and law enforcements all over the world will act to bring such crimes to zero.

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All His Pretty Girls by Charly Cox

 📖 All His Pretty Girls (Detective Alyssa Wyatt Series #1) 

✍️by Charly Cox (Published 23rd October 2019)

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

Format: Paperback #kindle ebook #audiobook

2022.08.30 ~ 12.05 am :

Was searching for a serial killer series to read for my September #BOTM when I chanced upon the first book in the Detective Alyssa Wyatt series, All His Pretty Girls, and this debut novel from Charly Cox has not disappoint at all! On contrary, it has hooked me from beginning to end and I almost finished it in a sitting if not for regular duties of life I have to fulfil 😂

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler : 
Detective Alyssa Wyatt was assigned to investigate a case of a missing woman which eventually turned up dead. She felt that she had failed the husband of the woman so deeply like she had failed her own little brother. Her 4 year old brother, Timothy, has been taken outside of their home while 9 year old Alyssa had ran inside to grab a cool-aide. Investigations into the case slowly dug up deeply buried hurts and regrets, while linking other past cold cases to a killer serial. From this point on, the story enters the confessions and history of this serial killer whom is later revealed as sharing the same sibling DNA as Alyssa. 🤔

I love the story plot, although in the beginning I already have the inkling that the killer was in the same room as the dead woman. I also love the way Charly Cox managed to paint the horrid pictures of what happened to Timothy and how he had become what he was in the end, in the way without explicit gore and yet descriptive.

Now, I am driven to finish the rest of the books in this series and will review as I go. 😍

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All For You by Louise Jensen

 All For You by Louise Jensen (Published January 20th 2022)

📖 All For You
✍️ Louise Jensen

📄My rating: 4 of 5 stars on Goodreads

2022.08.20 ~ 12.05 am :

Finished this month’s second #BOTM「All For You」 on #Kindle, #audiobook and physical paperback! Was procrastinating on what will be the next read when my son stumbled on this physical book in the library that caught our eyes and I quickly found it on Kindle too. 😍

This is the first book I’ve read from the author and gosh, it has been a good ride! The story slowly lures you in with all the secrets and mysteries and it keeps u guessing, engaging you to frantically want to discover it all!
I must say, I really didn’t see the twist coming at the 84% plot point. The author managed to keep the entire mystery and tension building up right till the moment where once revealed, you would want to finished up in a heartbeat to understand it all why. The most heartfelt part of the plot was understanding what Lucy was going through as a mother, who loves and will do anything for her children, and yet has to live through the daily nightmare of her son’s illness. Though truly engaging, I felt that the pace could pick up better.

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :
Main characters, Aidan (a vet) and Lucy ( a retired doctor, now a devoted wife and mother) looks like a perfect couple with a perfect family with 2 sons, Conner and Keiron. Fate dealt them a bad hand when Keiron was diagnosed with an terminal illness and desperately needs a donor. Conner has secrets of his own with his best pals, Ryan and Tyler, while his parents owning their fair share of secrets and lies. Everything slowly unraveled when Ryan and Tyler started to disappear one after the other. People starts to dub them as “The Taken” and Conner feels he will be next. As they race against time to solve the mysteries of the disappearances, the plot twists keeps revealing themselves and all will make sense in the end.

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The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz (Published July 1st 1996)

📖 The Eyes of Darkness
✍️ Dean Koontz

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars on Goodreads

2022.08.10 ~ 1215am.. finished reading this month’s first #BOTM「The Eyes of Darkness」

and here’s my review 🤓:

Long time since I last picked up a Dean Koontz book and this novel intrigued me with its storyline and the hint that author predicted the Coronavirus like 4 decades ago! It was an easy read , a little slow in the beginning but 40% in, it keeps you going to the end. A very different kind of style from his other books that I’ve read but I like this current creative better.

For you whom might be curious, here’s a little spoiler :

This book is about a Mother who believes her son may still be alive (although he was supposed to be dead due to an excursion accident a year ago) when she started to experience paranormal activities that tells her so. So she started to investigate and commence on an adventure to rescue him and in due course, stumbled on a highly classified government conspiracy and research that involved chemical and biological weapons which surprisingly, started off from Wuhan, China. (So coincidentally also named the Wuhan-400 virus 😳)

So if you are as curious, go pick one up and start reading!! 🤓

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Switch by Grant McKenzie

Switch by Grant McKenzie (Published July 2nd 2009)

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I must say, crime thrillers used to be my kind of genre but somehow lost the consistency to follow such stories in recent years until a friend of mine rekindled the interest again. ^^

Brief synopsis:
The main character, Sam White, is a middle-aged security guard who has lost his golden opportunity in life to seek fame as an actor and resigned to his contented life with his wife and daughter back at his high school hometown in Portland city. He was on his way back home after work one day and found his home being exploded to the ground with this family inside. He later realized that the bodies in the house may not be of his wife and daughter and began his "adventure" to save his family from the sadistic murderer who had "switched" the fate of another guy's family for his. He was approached by Zack Parker, a cosmetic surgeon, whose family was supposedly in Sam's torched house, who offered to help him find the mastermind in return for his own revenge. Hot on their heels were 2 detectives who managed to find out the truth with scattered evidences (and real luck).

Luckily, "Switch" is quite an easy read and the author has managed to keep your interest going. Though frankly, I didn't quite understand the logic and psychological mindset of the crime mastermind, the overall story flow does make sense or it will definitely be tossed within the first 100 pages. And I must say, the ending didn't give me much surprise which is slightly disappointing. ;P This is the first book I've read by Grant McKenzie and I'm glad he had paced the plot pretty well to keep me going till the end. ;)

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