Lee Hunts

I just finished reading No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. I also watched the movie adaptation of the book made by the Coen brothers, and I think the movie did an excellent job adapting the story for what it was, with some interesting choices made. I'll touch upon the movie in places, though this review will primarily be about the book. This book is most aptly described by relating to you the author; it is rather similar to Stephen King—just mention the author, and you can get the general idea and sell the book on that alone. McCarthy is known for his neo-western/anti-western novels that are characterized by their violence, their brutal realism, and distinctive prose style. The neo-western/anti-western description alone is seemingly contradictory, yet I've found that it describes this book perfectly (I'm not the one who came up with it). Along a similar train of thought, McCarthy's books have been described as both highly nihilistic and highly moralistic by peo...

I just finished reading Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. This is an epistolary novel written about a retarded man; he receives an experimental surgery that increases his intellectual capacity. The story is a character study, exploring how the main character, Charlie Gordon, develops emotionally in response. He deals with the problem of increased awareness of how people treat him, alienation from others as he outpaces all those around him, sexual frustration, and troubling memories that come to mind. I enjoyed the book, finding its devastating ending to be particularly hard-hitting—even terrifying. Overall (No Spoilers) This book was published all the way back in 1966. This fact alone is a fascinating detail, that makes me view it in an entirely different light. There were some funny quirks about the story, showing that it was a product of its time, like the legitimacy of Rorschach tests, psychanalysis, and other more subtle things that influence how the story proceeds, like the f...

I just finished reading The Burning God, by R.F. Kuang. This is the final book in the Poppy War trilogy, a grimdark fantasy series based on Chinese history. This book picks up right where the previous one left off. Yin Vaisra has made a deal with the Hesperians, and he is now the ruler of the Nikara Republic. Rin and Kitay are now in the South, taking part in the Southern rebellion against the Republic. This book details the next bloody chapter in Nikara history as Rin and her followers fight against an insurmountable enemy. Overall, I am not sure what to feel about this book. I did not hate the book by any stretch. At the same time, I continually come back to specific parts of the book that I thought could have been handled better. Overall (No Spoilers) My favorite part of this book was the beginning sequence of events. I thought it did a good job laying the groundwork for everything that was to come, especially the depiction of the fighting: namely, their brutality, how the killings ...

I just finished Redemption, a novel written by Will Jordan. Jordan is a Youtube critic known as the Critical Drinker. I've always enjoyed his takes on the various movies that he reviews, so I wanted to check out his books, this one being the first of nine, to see if it was any good. His book is marketed alongside David Baldacci and Lee Child mystery/thrillers. I haven't read Baldacci yet, but I have read one Child novel, which I rather enjoyed, so I think I naturally compared the two. And since I have also read the novels of various Youtubers—including Justin Little, David Stewart, and Daniel Greene—I will also be comparing this book to those. This book follows the protagonist, Ryan Drake, a British man who now works for the CIA. At the beginning of the book, he has landed a job in tracking down MIA operatives for the CIA, despite a problematic past he is ashamed of. In this novel he is asked to extract a highly trained MIA operative who is being held in a prison. The job is sh...

I just finished The Terror, a historical fiction novel, and horror novel, by Dan Simmons. I have not read anything else by this author, I was simply turned onto it by a horror novel suggestion video (I think). This book is based on the horrific Sir John Franklin expedition into the arctic circle, looking for the north-west passage. This historic event is an embarrassment, a failure, and a mystery, which has invited much speculation; as far as we know, the Erebus and the Terror (the names of the two ships) disappeared and all the crew died. At the very least, none were ever seen again. Simmons combines this dour historical event with fictional elements, like supernaturalism, to add another terrifying account to the rampant speculations made about the event. In Simmons' story, he depicts a mysterious beast that is stalking the crews of these ill-fated ships as they are iced in and unable to break out and return home. This story is rife with copious details about ship-life in those ti...