"Phantom" by Jo Nesbo

During this holiday, I chose the novel "Phantom" by Jo Nesbo. This novel written by a Norwegian musician and writer, captivated my attention immediately but as I read further, I found myself even more entertained by this bizarre yet fascinating fictional story.

The story portrayed in the novel is written from many different viewpoints, allowing the reader to create a few perspectives of what is going on throughout the chapters. Phantom is the ninth instalment of this series however a crucial one because we learn more about the main character, Harry Hole, and become more attached to him. The story takes place in Oslo, Norway where Harry is undergoing a private investigation on a drug-related murder. This leads him deeper into the darker side of human kind where he becomes more aware of the drug addiction and production on the streets, gang wars, corruption and a dangerous, powerful Russian known as Dubai. This man is known as "a kind of phantom" because he is known amongst all those who are aware he exists, as a man impossible to catch, like the wind.

As a reader, there are certain times in the novel where I had had to put down the book before recontinuing because of the dark way in which Nesbo creates the atmosphere. From the desperate addicts mourning on the streets to the moments where gunshots push innocent men into their death beds.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading dark and intense novels. 

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

During this past vacation, I decided to read Purple Hibiscus. I had never heard anything about it, but several people recommended it to me, so I decided to give it a shot. All I can say is that this was not a bad decision at all.

At the beginning, I was not so sure about the book, and almost gave up on it, simply because it was moving very slowly. Thankfully, I decided to stick with it. As the pace of the book increased, I found myself more and more captivated by Kambili's story. This book is situated in Nigeria, the birthplace of the author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is story of a young girl who comes from a very catholic family, with a very strict father. Her relationship with her father is full of respect, but extremely violent, and she suffers multiple physical punishments, along with her brother, Jaja. 

Go Ask Alice

I decided that I would quit Go Ask Alice, it was not written in my general style and I didn't really read it with pleasure. It was a good book, and lots of people recommend it, but Alice's extremely realistic teenage wonderland is something that not many of us want to relate to, but somehow understand.

Alice had this impressive way of connecting with the reader at the beginning so it was easy to get immersed in it, I had doubts about the book in the beginning, and it seems they were right, it's written in the blandness that usually only present day books are written, of course, not all books are masterpieces like Nineteen Eighty-Four, however, I expected a little more... detail? Depth? Or understanding from the writer in what Alice was really going through. The story is well planned out and structured, what happens to her is awful, but it just doesn't catch my attention with any inferred details, stressing moments, the sort of cliff hangers at the end of the chapter that make you catch your breath and what to immediately read more and find out more.

An example of a book that caught my attention in a really special way, and was written in the recent years is The Perks of being a Wallflower where it is written in diary form, and still conveys a deep message. (I am not saying that it was written in the perfection books in the olden days seem to have where they became masterpieces that students are taught in English class).

For short, I stopped reading Alice, and I'm in search for a book to my liking.