“Young man," he said, "understand this: there are two Londons. There's London Above―that's where you lived―and then there's London Below―the Underside―inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good night.”   ☘      Opinião em Português      ☘   Well, what a ride. I loved Neil Gaiman’s writing and I tried to find a way to describe it and I found it extremely hard. Gaiman wrote this book after the TV show Neverwhere premiered in 1996. I start by saying that the whole book has a dark but cosy vibe. Gaiman is contradictory in that way – makes us feel comfortable in a dark world. Richard Mayhew has a normal good life – a fiancée and a good job. One night, he finds a girl – Door - wounded in the pavement. He helps her and after she lefts, Richard sees himself in London Below because of that aid. We discover London Bellow at the same time Richard does. London Bellow is subterranean is a part of London ...

“The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.”   ☘      Opinião em Português      ☘   Oyinkan Braithwaite’s first book and it’s been nominated to the Booker Prize longlist in 2019. It’s described as a satirical dark humour thriller, that portraits the life of two sisters – Korede and Ayoola – and Ayoola’s habit of killing her boyfriends and her sister cleaning it up. I was excited with this reading, with the prospect of reading a dark humour thriller and I actually found quite disappointed. Very slow action where there’re chapters simply portraying chores and simple every day actions while trying to use that to create a gloomy atmosphere, wrongly so. If there was just one chapter, I might understand it but I’m talking about 60% of the book. The author could have used it to built up suspense or used Ayoola’s murders but I saw myself r...

When you get hooked on a book series because  O Meu Reino da Noite  's relentless preaching... ☘       Opinião em Português      ☘   With this series, we meet Alex Andros’ world, where Hematoi (children from Greek gods with mortals) are at the top of the pyramid, while Alex is almost at the bottom for being a half-blood (children from a pure – Hematoi’s children - with a mortal). Alex and her mom run away from Deity Island, leaving behind Alex’s dream to become a Sentinel (a type of soldier that protects the community).  Alex is forced to come back to Deity Island, where the community is, but isn’t as easy as it seems when her uncle is the dean of the school and the coach, her crush. There’s a reason why Alex’s mother left Deity Island, and Alex will discover it and face the consequences of their departure. I believe that this series was premeditated as such because Half-Blood (technically the first book since Daimon was releas...

“George Orwell was wrong, she thinks. In the future, it won’t be the state that keeps tabs on everyone by extensive use of surveillance; it will be the people. They’ll do the state’s work for it by constantly uploading their locations, interests, food preferences, restaurant choices, political ideas, and hobbies to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites. We are our own secret police.”   ☘      Opinião em Português       ☘   The Chain makes us question: how far will we go out of love for our child? Even put other parents through the same ordeal in order to get your child back?The book is dark to that point. Adrian McKinty based the book on a method that a mexican cartel uses for torture and/or punishment and brought us a fast paced, filled with action thriller, that makes us want to know more. It’s not about money, is about The Chain. This ingenious flawless plan where parents have to go through a series of ordeals, stablis...

"Solitude sharpens your perception of things"   ☘      Opinião em Português      ☘   This is the third book of the Mila Vasquez’s series, preceded by The Whisperer and The Vanished Ones . We enter Mila’s world from Bruno Genko’s point of view. Genko is a private detective that investigated Samantha Andretti’s disappearance 15 years ago. Samantha was help captive in a sort of maze where she had to go along the captor’s trials. The chapters are intertwined with Genko’s investigation and Samantha’s testimony. Samantha tell her accounts to Dr. Green, a psychotherapist who works for the Federal Police, in an effort to try to catch the captor that left her injured near a swamp. This isn’t a typical Carrisi thriller where there are full of forensic technics. Genko doesn’t have the know how therefore, the author couldn’t out that in Genko’s work. However, Carrisi explores the everyday persuasion techniques: clothing, mannerisms, etc. – and that is w...

“Some people’s good always coincides with other people’s evil, but the opposite is also true.”   ☘      Opinião em Português      ☘   The Vanished Ones is the second book of the Mila Vasquez series, preceded by The Whis perer ,  Carrisi’s first work. The Vanished Ones is the third work. We can see an evolution of his writing, especially on human interactions. Carrisi received a fan’s email explaining that he was exasperated and tired with the life we were having, so he simply vanished from the face of the earth. In this book, Mila, and Missing People’s detective, is called to solve a murder committed by a man, who disappeared without leaving a trace 17 years before. After what happened with the Whisperer’s case, Mila tries to struggle to move on as darkness keeps pulling her back. So, she decides to stay in Limbo (Missing People’s Department). It’s a slow start and a bit confusing with all the information and twists but we have to keep i...

“Evil generates only more evil. That has always been its chief characteristic.” ☘      Opinião em Português       ☘   Donato Carrisi is an Italian author, with a degree on Law and specialized on Behavioural Sciences and Criminology. The man knows that he’s talking (writing?) about! The Whisperer was his first work and it was published in 2009.  Six arms were found in the middle of the woods and five of them are from five missing girls. Violent Crimes Unit from the Federal Police get help from Mila Vasquez, the best detective on Missing People department, to find the sixth girl alive. This thriller is a complex web of murder masterfully combined by Carrisi. Essentially, the book makes us wonder how far will evil go and our choice to do it – the Good is silent, is witnessed, and Evil is always present and is alluring, it’s up to us to choose and take the leap towards the Light or Darkness. Carrisi makes several references to psychological trait...