Actually, I’ve been quite lazy. After Blink, I’ve finished another 4 books, but have been too lazy to write a review here! But after reading Gone for Good, there is absolutely no chance that I escape writing one.
Among all the thriller books I’ve read, this one is quite at the top! And to think that I’ve not read any of Coben’s other books before!! While browsing through the bookstore, because I could find nothing else, I took a look at this one, and the reviews on the blurb caught attention.
Once I started reading, this one absolutely caught hold and made me finish it (took 2 days though).
Gone for Good is the story of two brothers – Ken and Will Klein. You can read an excerpt from Amazon here. I won’t divulge the plot, but here’s what made the book so irresistible.
Coben’s writing style – weaving between first person and third person is a real treat to read, and gets the reader truly absorbed into the story. As the book moves on, we suddenly realize that none our of normal ‘reader instincts’ are proving true! There are so many twists and turns all around, that it gets impossible to anticipate what’s coming next. After a while – once a few chapters are done – we actually give up guessing, and that makes the book even more interesting.
Another very interesting thing about the book is the way Coben takes us in and out of flashback. It is not like he finished the flashback and comes back to the future, but keeps weaving; and the effect is quite stunning. It is like the ‘need-to-know’ thing James Bond movies taught us! As the story moves on, we keep getting glimpses from the past of the characters which makes the story much more exciting.
If you are a fiction / thriller / action / crime genre aficionado, this is one book you should certainly not miss!
I’m hunting for Coben’s other books, but none seem available in our city! :(
1 comment:
Thanks for the heads up on this book. I like Harlan Coben and I have enjoyed 2 of his books, Hold Tight and The Woods .
Hold Tight has 19 major characters but the joy of the story is the sheer diversity of these characters. This is a story of real life across the whole community and not a tiny section of society. Every character is different and has their own special role to play in this story. But it is more than this, Harlan does not tell this tale as A speaks to B and then something happens. Harlan tells the tale from the viewpoint of each character, like using a first-person writing style but he does that with all 19 characters and no character is the lead or hero. The reader then develops an empathy for all 19 characters and even for a minor character who is on his way out for sloppy performance! What this book demonstrates is that Harlan clearly understands people, he knows exactly what makes people tick.
I vote The Woods a HIT, it is well written and has a very good plot. Each chapter ends with a new and significant development in the story. There are many twists and turns throughout this novel but everything fits together in the end. The progress of this novel is well paced with a steady stream of developments that seem to appear with almost clockwork precision.
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