Suspense Reviews
I’m very fond of Gaiman’s works (ya’ll may have noticed…) His book The Ocean at the End of the Lane starts out deceptively sweet, building suspense (most effectively) through the limited point of view of our protagonist (now an older man but recalling the time when he was a young boy who met and befriended, Lettie, a young lady with beyond-universes-old knowledge who lives at the end of the lane. This remembered-past is simply too inexplicable, too frightening, too whimsically-creepy to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. The story is really about the unfathomable things that lurk around the corners of reality and seep through tiny cracks into our world. There’s friendship and love, along with utter cruelty, and resentment, and anger; all in a dance that keeps the reader asking, “And then what happens?!” There are monsters, it’s Gaiman after all…. With his master storytelling skills, those monsters come from the characters’ fervent wishes, the narrator’s interior spaces, and really… from the deep-down-darkness that lives inside of all of us, even when we refuse to name it…
“Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren’t.” — Gaiman
Your task: Respond with your SUSPENSEFUL book review in the comments! Make sure to tell me what techniques the author used to make the suspense work in the story!
The book “The 5th Wave” the author used a cliff hanger for the ending of the story. She also went back and forth on the time line causing the story to be more suspenseful. Overall the book and the whole series is really good. It keeps you on your toes and is very dramatic and can be funny at times.
I recently a book called Croak, I wouldn’t say it’s super suspenseful book, but it does a good job at it, it’s about a girl called lex who becomes a grim reaper charged with making sure souls get to the afterlife, but there is another grim who wants to kill people who committed crimes, like murders and thieves, but then they slowly start to go after more and more grims to prove a point, it’s really suspenseful slowly seeing more and more people die because they start to get closer and closer to lex, but the book’s not focused around this so the suspense takes a back seat for most of the book, but it’s impossible to deny that it’s pretty scary
I do not read suspenseful books. I have always been a very nervous person so in attempt to avoid furthering that, I don’t do things that would put me in a nervous position such as read thriller or horror stories. I’ve never been a fan of scary things at all really. I’ve always been more of a rom-com kind of person.
The book “The Girl With the Red Balloon” is a great book. A few days ago I finished the book and I liked it so much I am now reading the second one. The suspense was at every page turn. A girl named Ellie is sent back in time to Berlin, Germany: In 1988. The author has many ways of keeping the reader at the edge of their seat. One of the ways she helps with suspense is have the different perspectives of people. The segment of one storyline stops and goes to another person for a few pages then goes back to the other peoples perspectives.
I’m not one for suspense books, usually, but one book stands out in particular. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin was a book I read back in seventh grade for my third period literacy class and I ADORED it. It keeps you on edge throughout the whole thing, making you think you know what’s going on — only to yank that comfort of knowing right out from under your feet and revealing a twist no one would have even considered. Centered around 16 unlikely people who were invited to move into a hotel were unwillingly roped into the funeral of the late Samuel Westing, founder of Westing Paper Products, and all included in his will. They’re forced to play his game by this will, and whoever wins will get his entire inheritance. The characters are then paired off to discover the mystery and win “Uncle Sam’s” massive fortune. But more mysteries are uncovered along the way, shady characters poking their noses into their business, and people’s true colours are revealed in this thrilling mystery novel! I absolutely recommend it, even if you’re not that into mystery books.
he book I read that was suspenseful was “Unwind”. It was a good book about a few kids running away from there families because they were bound to get unwinded, they cut the kids up and use there organs on other people. Some of the suspenseful parts of the books were parts where they are almost caught and the journey they take all while trusting a few people that seem shady. At the end of the book they are in an Unwinded kid sanctuary, this sanctuary was located in the desert and it was a airplane junkyard. The people looking for runaway unwind kids find them and try to take them, I did not finish the book so thats all I know, I do plan on finishing it.
I remember reading a book, “Among the Hidden” by Margaret Peterson Haddix, that used suspense in a way to keep a sense of lost hope with situations in the book. One of the first ways Haddix uses suspense is when her main character Luke, a third child in a dystopian future where only two children are allowed, notices something in one of the neighboring houses when nobody is supposed to be home. Haddix builds up slowly as Luke gains courage to leave his house to find out what is there when nothing should be. You will have to read it if you want to find out. 😉
I don’t really find any good suspenseful books to read, but one book called “Stolen” by Lucy Christopher has some suspense in it to wondering what will happen to her after she gets kidnapped. It’s a very good and interesting book one of the few that I have really enjoyed.
The book “IT” was very suspenseful.A killer clown was killing kids in a town and one kid decides he wants to look for his brother.i was constantly dying to know what happened next.i was shocked when they finally killed the clown and could move on.It was a very exciting book.
I don’t really read suspenseful books. I guess I’ve never had the concentration to stick with them. I probably haven’t really tried that hard in a while but I do remember getting a little bit addicted to Nancy Drew there for a bit in, like, the fifth grade or something like that. I remember a book set of the first three books in the series was gifted to me and I decided to try it out. At first, I remember struggling with trying to stay focused because it was a little dry to me. Then, as Nancy began solving things and figuring things out that everyone else couldn’t, I got addicted. ‘The Secret of the Old Clock’ was the first book and I remember to this day that being my favorite. I should probably reread it though. It’s been a minute. The thing about suspense is, no matter what book it is and no matter how weird or scary or how spooked it can get you, at one point in your life or another, especially as a writer, you’ve got to learn how to capture the audience with the question: what’s going to happen next? The best way to do that is by experiencing the phenomena for yourself.