Gringo: My Life on the Edge as an International Fugitive by Peter Conti

Gringo: My Life on the Edge as an International Fugitive

by Peter Conti

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘
Genre - Memoirs
Format - E-book

*Amazon Blurb*

Dan "Tito" Davis comes from a town in South Dakota that's so small everyone knows their neighbor's cat's name. But once he got out, he made some noise. While at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, he started manufacturing White Crosses, aka speed, and soon had the Banditos Motorcycle Club distributing ten million pills a week. After serving a nickel, he got into the weed game, but just when he got going, he was set up by a childhood friend. Facing thirty years, Davis slipped into Mexico, not knowing a word of Spanish, which began a thirteen-year odyssey that led him to an underground hideout for a Medellín cartel, through the jungles of the Darien Gap, the middle of Mumbai's madness, and much more.

*My Review* 

Where would you go if you needed to hide? Would you be able to leave your former life in the past and create a new one? Imagine never speaking to your family again. I thought the book started out a bit slow, but it picks up quickly and takes you on a ride all over South America. Tito is forced to not only leave his life in the past, but to create a new one that is believable enough to not make anyone suspicious of him. I had to keep reminding myself this story was based on real life events. I kept thinking that I would've probably given up many times, yet Tito pushes on. Not only does he stay out of trouble, but manages to be a law abiding citizen, a successful one at that. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I read the book on my Kindle or if the same would hold true in a printed format, but I did get a bit annoyed at all the footnotes. I don't see why most of them couldn't have just been in English instead of me having to constantly click on the footnote to understand what was being said.

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Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Bird Box

by Josh Malerman

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘📘📘📘
Genre - Horror, Suspense, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Format - Audio-book

*Amazon Blurb*

Something is out there . . . Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now, that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster? Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey—a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motely group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside—and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?

*My Review* 

I didn't watch the show on Netflix and I think it made the book even better. Since the characters in the book are unable to look at anything, they rely on other senses. That means that everything they can't see is described to you. For me, this made it easy to picture everything without having to think about it. The layout of the house, the path to the well, the ride down the river....everything was so vivid in my mind. I also enjoyed how the book alternates between the past and present. It kept things moving nicely. The author has them switching at the perfect point.

There was only part of the story that I wished was elaborated on a little more and that was where Malorie got the food to survive for 4 years. Did she leave the babies home while she went out and got more food? How was she able to find that much to last for so long? Regardless, she did and they survived.

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Pratts Hollow by Christina Kelley

Pratts Hollow

by Christina Kelley

Available on Amazon

Rating (1-5) 📘📘
Genre - Horror, Suspense
Format - Paperback
Pages - 301

*Amazon Blurb*

A disturbing Tale of Horror and Suspense set in the Hamlet of Pratts Hollow, NY located in the Mohawk Valley. This novel isn't coated in sugar for the meek, because real life rarely is frosted. With the good, comes the bad, the stagnant, and the unimaginable. A story about the horrors of small town living; real and perceived; hidden and apparent. When Maurice Adam Downey arrives in Pratts Hollow, the air gets heavy, stomachs sour, surrounding woods turn putrid, neighbors' doors close extra tight, and the uncontrollable madness begins... Maurice Adam Downey, a supernatural cult leader migrates from the deep woods of Canada to arrive in the hamlet of Pratts Hollow in the 1990's. His presence creates mayhem as horrific events plague the citizens within the rural farming communities of Pratts Hollow and Madison. Five Madison Central School students and long time friends, Tommy Tremaine, Sarah Jensen, Lane Collins, Samantha Peate, and Bobby Frye form a club called the Country Club Five in which its members encounter Maurice Downey on a daily basis. The children recognize the evil within this new stranger and the unusual happenings that have occurred in their towns since his arrival. With the help of a wise old woman, divine intervention, a New York City detective, a Utica Police sergeant, and the impenetrable friendship between each other, the friends battle this cruel being to save a missing five year old girl, and their hometowns. "This novel isn't coated in sugar for the meek, because real life rarely is frosted."--Christina Kelley. Christina incorporates her fictional characters into real locations and settings in Oneida, and Madison County, including the City of Utica. .

*My Review* 

I always enjoy reading books that are set in an area that is local to me. Pratts Hollow, as well as Utica, are both located very close to me. Utica is a 15 to 20 minute drive.

First, let me start of by saying that poor editing can take away from a good book...as was the case here. I found the beginning of the book to be quite interesting, but the author would go off on side stories that didn't quite fit in or were just distracting from the main story-line.

A group of kids that are best friends get tattoos which someone give them super powers that they aren't really aware of. Then they graduate school and move away. Events in their hometown bring them all back together and they find out how strong their powers really are.

The ending of the book was a disappointment. The buildup of how horrible the Downey's were made me think that the ending would be full of action. Instead it was all over in the matter of a couple pages.