"The Whisper Man" by Alex North

The Whisper Man

By Alex North

Amazing first crime thriller by the writer

Any story which involves a child kidnapping is always a horror for me.  This is the same story whereby random people believe they have a right to snatch away little kids from their parents for their own fun.  A single parent, father of a sweet and innocent boy goes through a lot at all times including the passing away of his partner and fight to continue with his life.  As if this is not enough, a monster comes in their lives and shatters it to the core.  At the same time we have the story of another man who apparently caught a monster responsible for committing a similar crime but still lives in its shadow.  There are some crimes which even seasoned officers are not able to shake off.    

Creepy and Captivating

A spine tingling story which sends shivers across your body all the time while reading.  You can actually start hearing whispers here and there while you are reading this book.  It is tough to shake off the effects of the crime committed in this book and it is also tough to even imagine the mentality of such people in this world.  The book has got many twists which I like a lot for such a story.  This book was creepy for me since the beginning since it involves crime related to a child.  The writing is simple and flowed well.  The good thing is also that all those surprise twists converge in the end and make a satisfying closure to the story.  The biggest twist is the corpse moth which plays such a big part in solving the case.  So much later in the book I understand the cover and it is so well placed.  

Multiple twists and likable characters

The writer has been able to keep the attention of the reader at all times.  Multiple themes run throughout - challenging relationships, grief of loss and obviously a child killer running in the town.  I specifically love the part where the writer brings forward a day from the dead mother into the child's life and ties it to his current day actions.  Everything from the house to the poem he used to rhyme has got a history.  The book shows life from the perspective of Tom, Jake as well as the grandfather Pete.  All have their own flaws and flaws in maintaining relationship with the other.  The main story or plot centers around child abduction and murder stretched across a time period of decades.  The writer has written the short and small stories inside is a beautiful fashion leading to one of the most fastest read ever.    

Few Excerpts 

"Courage is not the absence of fear.  Courage requires fear" 

"If you leave a door half open, you'll hear the whisper spoken.
If you play outside alone soon you won 't be going home.
If your Windows left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass.
If your lonely, sad, and blue, the whisper man will come for you."

Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3392970569

Overall Review:  5

Grip Factor:      5

Writing Style:   5 

Engaging Plot:  5

Characters:        5

Satisfying End: 5

The Starless Sea by "Erin Morgenstern"

The Starless Sea

By Erin Morgenstern

Great expectation and magical writing but falls short

After reading "The Night Circus", I had great expectations from this book.  The author does have a good style of writing which takes your places.  Reading one of her books is actually like going into a daze which is slowly taking you away to a different world and tickling you with its secrets.  This book does follow through on a lot of aspects specially when we start getting into the detailed description of the magical space.  A person finds a book in the library and while reading it he finds that the multiple stories in that book contains one story from his life also.  An incident which happened in his past is portrayed in the book as a story.  How?  Things certainly are promising in the beginning of the book and you feel looking forward to a lot happening.  However, most of the time, I was just lost.  There were many places where even trying to figure out what is happening was an effort.  

Non Existent Plot and lacks substance

The book does not seem to have a story to be very frank.  I did not understand the reason and the purpose of anything that happens.  It seems the writer started writing something and got sidelined and just wrote something to complete the book.  This book lacks a purpose.  Now I am all in for magic and mythical spaces and life behind painted doors, but there needs to be some substance to it.  Apart from that, it would have been better if so many stories did not go on at one point.  It is tough to keep track specially when everyone is just doing things and there is no purpose behind any action by anyone.   

Lovely and magical aesthetics and dream like world

The things which I like the best is a harbor full of books from floor to ceiling.  I wish I could get access to such a place which has so many books to read.  The add-on making it even more wonderful is an invisible kitchen which sends you things to eat.  Comfortable sofas, fire, books and yummy food to eat.  This is my dream place.  Only thing in this book is that it is too magical and it gets destroyed in the end.  Only thing I thought at that time was what happened to those books.  

Few Excerpts

Few areas that I love in the book after which I started to get lost.  

"Once, very long ago, Time fell in love with Fate"  Stories are meant to be told but indeed the one who tells the story makes a big difference on how people take it.  

As long as there have been bees, there have been keepers.  So true yet sounds trivial.  

Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3375034239

Overall Review:  3 

Grip Factor:     3

Writing Style:  4

Engaging Plot: 2.5

Characters:       2.5

Satisfying end: 3