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It started out strong and interesting but the story lost itself completely in very strange details and a very constructed and implausible plot. As much as I liked the Shakespearean mystery about one of his most famous plays and even the link to the modern day, there where too many things that did not make it believable. Characters that come and are killed off, weird time lines (like flying from London to New York and back and driving up into the Scottish Highlands in under 24 hours on a deadline, not even considering time zones, and the main character has exactly one hour of light sleep), the main villain(s) appear out of nowhere, while keeping the main character under permanent surveillance. It feels like the author wanted to squeeze in as many rumors, facts, and trivia on Macbeth as they could.

Nachdem ich bei den letzten Fitzek-Büchern eigentlich immer diese "Was-zur-Hölle-lese-ich-hier-eigentlich"-Momente hatte, habe ich "Playlist" fast schon wieder genossen. Spannend bis zum Ende (auch wenn ich genug Fitzek gelesen habe, um schon eine Ahnung gehabt zu haben, wer sich später als der Täter herausstellt), mit einigen netten Twists, einigen schönen, wenn auch teilweise konstruierten Rätseln. Aber ein interessanter Take, einen Psychothriller rund um eine Playlist mit eigens komponierten, realen Liedern zu schreiben. Für mich einer der besseren Fitzeks.

DE: Nach Serie und Spiel gebe ich mich nun auch mal an die Bücher. Band 1 der Vorgeschichte hat mir gut gefallen, auch wenn natürlich einiges in den Grundzügen bekannt war. Es ist eher eine lose Sammlung an Kurzgeschichten, was ich vorher wusste und dem Lesen keinen Abbruch tut. Einzig mit dem Schreibstil (bzw. der deutschen Übersetzung) werde ich nicht ganz warm.

EN: After the TV show and the game, I will now delve deeper into the Witcher saga by reading the books. I really liked Part One of the prelude, even though most of the general story was already known. It is more a collection of short stories than one continuous story, but I knew that beforehand and enjoyed it nonetheless. Just the writing style (or at least the German translation) is not quit my cup of tea.

I was intrigued by this take on the old story of Alice: a girl escaping from an asylum. But it turned out to be an extremely graphic depiction of violence from start to end. To me, very flat characters, little cohesive story, just murder, rape and other cruelties added together to fill the pages.

A world where, every decade, it is up to ten of the gods' children (Golds and Jades) to save the world from the Obsidians by competing against each other in The Sunbearer Trials: the winner will be selected as the Sunbearer, the loser will be sacrificed in order to save the world.

An epic competion that reminded me strongly of the Hunger Games, but had its own twists and rules. A coming of age story about underdog teenage Teo and his struggles to prove himself to others and himself, too. I really liked the story, the setting, and the characters, although most of them have some potential to evolve even more.

It is a young adults book, so I was sometimes bored or frustrated with elaborate teenage struggles and stubbornness, but overall I enjoyed the book.