Author: Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

An avid reader whose current interest lies in mysteries and thrillers. Line 'em up! Also personally love fantasies and any stories to do with magic, and a sucker for the occasional (good) romance.
3.5 star

Review: The Controlled by P. J. Willett

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

The Controlled is an urban science fiction about a group of disparate characters, trapped in a school by a gang of
deranged students. It is set in a post-Brexit nation, where cruelty trumps competence, and inequality is intensifying.

A selection of Subs (the school’s worst students) undergo an experiment designed to teach them restraint. But, when
something goes wrong, their minds are trapped in bodies they cannot control – passengers in the unravelling nightmare.

As the Subs’ violent rampage threatens to expose the school’s dubious practice, someone must risk everything to save them all. However, in a society that reveres malice, justice rarely prevails.

Told from the perspective of each of the varied characters, a gradual reveal of consequences builds to a claustrophobic
finale, challenging our original impression of who anyone really is.

The Controlled focuses on the events of a single day in the not-too-distant future, that will give rise to the spread of an
epidemic in the dumbest of dystopias.

Note: Thanks to the author for providing a copy of his book for review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

In the most dystopias of dystopias is where The Controlled takes place. The setting takes place where humanity is barely humanity, and it is really more of a war of attrition on literal human resources and what happens when one day an experiment goes wrong at one of the facilities. Told over the course of everyone’s POV who is involved, this was a fast-paced, thrilling book, which challenges a lot about how we perceive our world.

The characters were all terribly unloveable. But I would say that in a good way, since this is a dystopian book, so kudos to the author for that. I hated them each deeply and I certainly wasn’t rooting for anyone in this crazy situation that breaks out. Each character has their own unique flaws and it is ugly as they all come out to play (or rather, fight). Building each of the characters through the perspective of all the other characters was actually something that was well done.

Continue reading “Review: The Controlled by P. J. Willett” →
discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Emergency Books

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits is the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

February 10: Emergency Books (The Bageler @ It’s the Bageler)

Prompts: Do you carry around emergency books? The Bageler explained the concept like this: “Do you keep a copy of Travels With Charley or Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children in your bag in case you get stuck in a waiting room, a copy of The Master & Margarita in your glovebox for long lines at the drive-through? Or has the ubiquity of phones and e-readers and similar made this obsolete? If you do, why is THAT your Emergency Book, and do you read it any other time or only when you find yourself at the DMV?”

So, do you always have an emergency book with you? What makes a book an emergency book? And what are your go-to emergency books? Do you stick to having physical books on you, or do you prefer to read ebooks and audiobooks while out and about?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH everyone! I am liking today’s topic, as I’m sure the bookish community can all relate to it, whereas my other friends might be like what? Why? Who does that? Or maybe it’s just me? Time to find out!

I like to carry around emergency books for sure. Or emergency Kindle? It is a bit too inconvenient for me to carry out an emergency book all the time, and I also don’t want to damage my books whenever I’m traveling. As a result I’ll usually be more anxious about keeping physical books on me on trips because of all the potential damages. But if I’m going anywhere with long waits I usually plan to bring a book, so I guess that defeats the point of emergency right?

I don’t always carry one around with me, and honestly that’s usually a source of regret. It always feels like such a waste of time to spend 20–30 minutes (or more!) doing nothing but staring at four walls that might as well be blank. In these cases where I’m trying to travel light, I will try to bring my Kindle. But otherwise bringing a physical book is of course a viable option as well. the DMV or medical wait times are just the best source of quiet time to read—there is no hurrying that system after all.

An emergency book is a book that you aren’t in an urgency to read, ironically. Because it is only pulled out during these odd sessions of waiting, I think for me I usually like to pick up something I don’t need to be too serious about, especially since you don’t know when you’ll get through a read-through, and you also have no idea at what point in your reading you will be interrupted. I think a classic emergency book would be like a bathroom magazine (or bathroom novels, in my case), where you can really read it anytime, no stress at all.

My go-to emergency books are usually books I’ve already read, or series I know are good and will give me some endorphins for the long wait. A lot of these books will be physical, but if I am trying to bring a book around that I have never read before, it will usually be on my e-reader, as I’ve already alluded to.

What do you all like to read for your “emergency” books? Or do you not do so at all? And are physical or e-books more likely for you, or maybe audiobooks? Let me know in the comments below!

2.5 star

Review: Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this psychological thriller from the author of Eight Perfect Murders.

Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.

Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something special and he’s tracked her down to prove it.

Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.

Don’t mind me as I continue on this spree of Swanson books. He really does have interesting premises, and so I can’t help but be curious as to how things will turn out. This one was a bit more predictable though, and perhaps because I’ve read similar books, I didn’t find it to be particularly thrilling.

Every Vow You Break revolves around Abigail who is slated to marry her very rich fiance. On a drunken night at her bachelorette party though, however, she ends up sleeping with a stranger, with whom she does not even exchange names. However, this stranger makes an appearance again over and over, and seems to have found Abigail, insisting that they shared something special and that she should go with him. A seemingly perfect honeymoon on a secluded island couldn’t possibly have room for trouble, right?

The characters in this book were overall fine. I had no complaints about their development, and for the most part, like most thrillers, the story revolves around Abigail and her perception of her husband and the stranger, as well as what is occurring on the honeymoon. The husband is obviously another key character, but I felt like more could have been done with his character in this story to add to the suspense and heighten the emotions.

I found the suspense to be a little bit lacking in this book. Maybe the truth of the matter was hidden until the end but it didn’t feel like the stakes were particularly high. It mostly just felt like there was a creepy guy on the loose who might come for you. Yet the guy says he’s in love with you so it doesn’t feel like a particular threat. He can only threaten with telling your husband about a one night stand back before you were married. While this wasn’t the sole source of suspense in this novel, it was a big driving force – just not one I particularly enjoyed.

The ending was also only okay. I’ve seen similar endings before (at least two books come to mind), and both times I did not like it. Safe to say I did not enjoy the third time either. There was just an element of implausibility that really caught me off guard, and didn’t quite satisfy me. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me.

Overall Recommendations

Every Vow You Break revolves around our protagonist Abigail, who seems to have it all when she meets and ends up marrying a very wealthy man. But catastrophe strikes when she has a one night stand with a stranger at her bachelorette party, and the stranger comes back to haunt her before and after her wedding, asking her to go away with him. Finally he even finds her on a secluded island on her honeymoon, where she quickly no longer feels safe… You can probably already imagine what will happen, and yes it does. If that appeals to you, then this may be the book for you.