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!

March 1: Series That Could Have Been Standalones

Prompts: Are there any series that you think could have been standalones? Or series that just should have ended sooner? Do you like having long series, or do you prefer to have a story more condensed?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic will probably be contentious, and it’s all about series that could have been standalones. Can’t wait to see what you all have to say about which sequels probably should not have been made.

I don’t think I have a strong contender in my mind for series that I think should be standalones. But certainly a lot of fantasy books in my opinion would be just fine as one book. I totally understand that sometimes the fans want more, or the authors want to explore more, and that’s totally fine. In my mind though, I don’t mind an open-ended ending as long as there was a complete story within it, and I think a lot of book ones really deliver on impact and story, and their sequels will often fall short. Assuming no cliffhanger endings or untied loose ends, I feel like books like Six of Crows, Ninth House, and Caraval would have done just fine without a second or third book. Not to say that their sequels were bad, but it is just really hard to have the same impact as the initial book.

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5 star

Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager

February 28, 2024February 27, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

I’ve had some experience with this author’s work before, and while the premise is usually very good, my impression is that it doesn’t usually quite live up to my expectations. However, this time, it really did. The number of twists and turns were outrageous, and they were just on the brink of acceptable plausibility too, which was impressive for the number of times I had to experience that suspenseful emotional whiplash. Even though I picked this book up on a whim, I’m so glad I did, and honestly I’m not surprised I finally found one of Riley Sager’s books that I really enjoyed.

The Only One Left is based off a very charming schoolyard chant reproduced above, about the tale of Lenora Hope murdering her whole family at age seventeen. Our protagonist, Kit, who isn’t perfect herself, finds herself working to take care of the now very old Lenora Hope. Lenora had been sequestered away in her gigantic palatial home for over fifty years, and no one has seen her since. When Kit meets her, she finds out that Lenora only has the use of her left hand. But still, she can use it to communicate and tries to tell Kit the truth of what happened all those years ago. But is she telling the truth? And what secrets just beg to remain buried?

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Re-Reading Childhood Favourites

February 23, 2024 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 23: Do You Ever Reread Childhood Favorites? (Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: What were some of your favorite books when you were younger? What books got you into reading? Do you ever go back and reread those books? What do you remember loving most about your childhood favorite books?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH, everyone! Today’s topic is about favourite books as a child, and whether we re-read these books from time to time. I feel like as a bookish community it wouldn’t be uncommon to want to re-read these books, but it would also depend on whether we have the time to read older books when we mostly have never-ending TBRs. Can’t wait to hear what you all have to say.

Memoirs of a Geisha and The Supernaturalist were some of my favourites as a child. I also really enjoyed The Deltora Quest series when I was really quite young. These are books that still come to mind when I think of childhood favourites, though I’m sure there are others I would also re-read from my younger days. Series like Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events are obviously examples of other series that I remember fondly.

I think it really was series like the ones I mentioned above or The Magic Treehouse that really helped me get into reading. I am a bit of a completionist, so it really helps sometimes to have a series to push more reading. I also really enjoy world-building, so the more I can learn about a world through books and the lens of the protagonists, the more interested I get. So series tended to be helpful for me, at least when I was younger.

I remember loving the adventure of these books. That’s what was fascinating for reading, but also for my general interest in the books. Every book was a small adventure, and the overall plot was also a larger adventure. I really enjoyed the journey of all the small adventures, but also in how it added up into a huge story arc. I remember really putting myself into the shoes of these protagonists and going on these adventures and letting my imagination run wild, and I think that’s what really sold it for me. As an adult, re-reading these is really more of a trip down memory lane, the nostalgia of what I once felt, and also interesting to see what I missed the first time. Overall, these are not my favourite books anymore, but they still hold a special place in my heart.

What about you all? Do you enjoy re-reading old favourites? Is there simply not enough time for such indulgences? Or do you just make time for them? Let me know in the comments below!