Book Review: City of Whispers (By Katherine Sorin)

City of Whispers
Source: Goodreads

Length: 209 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Life for Ailis Laurent changes almost overnight. Most of the people in New York, the place she just about manages to call home, have been affected by an epidemic. The result – only a handful of humans have been left human. The remaining have all turned into vampires. Cordoned off from the rest of the world to avoid the spread of the virus, the survivors are left to defend their lives against the growing number of vampires. But defending is not good enough. And as Ailis learns, sometimes, in order to survive, you need to become the hunter.

My take:

A gripping, edge of your seat read – that’s what City of Whispers is all about. I’m going to begin by saying that after the time of sparkling vampires (I mean… really??!) I’ve always been a bit wary of picking up a vampire based book. But Katherine Sorin managed to eradicate that tendency altogether with City of Whispers.

I couldn’t really put this book down and every time I had to, I could only wonder about what happens next. It moved wonderfully quick and didn’t have a dull moment. Every time you think ‘Okay, this has to stagnate now. What else is going to happen?’, something happens! I didn’t get a moment to get bored and the twists and turns were quite unpredictable. The style of writing itself is extremely engaging and it doesn’t take much to actually imagine what’s written. The words seem to paint pictures on their own with barely any help from your imagination.

The characters are really easy to associate with even though you don’t really know much about them from before the virus. And even though the exact beginning of the virus and its effects aren’t explained from the get go, there is no point at which you feel lost. Everything flows really smoothly and is intensely engaging. It made me stay up nights because I just couldn’t stop reading and put it away. And it was so captivating that it kept me at the edge of my seat, jumping at every tiny sound in the darkness of the night.

I got this book from pixelofink.com. And I have to admit that no book downloaded for free has been so interesting that I’ve gone right out and bought the sequel. But this one was. And the sequel is definitely next to read on my list.

If you’re a fan of anything post apocalyptic, vampire oriented (the ones that lust after blood) or if you like a quick, action packed read, you will definitely enjoy City of Whispers.

– Rishika

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Book Review: Sick (By Brett Battles)

              Sick
Source: Goodreads

Length: 296 pages

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Daniel Ash’s world changes in one night. When he is awoken by his daughter’s crying, he has no idea that he is waking to the sound that will throw him and his family into hell. His daughter is very sick… and she’s not the only one. And the people who answer his call for help are not there to help at all. Ash’s life falls apart as his family is separated and he’s left with no knowledge of why they were taken or who took them. But Ash is not like the others that the people responsible have faced. He’s different… in more ways than one. And he’s not going out without a fight in a battle that goes much beyond his family – a battle that includes all humanity as it stands on the brink of eradication, premeditated and implemented by man himself.

My take:

Sick begins absolutely brilliantly – grabs you from the get go. It begins much like any thriller should – chaos, fear, confusion in the minds of characters and death.
However, it doesn’t remain as gripping as it begins. It’s still interesting enough to want you to keep reading, but it doesn’t have the ‘hooked’ nature that it promises in its first few chapters. But everything said and done, you have to admit that Brett Battles knows how to tell a tale and one that will keep you interested if not addicted.
The book moves along at a good pace, slowing down just for a bit that’s not really long enough to leave you bored. All along the book, you have twists and incidents that will make you go, “Oops!”, and not in a blundering sort of way. It’s more of an, “Oops… here comes another mistake by you God complex people!”
Battles knows how to keep the suspense going. But sometimes, you will feel like things would have been a lot easier if people just acted normal instead of all secretive for no apparent reason. That may be the supposed charm of some of the characters and may have to do with the fact that things will probably get clearer in the sequels, but you can’t help but wonder why people don’t ask the most obvious questions.
The book has a lot going on at any point in time and if you keep it aside for too long, you might forget who the character you’re reading about even is. But Battles manages to keep it all well connected and quite easy to follow, since you don’t really want to go long periods without continuing to read anyway.
The only part that had a glaring problem, in my opinion, was the end. It was altogether a little too abrupt. You can argue that, as a first of a trilogy, the book should leave things unanswered. But that could have been done in a much better way, especially given the fact that Battles is an author with great potential. The end made me feel like he just got tired of typing and summed it all up really quickly in the hope that people would chalk it up to the ‘It’s part of a trilogy’ idea.
All in all, Sick is a good read – fast paced, easy and enjoyable. It may not make it to the ‘favorite book’ list for many people; but if you’re a fan of anything to do with the end of the world, suspense or crime, you will like this book.

– Rishika