Author: Agatha Christie
Published: 1939
Genres: Novel, Mystery, Horror, Crime, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review
And Then There Were None... ah, it was such an intense,
baffling, scary mystery!!! It was so impressive and overwhelming! It was so
very suspenseful and scary, and it is certainly the best among the Agatha Christie novels
that I've read till now. It was SO intense, so powerful and psychologically intense! I LOVED it.
And Then There Were None kept me tensed and guessing. It was so intense, suspenseful.
The plot is about an island, the Soldier Island. Eight people are invited to the Soldier Island. The eight guests are: Justice Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Anthony Marston, General MacArthur, Phillip Lombard, Mr Blore, Dr. Armstrong, and Miss Brent. After
their arrival there, they find out that there are no other people in
the island, except themselves and two servants, Mr and Mrs Rogers. There are just these ten people in this island. Nobody else. The owner of the island is apparently a Mr. Owen, whom nobody (not even the servants) has ever seen.
Atmosphere in the house, and the island, is somewhat odd, strange. All the guests find a paper in their room, where the nursery rhyme ''Ten Little Soldiers'' is written. Everybody is startled by the atmosphere of the house, but this turns into dread and fear when the guests start dying, one by one... And within a short time, all the guests come to guess that none of them will leave the island alive... and a constant fear arises: who will be the next victim? Along with many other questions. Who is the murderer? Is he one of them?...
''And Then There Were None'' builds up an excellent atmosphere, an atmosphere that is filled with scares, intensity, suspense. The psychological impact on the characters because of the events, is portrayed very well. Some of the characters, and the situations, have so much depth. The novel kept me guessing. And the solution was so excellent.
I loved this one. ''And Then There Were None'' was extremely suspenseful, thrilling, and an absolute page turner.
5 out of 5
Author: William Golding
Published: 1954
Genres: Novel, Adventure, Horror
Rating: 3 out of 5
Review
Lord of the Flies centers around a group of children- whose ages are between six and twelve- who are trapped alone in an island after a plane crash. Having no adults with them, they have to look after themselves, take care of themselves, and find ways to be rescued. One of the boys (and the novel's protagonist), Ralph, decides to take the responsibilities of the leader. And everybody agrees to him. Everybody decides to obey him and lead a disciplined life in the island until they are rescued.
But things don't go according to their plans. Very soon, the discipline and peace between the boys are shattered. Rivalry and argument arises. Jack, another boy with very significant leadership qualities, strongly starts scheming against Ralph. Also, the peace and stability is further destroyed when some of the boys start saying that there is a terrifying beast somewhere in the island.
I enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies, but I didn't love it. At times, I was quite terrified by the mention of the beast. The flow of words and the writing style are both extremely impressive.
I appreciated the well-developed characters as well. I liked Ralph, our protagonist. Piggy, the first boy Ralph meets on the island, was irritating at first and later I started liking him as well. Jack was a strange character. At first I liked him and his friendship and co-operation with Ralph, but later I started disliking him when he schemes so horribly against Ralph and the others.
The life in the island, the deterioration of discipline and friendship, terror- all these are very well described. The ending is intense and quite suspenseful as well. Overall, I enjoyed and liked this one.
3 out of 5!
Author: Dean Koontz
Published: 1973
Genres: Novel, Suspense, Mystery, Horror, Thriller
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Review
Dean Koontz's well-written suspense/horror novel is a very likeable one. Alex Doyle, a newly-married 30-year-old man, is, along with his 11-year-old brother-in-law Colin, traveling from Philadelphia to their new home in California on a Ford Thunderbird. Doyle's wife, Courtney, had gone to California before them to decorate their new home. Doyle is a reserved person with only a few friends. Colin is studious, intellectual, creative.
It all starts as one of Colin's games. While they start their journey, Colin notices a van behind them, and makes up his mind that someone must be following them. Both Colin and Doyle take it lightheartedly at first, but the van doesn't stop moving away from them, and... is it actually following them?
The person driving the van is George Leland, ex-boyfriend of Doyle's wife Courtney. They had broken up some years ago, but now George's plan is to get Courtney back again... to be near her again. But for that, he must remove all the obstacles from his way. AND the obstacles preventing him to get together with Courtney again are Alex and Doyle themselves.
I really liked ''Shattered''. The suspense is built up well, and Koontz is successful in writing a wonderful thriller. Another wonderful thing is, the novel never forgets human emotions. Doyle becomes very attached to Colin because when he was of Colin's age, his personality matched that of Colin. I loved the way how Doyle loves Courtney and Colin, how without these two people, Doyle's life would be meaningless. The parts dealing with the bond between Alex and Colin are extremely sweet.
But I didn't really feel attracted to the parts dealing with George Leland. An unpleasant character he is, and it's more unpleasant to read about him. Dean Koontz is successful in presenting a nasty character like Leland in a nasty way, and the sweet characters like Doyle and Colin, in a sweet way.
I didn't really like the car chase scenes. My least favorite genre is action, and the thing I dislike about action films are the meaningless action scenes without any art. Not that all action films are like that. Anyways, action scenes in ''Shattered'' are well written, but they are lengthy. That's what makes them so irritating.
Detective Ernie Hoval's investigation about who murdered a policeman (who was actually murdered by Leland himself) is brought into no noticeable conclusion, and that's another displeasing thing abut this book.
But the scary scenes are well-written, the sudden shocks are well-presented, and overall, it's a wonderful novel. It is also very touching, especially the character Doyle, whose emotions for Courtney and Colin is sweetest thing in this novel.
3.5 out of 5
