Thriller Book Chat with Sumi

You have seen here before that is doing great things in the book community. Sumi, Sumi, how are you? Hi, Sid. I am so wonderful. Thank you for asking. And it's really great to be here with you again. So, oh my God. Make sure we had enough time because I know you and me can talk. Looks like you have enough time. And so tell us a little bit about what's new with you in this book world. Because I know you've been busy, busy, busy with a lot of book reading in the process. Absolutely. so you know in the book world right now it's just been it's been a lot you know it's spooky season so i'm trying to immerse myself in a lot of spooky stories which is totally not you know it's outside of my comfort zone but i have to admit that it's been fun it's been fun reading stories about ghosts and paranormal activity but i do have to read it with the lights on yeah that's just like i don't know why not sleep but why not open you know like just in case but i just finished a book i think you'll like it's by kelly mcwilliams american nightmare and it's actually historical fiction and it's about a black guy who his color he's so light that he could pass for white okay so he ends up working with like the NAACP like going undercover because white people think that he's white black people don't really know that he's black and he gets like all of these undercover stories of like these lynchings that's taking place oh yes oh yes i will and just so you know sydney you had given me a recommendation during our last convo for jr mason yes and i read every single one of them they were fantastic oh yeah to a point that i had a conversation with JR Mason, I said I need, I need to talk to you, I need to have an Instagram live with you because what I just read will make me rethink how I submit my Goodreads reviews, yes, no spoilers thank you, no spoilers but she was, and she's such a nice woman, but thank you for that recommendation because I had myself a great time with that series, yes and you'll definitely like I think American Nightmare, you're like, I did the audiobook too so I did immersive reading and it does like the dual point of view, so like when it talks about the one guy, it had like that southern you know, like drawl, so I think you'll, I think you'll really like that one and thank you, spooky, so oh all right, it's in my notebook, I can't see it but my notebook is here, so let's get into a couple of your favorite books that you sent over and one of them this time is Judge Stone by the one and only Viola Davis, and I love anything that requires Viola to do anything, like her audiobook is great so tell me a little bit about what you loved about this story so much, so you know that's a great question, you know I, I, I'm a, I'm a victim of how to get away with murder right I am a victim of Viola Davis as Annalise Keating doing her thing with that walk, you know right, with the walk and the bob, so it was, it when and I did read her, her biography which was absolutely phenomenal so when I saw that she was collaborating with James Patterson, was an amazing writer. I knew that this was going to be something that I was going to thoroughly enjoy. And just like you, I immersively read it because when Viola Davis is speaking, you listen, right? Because you totally wrap yourself into not only the way that she speaks, but the way the story comes out. And the reason why it just stuck with me is because of what's going on in today's society right what's going on in today's america and and i wanted it i wanted to understand it in in a fictional sense so that i can fully immerse myself into understanding what's going on in today's society so when i picked up that story and i truly understood one the character evaluation between judge stone and the victim and the person that was getting basically in trouble for doing something that she thought was the right thing i knew that this was going to be a 10 star read for me a 10 star read and that's exactly what it was yeah now what would you say out of this story you know you talked about how it's so similar to the things that are going on nowadays what's one lesson you've taken away from this story oh that's a great question so the one lesson that i took i took multiple lessons by the way i think the one lesson that i took away from this story is you know the law is not black and white right it's i know that everybody says it is but it isn't there are so many layers to the law and you know judge stone was put in a position where she either had to you know it was a conflict for her does she abide by the law or does she use her judge's uh robe and do the right thing and it was very eye-opening that there are certain situations you know within our justice system where i can see where some situations were they were they were they were held by the the cloak and some were held by the law so the one the main reason and the main lesson that i took from this is the justice system is broken right and it's very sad and it's and it's very challenging for especially people of color it doesn't matter what color you are but people of color to have a fair trial but it also shows me that people in position of power such as judge stone who is a black woman is also in a very precarious situation right so it's it was it was truly eye-opening and it was very heartbreaking speaking yeah to to to immerse myself into this story because i would never want to be in the judge's shoes but i would never want to be in the victim's shoes either yeah you know and i feel like a lot of times even when you're not in like those higher up positions sometimes you're kind of stuck like should i go do the lawful thing or should i stick to my morals and kind of do what i believe is right and it's like sometimes you have to be judge and jury in certain cases when it comes to certain situations in your life and sometimes you're just kind of like uh and then of course when you're black and you're in these prominent positions you're going to get judged for anything that you do no matter what decision you make so it's kind of like okay at that point which route do i go because somebody's going to have something to say either way it goes exactly oh my god you hit the nail on the head because that that that is so true you know the one thing that i truly appreciated about Judge Stone is we saw so many aspects of her life that she is so much more than just a judge the what she did for her community what she did for her siblings what she did you know in terms of keeping her family home the things that happened within her family home you know all of these things it shows that human aspect that we tend to forget that people of power have yeah because people of power you're like well nothing can ever touch you that's a lie that is a lie that's a lie you ain't got to lie Craig that that is true it's kind of like what i don't know i just don't like that story and you know she wrote it with uh James Patterson which he's great when it comes to like he's been around since before i was born you know like with all these great stories that kind of make you think when it comes to mystery and thriller and it kind of put makes you put yourself in their shoes like how would i deal with this situation which i think resonates and that's how people keep these stories alive because like hey i have this recommendation because it'll really make you think if that's what you're looking for yes absolutely and it's one of the stories that i have to be careful i will be honest with you is that i have to be careful who i recommend it to because you're thinking oh you're just reading a story it's fiction it's you know it's just something that to entertain you but there's so many layers to that story that i have to say to myself okay i try i have to remember what political party you're affiliated with before i recommend this story to you you're like oh wait hold on what other recommendations do i have now i think i can't do that yeah let me give you a romance i'll keep this one for me you know i got group over here this will be for our discussion this one let's do a holiday romance you know we'll keep you also like um still missing by Chevy Stevens and this one of course is a thriller a little bit because of course like we're in that spooky season so tell us a little bit about what's in this one and what drew you to it oh absolutely this was one of my top reads at the beginning of the year and it made me so mad so this is a story about a real estate agent right she is checking a house out getting it ready for the showing and the day of the showing she gets kidnapped and she is held captive for a year and she ends up escaping and she ends up telling her story of her of her traumatic ordeal for the year but what made me mad was the plot twist of course i'm not going to share that with you right but i really want everyone i need everyone to read this story because i want them to be as mad as i was i want i need to talk about it i need to talk and i can't truly talk about it because the only way to talk about it is to give up the plot twist and i can't but it's it turns yes it is a thriller but it turns once you get into that thrill mode and you're listening to this awful woman's story of being held captive for a year and the crap that she had to go through within that year it turns from thriller into like a psychological horror because i have to i have to use that word because it was pure a hundred percent horror what that poor woman went through but she survived and and it's that female rage that comes into play and say please do not mess with a woman who has reached her breaking point yep she got there and she she made it happen but i really i would love for everybody and their significant others to read that story yeah and it makes me think of these real estate agents you know men and women that you know you're showing these people these houses you don't know these people from Adam they background history nothing and you doing these showings and you by yourself anything anything can happen and i'm just like uh yeah it's no joke it is and it's no joke but you know the other thing that this story truly um you know dives deep into is the relationship between mother and daughter right you're trying to understand the relationship that this victim or i don't want to call her a victim because she totally did her thing but what she went through with her mother prior to her ordeal and the relationship that she had with her boyfriend slash fiance prior to her ordeal and then it all intertwines with her kidnapping and what she went through and how she was able to survive and the things that she had to do because the man was psychotic the man who held her for so long was you know he wasn't right in the head and he needed a hug and a Kit Kat and he didn't get either because of that because of that he did horrible things to this poor woman but it's that it's that plot twist at the end the last 30 pages and you're saying to yourself wait a minute no no no no no no no no no no no and that's all that i can say so i really hope that everybody picks up this book and gives it a chance because that was my first Chevy Stevens book i think she's she's canadian she's based in canada and she has like it's a whole series i i needed like six months yeah to dive into another book of hers because that book just threw me for a loop oh man now i'm gonna have to read it because the way you said he needed a hug and a Kit Kat. I'm like, okay, how messed up in the brain are you to where you need these things so bad? Oh, Jesus, I'm going to have to add that one to my TV. Please do. Please do. And then you also like The Girls in the Cabin. Ooh, yes. And I think I've seen this one around a little bit within the book talking, bookstagram community. So tell me what you like, even though you liked it, what would you say would be a pro and a con? oh absolutely oh that's a great question so for me Caleb Stevens the author is an autobuy author i've read almost i think there's only one book of his that i haven't read uh but every single book that he has put out i've read and i've thoroughly enjoyed because he he puts a different spin on the the the very it's the same you know the things that you have to remember sitting that thriller writers they don't really have much right so you have they have to take the same plot and then they have to try to find a way and spin it right to make it unique to make it themselves to make it interesting for the reader because it's it's it can be very challenging and i feel in my opinion that Caleb Stevens really does that and he does it very well so you know this is a story about a man with his two daughters and they went camping they went hiking and unfortunately one of the kids has a horrible accident and they're stuck in the wilderness there's you know there's bad weather and stuff like that and they they're walking with a broken foot and then they end up in this cabin they find this cabin yeah there's this woman very chill woman you know she doesn't look like she's having a hard time but you say to yourself you're by yourself you're living in this this remote wilderness you know what i just need a place to stay for 24 hours before i can get back to my car and um yeah things start happening and you're like yeah this is why black people don't like to camp because a black person i'm sorry i really hope that and this is no offense to the black community who love camping but i for one don't do it if i can't but the the pro right the pro that i can say in this story was that you know not to give too much away but i i ask for everyone to truly pay attention to the teenage daughter because the teenage daughter was the one that really put two and two together to try and figure out how to get out of this situation right you're you're you're you're listening you're reading the book or you're immersive reading it and you're saying to yourself all right because we're always assuming yeah it's going to be the adult the adult is going to get us out the adult is going to fix it but i ask you to pay attention to that little teenager because you know we tend to forget how open-minded especially in 20 in the 2020s that these teenagers can be where they can truly see something outside of what adults can see yeah so that was that was a really great pro for me in terms of con you know it's i can say that it's i can't really find a con it's hard to try to find a con in this i wish maybe we we maybe diving deeper or maybe a little bit more of a situation as to um the the the better a better history from the the the woman's perspective the woman who lived in the cabin but i can't really even say that because he really laid it out so perfectly and he gave you and when i say he i mean the author caleb stevens really gave you a really great snapshot into her life and into um the the the teenager's life so i really can't find a con that was a five-star read for me it was it was a five-star read i can't find any fault in it now in this book were there multiple point of views yes there were there were multiple point of views so you have the point of view of the cabin holder which was the woman who lived there and then you have the point of view of the dad and then you have the point of view of the teenager and you're you're saying to yourself what I love about these things is you're trying to figure out who is going to be the hero who's going to be the anti is there going to be an anti hero is there going to be a situation where you're where you're going to say to yourself oh my god did I just read that and you got all of those you got every single one of those layers and it was absolutely perfect perfect perfect perfect i loved it it was so good and it's a popcorn thriller so you can read it in like 24 hours because you're you don't want to put it down you really want to know what's going to happen next yeah i love those page turners like i love the books where the chapters are a little shorter so in that way it's like but the drama is still good so it's like you're just constantly turning the page because you can't wait to see you know like what's next what the plot twist is going to be what and even like sometimes when i'm reading those kind of books i'm like okay i kind of get a feel of like what might happen or this person is probably involved in it and then i'm totally wrong yes absolutely because i was totally wrong in this one i was i mean listen if there was there was a lot going on in that book sydney i'm talking about like there was and i don't want to give anything away but i really the one thing that i will tell you is that within the the the what was they call the girls in the cabins yeah um it gets you from chapter one there is no slow burn there is no oh let's wait until see what happened in chapter five no from chapter one you're like oh that's where we're going with this that's what we're about to do bet i'm yeah i got my popcorn i'm ready those are the good ones those are yes and i love any example that gives me more of a reason not to want to camp because i'm it's not my it's not my thing i remember one time up here we had like Boing Mountain where everybody goes skis and everything and i went one time with like a girls group that i was in like after school program so she was like okay everybody was going camping what okay so my mom was like you should go it's a great experience um i watched jason i watched michael myers though nothing good come out of the woods when you okay yes so i was like all right we'll try it so we stayed in like the cabin and everything it wasn't a tent situation i'll never forget they also had a water park so we're walking back at night and a leaf scraped across the road i took off running i didn't look back i didn't ask questions i just took off i said hey it's every woman for herself all i need is a noise and i'm out because i don't want to appear you know i i will tell you this i grew up in a country that is surrounded it's mountains it's mountainous country and you know when i was a teenager my my friends you saw let's go let's go into the let's go into the mountains it's like why what what's in the mountains that we can't have here it's like well you know you got the beautiful scenery mind you it was beautiful scenery but the minute that i saw that it was 3 30 i was like okay it's time to go it's like why the life no no no no no it's 3 30 it's time to head back before the sun starts setting and stuff start popping out yep i'm out yeah no i don't i don't i don't know no no i don't do camping i need i need and i don't even do cabins i don't it's not for me you know i had a i had a an uncle was it an uncle no it wasn't an uncle it was like a person who i considered an uncle really yeah and he would say come on let's go camping i was like like in a tent so where's the bathroom where's you know you got to take mosquito spray you got no no i had malaria when i was 13 years old i don't need to go through that again get out of here no no if i was meant to be in the woods i would have been born an animal yes like and you know people be like oh my god you like heights if i was meant to be in the sky be a bird yes no i love that that's so true i was meant to be a bird no it's not a scenery i can just google it you got ai now but i'm fine i'm fine with that i'm good but i'll stay right here where i can put my two feet on the ground yeah i can go take a drink of water out of the refrigerator yes thank you you know i don't have to be smelling like mosquito spray 24 7 that's okay ants but that's all right no wait no that's okay i'm good i'm good i'm gonna survive okay thank you before i let you go is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there oh the last thing that i want to say to all of my fellow book lovers is just pick up that book and read i promise you you will have a good time with a book it doesn't matter what's going on in your life it doesn't matter if you are in a position where you are completely stressed and you are sad or you are anxious if you step away from the drama for one second and calm your mind down and open up a book i promise you you will have a good time and i will die on the vine to say that audiobooks count as reading yes and especially do that immersive reading because Yes. I've been doing that the past couple of books and I'm like, I can get down with it. Yes. It's so much fun. I don't know. You know, every time I hear a person say I can't do an audio book because I can't concentrate, I can't concentrate. That's the first thing that I tell them to do is pick up the book that you're listening to. I promise you, because, you know, I I have I've told you this a million times, said that I I'm not I didn't come from America. I was born in a small country and I had to learn the English language very quickly, you know, and reading was my saving grace. I really enjoyed it and it taught me words that I didn't know and it's still teaching me words today. um and by picking up a book and you're listening to the book and you're reading the you're seeing the written word with today's technology it is so easy to just look up that word on the google or if you have your Kindle you're reading in your Kindle you can just hit on that word to figure out what the word means I have my kids now doing it because I'm not a fan of kids listening to an audiobook but I need to get them to be excited about reading so I I have them immersively read through their Libby app and they are absolutely loving it I have never seen an 11 year old because my kids you know they see me do it so they're now they're doing it an 11 year old my son is coming up to me he says mom I finally understand what the word flummoxed means do you know that that was an SAT word for me flummoxed really that was an SAT word for me and he's 11 and he's 11 but now we got words like flummoxed in a book for an 11 year old yeah so pick up a book and read please I promise you'll have a good time yeah and then you find somebody like how we are and then you chat about it and you have fun and you move on to the next exactly exactly instead of book reports that we had to do as kids this is our book reports we're talking about it we're talking about it and You know, my Goodreads app is looking real sick these days. My Fable app is looking mighty juicy. And you can keep it rolling. Right? And now that Goodreads came out of the Stone Ages and it's giving us half stars, let me tell you something. I'm feeling real good. All you got to do is just slide now. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. We're coming out of utilizing a rock and a chisel, and now we can actually give half stars. Oh, fantastic. Thank you, 2026. let's just kiss well Sydney, it is always a pleasure having you on the show and thank you for everything that you're doing in the book community and for chatting with me and book lovers we greatly appreciate it thank you Sydney uh this was so much fun and i really hope i get to see you soon