The Boy at the Door

 
     I just finished reading The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl.  This book was provided to me for review by Penguin Random House but the fact that I received this book for free has not influenced my review in any way. 

     The Boy at the Door is Alex Dahl's first novel, and for a first novel I think it is very good.  I was drawn in from the beginning by the mysterious little boy and wanted to keep reading so I could find out where he came from and how he was related to Cecilia.  I do think that their connection is fairly easy to guess but the way the author gets us there is suspenseful and full of twists and turns.  Some of the things that happen in the book seem far fetched at first but the author connects all the dots by the end.
     I liked how the characters in the novel are not always what they seem at the onset.  Anni is not just a scruffy heroin addict, Cecilia isn't entirely (though she is mostly) a conniving, selfish bitch, Moffa is not who you expect they'll be.  I found it most surprising that Dahl was able to make me feel sympathetic for Cecilia in the end, even though she's mostly awful.
     While the main question, who is the boy at the door?, is fairly clear from the beginning there are still plenty of surprises in this book.  The writing is good, and it definitely kept my interest.  I think it would make a great vacation read, which is great because it's due out on July 24th, so just in time for you to pick up before you head to the beach!
     Since I've been in a bad book rut lately I'm happy to have finally gotten one that was entertaining.  Hopefully The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan will be decent too.  I'm about to start it today, so be sure to check back soon for that review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bring on the Horror Stories!

Image
                                  First, I want to apologize for skipping last week.   Things have been kind of crazy getting ready for Olivia to arrive.   We’re getting down to the wire, they’ll be inducing me in about three weeks!   I can’t believe how fast time is going right now!                 Anyway, what you’re really here for is a new book review.   This week I’m going to be reviewing the collection of short horror stories I finished up last week, Ghostly .   The book was edited by Audrey Niffenegger and contains 16 short ghost stories written by various authors.   There are a couple of stories that you see quite often in collections like these.   I feel like “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe, and “The Beckoning Fair One” by Oliver Onions have been pretty widely read.   Most of the collection were by authors I haven’t heard of or stories by known authors that I haven’t read.   Since I read a lot, horror especially, when I pick up collections like this I typically
Read more

Sadie

Image
     This week I read Sadie by Courtney Summers.  I was given this book by Wednesday Books for the purposes of reviewing it.  The fact that I was provided this book for free by the publisher has no bearing on my honest review.  My opinions are my own and I will always tell you exactly what I think of a book without bias.      Sadie has always been the one to care for her thirteen year old sister Mattie so when Mattie is murdered Sadie embarks on a journey to track down her killer.  When Sadie goes missing a concerned family friend contacts a Podcast in hopes that they can find her and figure out what happened to Sadie and Mattie.  The story is told from both Sadie's point of view and through transcripts of the Podcast.      I brought this book on vacation with me and I couldn't put it down.  It's an easy read and it keeps your attention throughout.  I thought the pacing was nice, it didn't feel like there were any parts that dragged on and there was enough suspens
Read more