Drug induced insanity

My review on goodreads

After reading The Damage Done and Milk-Blood Mark told me that he was thinking about writing a sequel.
I remember asking him wether his characters hadn't suffered enough for a lifetime. Obviously they had to suffer some more...

This week he sent me an ARC to beta read.

This sequel is as intense as the other two books, I don't know, how Mark does it, but by reading his books he makes me feel what the characters feel. It is thrilling and hurting.

This book is even more "supernatural" than the previous ones and that's probably why it doesn't feel as real. Lilly's state between life and death brings fantasy into the narrative and with that a bunch of doubts.

Nonetheless it's impossible to just close the book and stay indifferent. Just as Lilly's Mom is able to enter the minds of others, this book will intrude into every reader's mind.

I'm not sure if it's possible to fully understand the story without having read the other two.
They are all three awesome, excellent writing combined with insight in the mind and body of addicts, making me feel things I don't want anybody to experience for real.

                                                               But my favorite is still 
                                                               The Damage done, 
                                                               because it feels 
                                                               so awfully real.

Two psychopaths in one week

This was a "thrilling" week - at least in my imagination as I read two really good thrillers with psychopaths. Seems I'm back on the dark side of reading...

Two very different British books, both dealing with psychopaths and both authors seem to know what they are writing about.

I hate spoilers and I won't write anything about the stories, but I highly recommend this book to all readers who like their suspense with psycological background.

The first one was this hard and cruel, very graphic book about hunting down a psychopath on his revenge campaign.

It was hard to read not only because of the detailed descriptions but also because of what it might be like to be loosing your mind.

There were spread very well researched informations about psychopaths without being teaching.

Guilt or the lack of it is the big issue in this brilliant thriller.

And there's this sweet hesitant love story.

And a lot of alcohol.


My review on goodreads

Will has startet a prize draw: He's giving away 30 audiobooks !Here's the link
http://www.remorselessnovel.com/

Then I read this one.

A lot of alcohol, too.

And an unconventional love story showing how close love and hatred can be, full of confusion and doubts.

Thrilling without too much violence, playing with fear and making the reader laugh and smile a lot.

Of course there's the psychopath acting always according to his selfish interests.

And when I thought everything was sorted out came another surprising twist.

My review on goodreads


Both books are well-written, real page turners - I must use this cliché because I just couldn't put them down.
Perhaps the first one is just a tad better, but both deserve definitely 5 stars.

The dark side of literature

Why am I fascinated by dark creepy books about mental insanity, cruelty, evil, addiction, depression, suicide....that take me to places where I really don't want to go?

It's not entertaining, you can't call it a pleasure. - It's even some kind of intriguing challenge.

Torture, fear, desperation, sometimes it hurts physically, at times it is disgusting, sometimes unbearably sad. But I insist.

I'm not talking about stories with monsters, aliens, ghosts, witches or other paranormal things. I'm talking about the normal madness, books that feel all too real.

Depression is all around us, friends commit suicide, others are addicted or in recovery, we all know someone who has been in a psychiatric ward, we read about shooting sprees in schools, girls who have been kept for years in some basement ... That's the world we live in.

I want to see the whole image. I want to understand the twisted minds, the reasons behind. I don't want to close my eyes.

And of course there's the thrill, the suspense, the roller-coaster-feeling!

Here are some of the best books I've read last year from the „Dark Side“ that really stay in mind:

(The links lead to my reviews on Goodreads)

Addiction

The damage done, the most striking of all,  Milk Blood and

On the lips of children
are so extreme that I really hope that these things don't happen anywhere – but Mark Matthews has a way to make them feel real, and it's frightening.

Stray isn't as shocking as the others but very realistic.

                 And, totally different

My Dead Friend Sarah  by Peter Rosch.

Mothers and their mental insane sons:

It's a special relationship between mothers and their sons and sometimes love itself is insane.

Mother be the judge by Sally O'Brien 

The insanity inside by Theodore Andrew

House rules by Jodi Picoult 

We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Insane minds

There are a lot more, but those come to my mind immediately.

Persona by Mark Horn who is a master of insane minds but this one is my favorite of his books.

The Roommate by T. Scott McLeod

Anti-Depressant  

by Clark Kline

                   

                  

Suicide

When my fire burns low
by Aslyn Foran

Escalators
by Danielle Tara Evans

The line between habit and addiction, between a depressed mood and deep depression, between exhaustion and burnout is very slim. And I know that depression is waiting for me just behind the next corner. I don't see myself as a potential killer and I don't think I'd be able to commit suicide. But the human mind is a fragile thing and I have fallen in some dark holes and I don't know where I'd be now without my faith, without Jesus who has always pulled me out of the holes.