Lee Hunts

I just finished reading Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewel. This book is a psychological thriller about a mother whose fifteen-year-old daughter disappeared unexpectedly, without explanation. A decade later, she starts dating this man who has a daughter who looks and acts fairly similar to her long lost daughter, Ellie. What follows is a rather creepy character study, as the mother, Laurel, begins to question what she knows. The read was rather quick, and I was drawn to the characters and the mystery, but in retrospect, I think the story could have had less predictable plot points and less instances of lazy execution. I'm not sure I can say much about the story without spoilers, so I will simply review the story with spoilers. Anyhow, these are the types of books you just pick off the shelf due to author recognition or because they are mystery alone. The best approach is to just go in blind. So, go read the story and then come back. Strides (Spoilers) What I liked most about the stor

I just finished reading The Stand, by Stephen King (finally). I split this one up into chunks, due to the length of the novel, and only read a third at a time. I reviewed the first third, giving it a glowing review (indeed, it is the only 10/10 I have given up to this point). I didn't get around to reviewing the second part when I finished it, but now that I have finished the whole novel, I will now give a review of the latter two parts. The Stand is a massive novel, the longest that I have ever read, almost 500,000 words, and in its pages, it recounts a pandemic that wipes out the entire population of the world save for a small segment. And in the aftermath, the survivors in America split into two budding civilizations, one built under Mother Abigail, and the other built by the Dark Man, Randall Flagg. The first third deals with the pandemic and the collapse of civilization. The second third deals with the struggles of establishing a civilization as it follows Mother Abigail's