Michelle Gagnon (1)Rezensionen

Book One in the mystery series starring FBI agent Kelly Jones.

A serial killer is targeting women on a New England college campus. The campus is crisscrossed by a series of tunnels that date back a century or more. Some students use them to avoid bad weather when traversing campus, but mostly they use them as make-out places. One girl gets lost in the darkness when her “friends” get ahead of her. The next day she’s found brutally murdered, and a second body is also found.

This is a brutal, graphic murder mystery. It involves ancient pagan religions, and one deranged person’s attempt to appease those gods with ritualistic sacrifices. But, of course, no one knows that at the outset.

Jones is a tough lady with some history on this campus, as well as personal trauma in her background which fuels her desire to find the perpetrator.

The pace is fast, the lead character is likeable, and the storyline held my attention, but I’m not sure I’d bother to read another in the series. I felt a bit as though the grotesque brutality and graphic descriptions were overkill. And I was disappointed that Gagnon resorted to the “big strong man” coming to Jones’ rescue, rather than letting this strong woman get the best of the killer on her own.

so good :) such cool characters. i loved the ending and want more in so ways but happy it got a actual ending

so good :) such cool characters. i loved the ending and want more in so ways but happy it got a actual ending

This was honestly such a let down. I wanted to like this, I really did. So I kept reading. It got better in the last 80ish pages and then got worse again.

My main problem with this book was that I didn't like Janie (main character). It is understandable to be upset after losing parents, but that was all she did, to the point of just whining. There was little plot, only missing mom and dad. Then there was Daniel. He came into the book in a reasonable spot, but the instalove was disappointing. There was no cute YA buildup or even real world getting to know each other build up.

The synopsis states, "Janie feels hopelessly out of place in their world of Napa weekends, fancy cotillions, and chauffeurs." There was hardly any mention of that. Janie went to maybe one event in the whole book. There was mention that the Rochesters were rich, but no writing on the actual events like I wanted. It was more like, 'Last night they went to a fancy party, I did not go. I miss you Mom.' It was boring.

The basis of the plot is set on strange things happening like screams and moving objects, but there are like 5 creepy things in the book, and they only pick up in the second half of this. In between strange moments, there are about 30 pages of boring words or Janie missing her parents. I was wanting suspense and intrigue. I didn't find that here.

Honestly, I didn't like a single character other than Nicholas and Alma. The others were all annoying or awful (some on purpose, others, not so much).

Final thoughts, I enjoyed the conclusion of the mystery, but the last 5ish pages were unsatisfying. They could have gone in a different direction or explained more about the aftermath.

Sidenote: As a dog lover, I don't think peeing on puppies is something to laugh about.

Well this was all kinds of fun. The ending was a little clunky (a lot clunky at the very end) but it did not really matter -- I enjoyed getting there so much that I was feeling forgiving. I am not much of a thriller reader, and I really dislike most modern thrillers where violence against women is described in microscopic detail. This is much more Laura Lipmann circa the Tess Monaghan series than Karin Slaughter or Riley Sagar. If you are looking for good violent fun where attacks on women occur but where wounds are not not described in gleeful detail this may just work for you. (I don't want to beat up on Karin Slaughter. I lived in DeKalb County GA for 15 years and her philanthropic work for the DeKalb County Library made it one of the very best library systems I have had access to, and I have lived in a lot of metropolitan areas. I am grateful to her. She seems like a lovely person, and though I don't like her books I am glad the vast majority of people do and DeKalb County wins.)

I listened to this, and the narration by Jaime Lamchick was great

I enjoyed this book, it was a quick read, but it was no intricately written mystery. There were characters that were introduced and then it seemed they were just abandoned. The plot seemed first to drag in places and then jump too quickly. I liked the main character and I'll read future installments in the series, to see if the writing improves.

A brief introduction to the series; this short follows Alex Herbruck - a homeless teen who manages to evade the cops but still ends up being hit by a car. While going to the free clinic to check his leg and score some pills for his girlfriend, he receives an offer to good to be true - the opportunity to be paid for medical research.

I wouldn't say this novella was anything special, the real value would be the first three chapters to the first book of the trilogy, Don't Turn Around. But then, you still get those chapters if you just buy the first book so I wouldn't recommend this unless you get it for free. It did give a taste though and the sample of the first book blew me away. It's intense and crazy and I'm itching to read the series. Noa seems like a total badass. 2 stars.

Okay - if you're looking for a completely unexpected plot, a lead character that will have you laughing - even as she's trying to escape a serial killer. And a lovable cadre of supporting characters that you'll adore. (mostly) Yes?
Then you need to pick up a copy of Michelle Gagnon's new book - Killing Me.

There's more to Amber Jamison, our protagonist, than meets the eye. She has her own 'shadowy' background. I loved her snappy inner dialogue. The supporting players' tongues are just as quick. They're a mixed bag of personalities. I had a soft spot for Dot, the motel owner. The support amongst this group was heart warming.

The plotting is unexpected and fresh. I read a lot of crime fiction and really appreciated being surprised by the direction Gagnon's book takes.

Now there's lots of humor, but there is a serial killer on the loose (or maybe two), so there is some darker bits. People do die and I wasn't always happy with who did.

Gagnon's author notes hints at a follow-up book to Killing Me. Yes please - fingers crossed!

Amber Jamison has endured a lot in her life. The grifting lifestyle of her parents, abandonment by them as a teen, eventually turning her life around, so close to earning her degree. But finding herself abducted by a possible serial killer takes the cake.

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon is a crazy ride from start to finish. Both funny and dark with wonderful companion characters, this was a really fun read with tension and action ramping up toward the end. I look forward to more antics from these characters in the next book of this series. 3.5/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

"The worst part was that I felt stupid.

Well, that’s not entirely true. The real worst part was that I was tied up in the back of a van with a hood over my head, and based on recent news reports, something truly horrific was about to happen.

But feeling stupid was definitely second worst."

I was really excited when I started this book, I love black humor. But the comedy in this was kind of lacking and the mystery never completely grabbed me. There were some good moments sprinkled in but then I would be bored for huge chunks of the story.

It just wasn't for me, unfortunately.

Thank you netgalley and penguin group Dutton for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CW: death of parents, murder of child, mental health, drowning (op), gun violence, drug and alcohol addiction.

Well this is not a retelling of Jane Eyre.

I prefer to call stories that draw inspiration from other stories but make quite significant plot or character changes, reimaginings. To me that's a more appropriate term as they are taking a story and putting their own spin on it. The author has taken a handful of elements from Jane Eyre and created her own unique story. The first part was actually okay with some creepy modern gothic features. Then a plot twist occurs which is similar to another classic piece of gothic literature which I will keep as a hidden spoiler because it will give away too much. The MC is placed in an asylum under an incorrect name as a way of getting rid of her and stealing all her money. This is similar to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. After this plot point however, there is a section where I was actually groaning because it was so implausible. Janie goes back to live in the house with the people who commited her to the facility under a false name. Authorities don't conduct an investigation after she is released. Naturally her lawyer doesn't believe her and says she has to go back to live with these wretched people. Thankfully the story becomes engaging again, and I felt like it had a reasonably strong ending. I didn't particularly like the main character or the love triangle, but the story intrigued me enough to keep me reading.

Los escenarios del crimen son macabros y esotéricos. Han aparecido asesinadas dos estudiantes. Sus cadáveres están mutilados y colocados en extrañas posiciones en el oscuro laberinto que hay debajo de la escuela; y en las paredes, sobre sus cuerpos, hay dibujados símbolos extraños.
Durante la década que ha pasado persiguiendo a asesinos en serie, la agente especial del FBI, Kelly Jones ha visto ejemplos de lo peor que puede hacer la raza humana. Sin embargo, la tragedia que está teniendo lugar en su antigua universidad le afecta profundamente. las pruebas indican que hay conexión entre las víctimas: ambas son hijas de hombres poderosos, y los mensajes crípticos que hay detrás de las asesinadas proceden de un ritual perverso y antiguo. A medida que aumenta el número de muertes, aumenta la incertidumbre. El asesino está provocando a Kelly, desafiándola a que lo siga a los túneles, por un peligroso camino del que sólo uno de los dos podrá salir.

Don't Turn Around was the first book I'd read by Michelle Gagnon, and I really liked it. Noa wakes up in an unfamiliar room surrounded by the trappings of a hospital. How did she get here? Was she in an accident? As her mind starts to clear, she realizes she isn't in a hospital at all, but she does have a huge incision scar from an operation she doesn't remember needing. When the doctors and nurses all lie to her about where she is, Noa knows that she has to escape.

Inspired by the death of his brother and his less than honest parents, Peter builds an internet organization called /ALLIANCE/ for the purpose of tracking down those who hurt others, especially children. After his most recent hack, Peter's house is invaded by a man named Mr. Mason who warns Peter to stop what he is doing or his family will suffer.

When Peter and Noa meet, it is clear that Mr. Mason is part of the same organization that Noa is running from. They join forces and start looking for ways to prove that runaways and orphans are being taken to be used as guinea pigs for experimentation.

This is a very good book with an intriguing mystery, well drawn characters, and lots of action. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

As Noa's condition worsens, she, Peter, Teo, and Daisy remain on the run, but they can't understand how Pike's men keep finding them no matter where they go. After barely escaping their latest hideout right after they moved in, Peter decides they have to find somewhere safe to decrypt and sift through the data that he stole from the Project Persefone computers. Using his hacking skills, Peter takes them to Colorado to find Loki. Meanwhile, Teo and Daisy begin to wonder if they wouldn't be better on their own.
Don't Let Go ties up all the loose ends by the conclusion of the book. The story of the two protagonists comes to an unexpected resolution, leading to some other surprising twists and turns. The plot of the underdog trying to defeat the big, bad corporation has been done before, but details surrounding this story make it unique. Overall, a very satisfying end to the series.

Noa has traveled to the west and is working to save runaways who have been taken by Project Persephone. Peter is back home, trying to act normally, so his parents won't know that he has been assisting Noa by using his hacker skills to help her on her missions. The danger is closing in, so after saving a kid named Teo, Noa, Zeke and the rest of Persephone's Army are headed to Phoenix to find another Project Persephone lab where kids have reportedly been taken for more experimentation. When they arrive, Noa senses that something just isn't right, but can't put her finger on the reason why. Meanwhile, Peter has been covertly placing technology in Project Persephone facilities and Mr. Mason's home in order to find out more about the experiments they have been performing.
Don't Look Now is an action packed sequel interlaced with the relationships established in Don't Turn Around. Noa can't decide if she wants to take a chance on more than friendship with Zeke, and Peter must discover whether or not he and Amanda can go back to the way things were before. These interactions are presented as subplots making the characters more identifiable. Overall, a good second book in the PERSEFoNE trilogy.

Fast-paced and surprising with interesting, realistic-enough main characters. I would probably have given it 5 stars if it had given me closure.

Pretty good sequel to the first. Like many sequels, a little more hopeless and depressing but still filled with a lot of action and suspense.

A satisfying and exciting conclusion to the trilogy.

Noa – wakes up with a surgery scar on her chest in a warehouse, she has no memory of the event, and has lost three weeks of her life.

Peter – after doing some research on the internet, has his door is broken down, laptop stolen, and life threatened.

Two very computer literate teenagers form an uneasy alliance when they discover they are running from the same people. Peter, a wealthy amateur hacker, used to charming his way out of uncomfortable situations, can’t use those skills this time. Noa, a former foster kid, who has scammed the system so she’s in charge of herself, finds herself needing the help of others for the first time.


This moved fairly quickly but I got kind of bored with it about 75% of the way through. It was beginning to feel like one big, long, chase scene. It doesn't really end, so if you care, the sequel is [b:Don't Look Now|17332508|Don't Look Now (PERSEF0NE, #2)|Michelle Gagnon|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360965283s/17332508.jpg|24036248]. I got frustrated with the book because it's series title is "PERSEFoNE" and I kept expecting some mythology to be a part of the story, or be related somehow, but if's it's there, it's too subtle even for me. I give this 3/5 stars.

The Tunnels is published by Mira Books (an imprint of Harlequin, the publisher who pumps out romance novels by the truck load), my experience with books published by Mira is they're usually quite lacklustre. No matter how exciting the blurb sounds, the actual content doesn't live up to the expectations set and you can often tell the author is attempting to expand from romance writing into other genres, usually poorly at that.

Thankfully, The Tunnels didn't come in at these rather low expectations, but rather was quite a good tale of a serial killer stalking students within the historic tunnels under a university. Add in some gory scenes a touch of Norse mythology with the FBI stumbling around seemingly in the dark you have the making of pretty decent story. Whilst there were some seemingly jarring parts to the writing such as the scenes changing mid-paragraph overall it was a decent crime thriller. Quite short at 238 pages, easily read in an evening, but nonetheless a decent story.½

Six smarter-than-most teens wake up in the same hospital after having experienced a traumatic event that they can't quite remember...other than being forcibly sucked into an abyss at the moment of their deaths. With individual clocks ticking-and with each guarding an individual secret-they band together and conspire to piece together the whole of what happened.

The last of this on-the-run trilogy is fun, though I was having trouble remembering what happened in the other books...

Terrible cover, but the book was fun with two plucky kids escaping and hacking the Man (or at least a big evil medical experiment conspiracy) It takes place in Boston/Cambridge/Brookline and the author knows the locations. I'd read another one if she keeps going...

The sequel spent less time in Boston and I didn't feel terribly invested in the characters. I might read a next one, might not.

Strangelets Strangelets starts off with a bang. Six teenage strangers wake up to find themselves locked in a mysterious location. Is it a lab? A hospital? No one really knows. The only thing that is certain is that all of them now have a common goal: survive. I have to admit that I was extremely curious as to what type of adventure Michelle Gagnon would be taking the teens and I on.
 
I had no problem settling into the world that was built for me. The characters, despite being complete strangers to one another, meshed really well together. I loved how each one had their own background story, and how they all culminated into something much bigger than what I was expecting. I won't deny that I felt a little rushed at times though. Gagnon does her best to fit a lot into the 288 pages that Strangelets contains, and sometimes my questions went unanswered.
 
Which brings me to the thing about Strangelets that really makes it a harder book to review. The first three-quarters of the book is pretty much non-stop action. I had so many questions as I watched these strangers band together to try and survive. Kudos to the author for the way she built the tension, and kept me guessing. However as I neared the end, all the action kind of culminated in a big pause. There was a huge explanation of what was really going on, with a lot of terms I struggled to understand, and then the ending. It felt a bit anticlimactic, especially since I felt so invested in their struggle.
 
To me, Strangelets is one of those books that I enjoyed reading but probably wouldn't read again. I liked the story line for the most part, felt for the characters, but was left a little unsatisfied at the end. Still, I know that if there were further adventures for these characters I'd be there to read them. As I said, very confusing to review. Suffice it to say that if you like stories that mix thrillers and science fiction, this is probably the perfect read for you.