Review of Outer Dark

Outer Dark tells the tale of a woman giving birth to her brothers child. He leaves the child behind in the forest while she is resting from labour.
While she finds out what he has done, she goes out and tries to find her son. Meanwhile someone else has found him and is giving him a chance to live.
Both brother and sister set out on a voyage that will alter their lives ultimately ending in a heartbreaking collision.

Having read astonishing novels by Cormac McCarthy, this one was not in the same category. While No country for old men gave me outstanding monologues and dialogues and The Road gave me the desolate feeling of being on the run from the  world and trying to survive an world already spent and burnt, Outer Dark gave me boredom. Maybe I don't get the clue of this novel, but it never truly gripped me by the throat. The only emotion I felt was when the child was mentioned. It still repulses me to think of what happened near the ending. Putting myself in the place of the sister trying to find her son, I would be stricken with grief, especially since I know what happened to him. Although it does shimmer through that it was written by a man. The emotions the woman goes through are just a little too distanced, I think most mothers would know what I mean.
Because of that, neither of the two protagonists won any sympathy with me. It was a story I struggled through and if it hadn't been such a short novel I wouldn't have finished it.
I've read a lot of McCarthy and this is the least one so far.

Review of Nineteen Minutes

 I completely forgot that I hadn't changed my current book. Silly me.
I have read Nineteen minutes by Jodi Picoult since the last time I visited. I've read some of Picoult before (My sister's keeper) and this novel uses the same style. If I hadn't seen a name on this cover I could've guessed it was the same author.

Nineteen minutes tells the story of what happens after a shooting at a highschool. A young student finds himself lost for answers and turns to violence. We follow him, his victims and their families in a search for the truth and more specifically the reason behind it all.

Sometimes you read a novel and it completely sucks you in. You get connected with the world depicted and feel what the characters feel. Everyone who reads regularly knows what I'm talking about.
Nineteen minutes never did this. I never forgot it was fiction, it never grabbed me by the throat despite the subject and despite the very emotional person I've become since my lovely daughter is in my life.
It's a prose I've never been happy with, trying to keep a steady pace, switching back and forth between different characters but never really touching them. The characters felt too twodimensional, lacking a reality. Oddly so did the storyline. You never really get an answer of why he did it. I never got the feeling he was evil or misunderstood. A young student being harassed and bullied, but in some of the thing he did you felt the strong resilience he had. Why did he do it then? And the final climax was anything but believable.
And then I'm not even mentioning the absolutely annoying hollywoodian ending. All's well, ends well?!
It gave me reason to chuck the book to the floor, turn of the light and hoping my next book was going to be better.

If there are any Picoult fans out there. I'm not apologising for my opinion. Not everyone likes what she writes, like there are some people who don't like bananas for some reason.