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Agatha Christie – Destination Unknown | Review

Title: Destination Unknown

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 192

Rating 3.5/5

This book was worth reading if only because of its unusual historical significance. It’s a rare Christie standalone, but it also has some espionage vibes that makes it feel almost like an Ian Fleming or Graham Greene novel.

The main problem that I had with this one was that I thought the build-up was better than the bulk of the book and then the ending, and so while it didn’t exactly let itself down, it just didn’t end up being as good as I was expecting it to be from the start of it.

Destination Unknown is a good title for this one, because you’re best off going in with no real idea of what’s coming. In that way, it’s almost reminiscent of a modern day thriller, and it certainly has some of the same vibes. That makes it an interesting book because of what it’s trying to do and when it was trying to do it, but I don’t know if there’s anything to recommend it for beyond that.

Click here to buy Destination Unknown.

Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe | Review

Title: Robinson Crusoe

Author: Daniel Defoe

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 212

Rating: 4/5

I didn’t have particularly high expectations for this, especially after I read the first chapter or two and decided that I’d rather read it 25 pages at a time before bed instead of as my main book. That’s because the first and last couple of chapters in this weren’t as engaging as the bulk of the novel, and the ending suffered from Stephen King syndrome and just sort of petered out.

But as for the bulk of the novel, the part that was set on the desert island, I thought it was fantastic. I’d also forgotten that Man Friday was a character, and I thought that it was cool that his father popped up as well. In fact, by the end of the novel, the island is more populated than I thought possible, even with all of Defoe’s little hints that Crusoe would need all of the defences he was building.

Of course, it’s a little colonialist and doesn’t have the best attitude towards the savages, but it actually holds up pretty well as a whole when you consider just how old it is. I’d recommend it if you’re into classics.