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| Name : | Tesse L. |
My Reviews
I normally like Grisham’s works but do not normally read his genre. And I guess I have never read a nonfiction book on a crime before either, so I was unprepared for the way the story was told. I opened it up expecting to read a story, where characters interacted telling the story themselves and instead got a step-by-step factual telling of how events unfolded by a narrator.
It is the story of two murders that take place in Ada, Oklahoma in 1980s. It centering on the men who were convicted of the crimes and their innocents. It retold the horrible mistreatment they received at the hands of the judicial system and the failure of society to protect them from being unjustly convicted and treated inhumanely. It tells of the plight of the families of the convicted “innocent” men and how they were helpless to stop the horror that was happening to their loved ones, expanding on how the crime flows outward affecting all it touches. It tells of the single-minded focus and ignorance of the police investigating the crime. Detailing the desperation of the police to solve the crime quickly; pages and pages on the lengths they were willing to go. But mostly it told the sad tale of a man whose life was breaking apart from a mental illness, whose family was desperately trying to save him from himself and failed.
First off, I did not like the style of storytelling; it left me feeling detached from the characters in the tale. I wasn’t able to get a feel for them. Whenever it was stated how a character felt at the moment it sounded contrite. It in no way made me want to like them, in fact most all of them disgusted me.
Second, due to personal reasons I hate reading about things that happen to real people. It disturbs me that such things happen and I get no joy out of reading the grisly details of a murder. And the step by step telling of how innocent people became entangled and framed by law officials just made me want to hurl at the unjustness of it all. If anything this book opened my eyes to the inadequacies of our justice system; making me scared of any interaction with police if ever I am on that side of the law.
Third, I hate real life tales that end in tragedy. No matter how you try to spin it… The story of the people involved in The Innocent Man is a tragedy; there is no happy ending for any of them.
So is this book good? Oh ya, it’s good at telling you the horrible happenings in the lives of all involved. It exposes all the nastiness of a corrupt system and for people who love to follow murder cases…this book is it! Read it, enjoy it. For those whose hearts get ripped out at the misuse and abuse of others…avoid it, you will cry for a long time.
I am giving it a 3/5 just based on my personal preferences in what I expect from a good read.
What if there actually a balance that kept the world whole; what if that balance was disturbed? What would nature do to save itself? Would the mass destruction of humankind be in order, maybe so? In the speculative horror novel, The Nature of Balance by Tim Lebbon, something has caused disturbed the balance between man and nature. In a single evening, those who lay down to sleep suffered from brutal dreams from which most did not awaken.
There are those who were lucky enough to survive, the ones who had not gone to bed yet, the insomniacs, the nightshift workers, and those who awaken from their bad dream to screams of their loved ones around them dying brutally. On the other hand, were they truly lucky? While humanity laid shuddering, screaming and dying in their sleep the world shifts and changes. Nature mutates taking on an alien form turning on humanity, ejecting them, leaving a world where only the strongest can survive.
In this newly evolved world, we follow the paths of Blane and Peer. Blane is a naturalist who enjoys spending his time naked in the woods and cannot remember his past. Peer is a shy introvert who does not have many friends and feels as if she has no place she truly belongs. Guided by a mysterious antagonist the duo are destined to meet in order to unravel what went wrong with the balance and the shocking secrets of Blane's past.
With the touch of an artist, Lebbon coaxes you into the horrifying reality he has created through a magnificent manipulation of words. His words twist around your senses, teasing you, dragging you deeper into the nightmare step-by-shocking-step making it difficult to put down the book. His main characters are a likable sort of people and his antagonists mysterious and tragic. Though they were lacking depth, it was as if you glimmer of the person but not the whole picture. But somehow you still care what happens to them, including the antagonist.
The storyline was intriguing constantly teasing you with questions; the answers just out of reach, making you turn each page in hopes of another glimmer that will help you tie the story together. Lebbon does an excellent job of keeping you guessing just when you think you figured out the storyline he tosses in something new.
Through the entire story, it was like riding on a fast moving train rushing from stop to stop. Never stopping long enough to give you time to take in the history of each stop, to appreciate how it became what it was, before rushing off to the next amazing sight. More time could have been spent on fleshing out the background story of the characters or events, tying them in tighter to the how and why of the story. Supporting characters are loosely weaved throughout the story but you develop no bond to them. If they die, they die...no loss.
Overall, as a speculative horror novel I give Tim Lebbon a high five on doing a smashing grand job. His story was an amazing read that kept me devouring the pages to the end. I still will highly recommend this as an excellent read to my friends, even though I felt it would have been better if it were a longer story to give the full effect of the background of events and characters. The story line was refreshing and I did enjoy being dragged through all the thrilling gory events to the end. I look forward to reading more of his work.
When you are on a bus, train or airplane looking around you do you ever wonder what the other passengers are thinking? In Geoff Ryman's novel, 253 you get to do just that to the 252 passengers and driver on a Bakerloo Line train. 253 occurs on January 11th 1995 which is the day that Ryman learned that his best friend was dying of AIDs.
253 was originally an interactive web novel, which you still can access to read online. The design of the book is unique in that it is based off the number of passengers the train can carry. The train consists of seven carriages, 36 seats on each and 1 driver seat, totaling 253 passengers. Each passenger on the train is described in outward appearance, inside information and what they are doing or thinking in 253 words each.
You might say nothing remarkable happens on the Bakerloo Line train as it makes it way from Embankment station to the Elephant and Castle, but you would be wrong. The little snippets of the passenger's lives tie together into a rich, inviting world of human nature. Sometimes the stories seem unreal and made up, but then others pull at your heart in a reminder of something you have experienced yourself. For those who need more than those intimate glimpses into the other passenger's lives, there is an end of the line section that offers a bit of violence and sensationalism. Along with that comes a handy seating map of each carriage so that you can see where people are in relation to others.
I found this to be a pleasurable read that I could carry in my purse to fill time waiting in lines and the doctor offices. I loved the nosey glimpses into the character's lives and often times wished I knew more about what would happen to them outside of the train. Then there were characters that I wished I never got a glimpse at their lives. Never the less, it was a wonderful mish-mash of people and experiences that I would expect to see on a train and a few I did not. I would highly recommend this novel as
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