Haven’t done any sort of review in a long time so I’ll do some on the 3 latest books I’ve read:
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. Synopsis: On Lonard Peacock's birthday, Leonard Peacock plans on killing his former best friend with a P-38, which he intends to leave as a gift, along with four others, to his true friends, as a way of telling them it wasn't their fault. Then he plans on killing himself, too.
This book’s protag reminded me a lot of Holden from Catcher in the Rye. I feel as if many lines from it sound like it could’ve come from CITR ngl. The letters incorporated into the book were a little confusing at first, but ig it adds to the book. Didn’t really like how the author kept putting some of the sentences into little fragments that spanned multiple lines of the page, like a poem almost- it happened so many times that the intended dramatism of it felt almost nonexistent. I really liked Leonard’s Holocaust teacher, Herr Silverman. Leonard himself was so… he’s a hypocrite and kinda pretentious, looks down on other people. Again, reminds me of Holden. I think maybe there were too many different elements crammed into this book, so some things felt a little underdeveloped. Idk I read this first so I don't remember the fine details. 6.5/10.
Bang by Barry Lyga. “Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something no one—not even Sebastian himself—can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father’s gun. Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend—Aneesa—to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past.”
The premise seemed interesting and I loved the writing style of this novel (also liked how Sebastian had a large lexicon). Sebastian and Aneesa felt like real characters. It was fun to read about their pizza channel and food descriptions! Those lighthearted scenes helped undercut the more tragic parts of the novel.
The last third or so of the novel got me tearing up. I also liked the twist near the end of it, didn’t expect that at all. The actual ending wasn’t very memorable for me, but it was still enjoyable to read. Oh, and I liked how the author didn’t make this into a romance book! Love the message of how just because a boy and girl become friends doesn’t mean they inevitably have to fall in love with each other 💯 8/10 overall.
The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks. Read this one in a few hours the other day. It’s very intense. The writing style was simple and punchy. Jenny and Russell were my favorite characters :)
“People are really quite simple, and they have simple needs. Food, water, light, space, privacy. Maybe a small measure of dignity. A bit of freedom. What happens when someone simply takes all that away?”
This book is about this boy named Linus, who gets kidnapped into a bunker. Over time, 5 other people join him. To sum it up, they basically spend the entire time suffering and trying to escape the bunker. This book is just depressing ngl, especially the ending. There was something I missed about the ending until another person pointed it out and omg 😭 the more I think about it the worse it gets.
Anyway, throughout the book I was waiting for more information about the man that captured these people, but we never got to know anything about him. Also, it really annoyed me how his name/pronouns were capitalized for no reason. Maybe “The Man Upstairs” is a commentary about God but I hated it 😭 I didn’t really get any takeaway from this except that “life is unfair” … it’s just a really bleak book about people getting tortured. 6/10.
Just realizing I’ve read a lot of books with more depressing themes/mental illness in February 💀 these 3 were the most intense ones. Does anyone have any good book recs that aren’t super bleak… I’m running out of books I fear.
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