No suspense in this unpleasant novel
934548
I really did not care for this book at all.  First of all, the reader learns on the first page what happens at the end of the story.  The only "suspense" is why it happens, and frankly, I didn't much care, in part because I truthfully did not like the protagonists and could not identify with any of them, least of all the nanny.  Reading this book was in no way enjoyable and after finishing it, I felt let-down and disturbed that I had wasted my money.  If the author's intent was to shock, I suppose she succeeded, but if her intent was to win fans, she lost me and I imagine many others.
1102814
There was enough suspense to keep me reading but it was not a pleasant or exciting read. The protagonist was annoying as hell and there wasn't even one sympathetic character in the book. A 3 star 'meh'.
2277368
I read Pagan, liked it, and thought this would be a worthy follow-up.  It's not even close.  I frankly detested this "novel."  The vast and ongoing saga of John and Marie's sex-life might be appropriate in a romance, but I was thinking perhaps this novel would deal extensively with the ongoing war against the vampires.  Not so.  The entire novel:  John and Marie have sex.  I am far from opposed from sex IN a novel; this novel was however unable to build atmospheric tension because of the constant intrusion of the romance.

Marie is, as a character, flat, static.  She is constantly jealous of John and we are treated to their "make-up sex" in most chapters.  The characters in general act silly and totally out of mind of what one would expect a pseudo-military/spec-ops team of vampire hunters.

Lots of small errors escaped the editor:  At the beginning it's broad daylight, then suddenly it's night.  The author frequently uses words from foreign languages---and misspells them.  Hint:  It's "Sprechen Sie Deutsch" not "Sprekenze"---small things like that separate a good book and a great book, and this book wasn't good.

Without reverting to profanity, let me simply say:  I detested this book so much I will never read anything else written by this author.  I wish I had my 2.99 back.  Yes, it's so bad I begrudge the loss of 2.99.
3166464
I was really looking forward to Joy Fielding's She's Not There.  I love suspense novels, but this novel had no suspense nor a real mystery.  Caroline Shipley and her husband, Hunter went on a vacation to Rosarito, Mexico fifteen years previously for their anniversary.  Caroline would not leave the kids with her mother or brother, so they brought five-year-old, Michelle, and two-year-old, Samantha with them.  On the last night the babysitter failed to show up.  The hotel said that someone had canceled the sitter.  Since they were going to be eating just outside (they could see the window from the table), they went to dinner (Hunter insisted because he had a surprise for Caroline).  They took turns checking on the sleeping girls.  When they go back after dinner, Samantha is gone.  Who took her and why?

Fifteen years later Caroline gets a call from a young girl stating she might be Samantha.  Could this be her long lost daughter?  We get to see how this kidnapping affected the family and if this young woman is really Samantha.  Will Caroline finally get the truth?

I found She's Not There to be a slow novel with no suspense.  It was so easy to figure out who took Samantha and why.  We are subjected to a lot of Caroline thinking (and over thinking) and disagreements between Michelle and Caroline.  Michelle was a difficult child before the kidnapping and she has not improved over the last fifteen years (I got very tired of their arguments).  I did not like any of the characters in the book.  Caroline plays the blame game and has issues controlling her temper.  The writing is okay (satisfactory).  I kept hoping that there would be a twist at the end.  I give She's Not There 3 out of 5 stars (which mean it was okay).

I received a complimentary copy of She's Not There from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the novel.
3031767
I felt bogged down by this novel and was frustrated that it took me over a week to read it.  I wanted so badly to like this book because the time I'd invested to read it, but I just didn't.  The suspense just wasn't there for me--I kept reading, even though I already knew how the book would end.

The Hallows is a small town in New York where everyone each other and has since childhood.  Many of the characters in this book are VERY dysfunctional and no one seems to have the smarts to get out of his or her own way.  The disappearance of a young girl from this close-knit community dredges up secrets and memories of another young girl that went missing some 20 years prior.  The author switches back and forth between in telling the story through flashbacks and telling the story in the present tense.  This for me was very tedious and annoying.  I never was very sure where I was in the story and always felt like I had missed something.

I have another Lisa Unger book in my To Be Read pile, and I'll wait on that one for awhile.  I may give her one more chance--in case this was a fluke, but not for awhile...
4650211
From feminine book cover to simplistic prissy descriptions of the protagonist's attempts at beautification and hygiene, this is nothing more than a elongated short story meant for high school girls. The author should have used a woman's pen name. As a male, I would have been more embarrassed to publish this book than I already am for having read it. Since there is absolutely no mystery, suspense or thrills, this work does not belong on the submission list for 2010 Edgar Award nomination consideration for Best First Novel. That list is, unfortunately, where I found this book. The plot, assuming you can find it, leads nowhere. The author also manages to insult Italians and Jews. The Italian hero, an organized crime Capo's son, receives a handsome physical description, in which his nose is not a "hook". The story begins with the winey, rude and obnoxious female protagonist as a school teacher. One of her many identities created by the Federal Witness Protection program she has been hidden in since the age of six after her parents testified against the hero's daddy, having seen him filet open a "rat". Three students are briefly described because none of them appear beyond a single paragraph and they have nothing to do with the plot. The description of the girl student is "wispy Jewish" who only attends school 3 times per week in order to hide the bruises she receives at home. So...what does "Jewish" as a gratuitous descriptive adjective tell us about the girl? Are we supposed to picture a thin girl with bruises and a long nose? Or maybe a girl with horns and a tail? Or do Jewish kids miss a lot of school because their parents beat them up. Imagine the outcry if this character was African American. What on earth is wrong with this author or is he just your every day anti-semite? Our protagonist is poor little Melody Grace McCartney, but she is not six years old any more, and of course, no longer cute. Now twenty-six, she narrates this tale and we find her character personality totally unappealing. Even if this story had created some suspense or thrills, most readers would not care less about her fate. But of course, as narrator, no harm could ever come to her anyway or this book, written in the first person, would not have been finished. There are a number of objects that appear conveniently and inexplicably out of nowhere to get the reader from one scene to another, such as a phone that permits free long distance calls to a post office in New York but not to any other number and alcohol and cotton balls without a visit to the local drugstore to wipe away some superficial skin bruises. The author also takes a big swipe at Tony Bennett, whose music he refers to as "trite", a word that more aptly describes the writing of this book's author. I guess if you hate Tony Bennett you might like this book, which, in my opinion is a complete waste of time and money.
2895080
The plot for this book - an old man improbably bumping into strange circumstances - is so thin and tiring that I suspect it was birthed by a four o' clock a.m. game of slug charades.  You should only read this book to:
- stop you from looking at sleeping, drooling people
- remind yourself that there are worse things than being trapped with your own thoughts
- trick someone you hate into reading it (convince them to wait until the end)

The book has: boring dialogue, tired ideas, meaningless randomness.  And it lacks any sort of entertainment value.  It would be a real pity if the author's other books are any good, because I'll be avoiding them as if they are socially stupid relatives.
1977902
For all the rave comments in the introductions to Koontz's novels, I fail to see what is so fabulous about them.  Sure, they're a little suspenseful, but only in about the middle twelve pages.  The reader spends chapter after chapter reading about the tiniest, most minute details of every object in every room through which the characters travel; minor details that have nothing to do with the plot.  I don't need to know every detail of a set of Victorian curtains in a room in a house when the point of the characters being there is that they're going to kill a priest.  Get to the point already!
It seems that Koontz spends a lot of time filling space.  He frequently interrupts the story to tell the reader about something completely irrelevant, perhaps a rant on the virtues of Christianity or another paragraph about how wonderful dogs are.  Sure, dogs make great pets, but I don't want to hear about how great dogs are when the main character is on the verge of a major discovery.  Irrelevant rants are a poorly-chosen plot tool for so popular an author.  It is as if the author were inflicted with a literary Tourettes Syndrome.
Sure, I like dogs as much as the next guy, but the level to which Koontz takes his obsession with them borders on bestiality.  In fact, in one of his novels (_False Memory_) Koontz even goes so far as to have the antagonist assume that two of the primary characters are having sex with a dog in the back of a truck.  His fascination with Christianity is nearly or as prominent.
It seems that at least every third paragraph is filled with God's intent, God's wishes, the afterlife and all things Christian.  It is not tough to see that the author is playing with the morals of gentle readers.  Because of this, it is not hard to see why Koontz's novels are so popular.  The novels are not popular because they offer good suspense or a detailed plot, they are popular because they play to every cliche`e moral quality that Americans value:  Dogs, Christianity, holidays, romance and gluttony.  Beer and heterosexuality are pushed on the reader, plus the occasional product placement.
DId I say occasional?  In some parts, the product placements get completely blatant.  In the novel _False Memory_, Koontz spends pages discussing a rich man's favorite products including Mercedes Benz and "Milano cookies, by Peperridge Farms."  I took a hiliter to one of Koontz's novels, hiliting each product placement in two chapters featuring a particular character.  In those chapters I found no less than twenty-four blatantly obvious product placements.
To summarize, if you like dogs, Christianity, heterosexuality, beer and Christmas on a level bordering obsession, I'm almost sure you'll love Koontz's novels.  However, if you're looking for a steady plot and good character detail, you'll have to look to another author.
314870
I wonder why I kept reading this book.  I didn't like any of the characters except Melanie, who disappears quickly from the group gathered for a "hen party"  at a remote house surrounded by forest.
The most irritating character is the narrator, Leonora, who drones on and on.  She ruminates about her every action, reaction and motivation.  She's supposed to be 26 but her emotional age seems closer to 17, at which point she pretty much curtailed her romantic life.
 Finally, this novel  is billed as a thriller, so I kept waiting for something thrilling to happen.  Eventually, someone is killed -- but there's nothing scary about it -- messy, but not scary.
If you want thrills, look elsewhere.
2962181
Totally devoid of suspense despite many opportunities. All the suspenseful parts must have made it to the cutting floor on purpose.
I suppose if the story started out with the population struck by severe tunnel vision it would be worth one star.
It is almost as if someone wrote a story and the producer/director of this movie deliberately tried to sabotage it.
Rife with unrealistic characters;
A Jehovah Witness that would pretend to strike an unwary person in the head with a baseball bat as a fun gesture.
A drunken priest with a 2 foot long black cross tattooed on his back.
The red letters without a messenger.
A reluctant prostitute that could have been teetering on agoraphobia. ( another ball dropped)
None of the zombies were brought out as a foremost character.
This is too far away removed from classic suspense, horror, logic and character representation to be of any value.
4040601
Wow, Usually I love a serial killer novel, but this book just made me want to fall asleep.  I couldn't even finish it (Something that hardly ever happens!) I found myself just waiting for the antagonist to kill off the protagonist just to get the book over with.  By the time I finally gave up on it the only thing I kept thinking with the turning of each predictable page was "Who Cares!". The positive reviews by James Patterson and Michael Connelly make me suspicious about any other reviews by these two fine authors.
2687448
"The Ruins" is overly praised and overly hyped. The novel is too long and slow-moving, and by the time you finally finish, you're more or less indifferent to the fate of the protagonists. The author relies on a number of standard-issue suspense / horror novel narrative mechanisms that will fail to impress most readers who are familiar with this genre.

Let's face it, how can you make a humble VINE come across as dangerous ? How do you arrange to have 6 healthy (if a bit feckless) college students vulnerable to its depredations ? Scott Smith decides that it requires a whole series of contrived incidents and maneuvers that had me rolling my eyes on a regular basis. I won't spoil the story by revealing just what happens, but it requires quite a bit of suspension of belief by the reader.

A major flaw in the narrative is Smith's insistence on suspending the action in order to give us extended sessions in which we are party to what each character is thinking. This is a clichd tactic to make the reader care more about these individuals, and empathize with their predicament , but it just makes things duller. Just as predictable a narrative device is the periodic bouts of infighting among our heroes, or the emergence of long-suppressed rivalries and jealousies under the strain of the Vine Menace. Excising these features from the narrative would have shortened the novel by a good 50 pages and made things flow a little quicker. But the truth is, the novel would still be a disappointment.
2464173
The premise for this novel, although not original, was intriguing, woman loses her memory, etc. and someone is out to kill her.  Sounds like a lot of fun, but this story quickly degenerated into a "Romance" novel with totally unlikeable and cartoonish characters and not enough mystery.  If you are into "Romance" novels you might like this novel but if you aren't beware.

There should be warnings stuck to the titles of books-For example-Warning! This is a Romance Novel masquerading as a mystery suspense novel. I love Mystery/Suspense novels and despise "Romance" novels.  I like romantic novels, but to my mind these so-called Romance novels are never romantic.  I think that I have been sucked into reading Lisa Jackson before and hated that book too.  I read a lot of books and will have to make a list of authors I dislike- Lisa Jackson will head that list.
4859395
I was excited to read because of so many good reviews.  Sorry to say this was such a simple predictable story.  The big "twist" at the end lacked any notion of being clever or well thought out.  I kept on reading, waiting for a shocking turn of events, but it never came.  The selection of a villain felt as if the author put the names of ten characters from the book on the wall, threw a dart at her list while blindfolded, then chose the name closest to her randomly thrown dart.  In short, this is a very one dimensional suspense, and the number one rule with a good suspense is that there are at least two dimensions and ideally many, many more.
171322
I found this a difficult novel to get through.  If I hadn't been reading it for my book club, I may have jumped ship.  To me, the author never gives us a reason to connect with or understand the motivations of the characters, and some of the main characters were just unlikable.  For example Kit who is dealing with what seems to be a mid-life crisis by doing nothing until his wife boots him out of the house to finally find out who his father is.  And Kit's mother, who is portrayed in such a distant manner, we cannot understand why she made the crucial decision not to tell her son about his paternity.  And Malachy, who though dead for over 20 years, and apparently admired by everyone, comes across as despicable.  It seems as if the author stretched to interweave some of the characters from her "Three Junes" into this novel -- to try to make it a sequel of sorts.  But the result is very flat.
4111364
The best thing about this novel is a modicum of suspense (which kept me reading). Otherwise, it is an exhausting play on manners and moral dictates of the time (Regency Era) in which it is set- and no errors to be found there. The identity and situation of the heroine and her struggles does not come in to question until the closing chapters, which could have made the suspense more interesting in doses earlier on. There were far too many pages of "he thought this, she thought that", which was tortuous, and did little to move the story along. Also, the main characters were not particularly likeable, and far from loveable. However, the reader is drawn to sympathize and appreciate their various predicaments, which are many.
4756594
I am not a fan of horror stories. But I wanted to try The Ruins. The characters find themselves in a horrible mess that they brought upon themselves because they refused to heed a warning from a local driver. In their youthful denial of possible dangers they forged ahead into an area of Yucatan after a long ride which, in itself, should have deterred them from going further. My problem with Smith's book is that you find out rather soon what their fate was to be, what the inescapable situation would bring. There is no suspense, no twist, their fate is sealed. They did not fall because of a hubristic group feeling but because they did not listen and get out before it was too late.