that nerd

If this book doesn't cement Lisa Gardner as a fantastic author and earn her a spot as one of my favorites, then no other book of hers will. I found it very hard, next to impossible even, to put this book down. I loved the story, the characters, the suspense, everything about this book. I tried to figure out where the story was going, thought I had it, but I was wrong. Great story with a perfect ending.

I have been wanting to read this book for such a long time. I'm glad I finally did. Christmas? Check. Town full of eccentric residents? Check. Half-wit angel? Check. Talking fruit bat sporting miniature Ray-Bans? Check. Zombies? Check. YES, ZOMBIES. Christmas and zombies IN ONE BOOK. This book was definitely a great change from the more traditional holiday tales. Moore also has a great writing style. I think it's definitely one to revisit in the coming years.

Even though I initially thought the author was way too wordy in telling her story, I realize now that she spins an awesome tale. This book was fantastic and it really does make you think. I don't understand why more people aren't aware of this book. She gets a good message across, but at the same time she isn't too preachy about it.

Excellent read, told from the point of view of a five year old that's spent his whole life in captivity with his 26 year old mother. The story itself was very sad, but there were also several things about the story that bugged me and kept me from giving a five star rating:

1.) We never get to know Ma's real name. I think finding out her real name would've let us “know” her character more.
2.) We never find out why “Old Nick” takes Ma in the first place, only that he kidnapped her when she was nineteen. A little bit more backstory about that would've been interesting.
3.) Having some of the story told from Ma's point of view would have been interesting, too.
4.) The constant breastfeeding was annoying. “Having some” every other page got old. We got the point after the first few times: he was five and still breastfed. It was their thing. Same thing with Tooth. We got it. Tooth was kind of gross.

All in all though, it was a good, quick read.

This wasn't a bad read, but I wouldn't call it great either. I wasn't too keen on the subject matter, but I read on. The “twist” at the end was decent, but it just seemed to wrap up too nicely and too quickly to suit me. All in all, not a terrible book, but not a great one either. It kept me reading, so that says something. Best thing I can say about this book is this: it was good to pass the time, I guess, and it was a quick read.

There's nothing in this book you haven't read before if you're at all familiar with the cases presented in it. The author just more or less quickly summarizes each case. Definitely skip this one if you're familiar with the cases within. If not, then it will provide some halfway decent, but NOWHERE NEAR thorough, information.

I decided to give this book a go after reading Into the Wild (which I absolutely loved). I knew the subject matter of this book was disturbing, but I tried to get through it anyway. I could not. I did not get past page 12. I put the book down and I have no intentions of ever finishing it.

I do give the book 2 stars just because Jon Krakauer is a good author (in my opinion).

The only way I can describe this book is to say this: this is a book you read when you have nothing else to read. It wasn't written very well and it felt like two stories that the author tried to smush together into one. It just didn't work. I only give it two stars because it's this author's first novel and we can hope that future efforts from him will be better.

John Walsh provided good background information on the cases he covered in this book, I thought. The only thing about this book that irritated me was how often he went on and on about how great America's Most Wanted is. I know AMW is a good show and that John Walsh and AMW have helped families of missing children and have helped to capture fugitives, but I could've done without John Walsh tooting his own horn and that of AMW's on every other page of this book.

This was a very hard book to get through, just because it made me so angry. I kept wanting to scream at the main character “WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO TELL THE COPS?” Even though he did end up trying to help her, it was too little, too late. And I just think that the cops showing up so soon AFTER Meg dies was just too, I dunno, convenient? to the story. Come on, they could've gotten there a little earlier, while she was alive. As far as Ruth, she's crazy evil and I think she got just what she deserved. All in all, the book did hold my interest, even if it did make me angry (just like the real crime that this is based on made me angry.)

Barnes and Noble had this on sale as a nookbook for $1.99, so I bought it and opened it up on my nook, just intending to read a few pages. It was hard to put down. At just 194 pages, it was a relatively quick read and could easily be read in one sitting. This book may be just 194 pages, but they are 194 of the most horrifying pages I have ever read. I can't really review this book, I can just recommend that you read it once.

This book could have been good, but the way it was written made it very difficult to read. I also found myself NOT caring at all about any of the characters, no matter how heartbreaking their story was supposed to be. I just don't believe the author developed the characters enough to suit me. The author had a good idea for a good novel, but failed to deliver.

This was an awesome, quick read that I breezed through in one day. At just 231 pages, the pages flew by. I was hooked from the first paragraph and found this book hard to put down. It was a nice mystery that I enjoyed because there was really no foul language and no graphic depictions of sex (despite one of the characters owning and being the star of an adult website. Sometimes it IS nice to read a book without all that stuff in it.) I also really liked the main character, Odelia Grey. I will be checking out more books in this series in the future.