A review by chrstnpet2
The Helicopter Heist by Jonas Bonnier

1.0

I actually kinda dropped this, because it tired me, but I still finished it for the sake of it.
It was nice up until page 150, maybe even before that, that I started losing interest. My mom and I bought this book because we thought it was interesting and actually the fact that it's based on a real story intrigued me. We bought like 18 books that day and this was the first I picked up. Honestly, it wasn't even the writing that made me bored and want to drop it, rather than the fact that there's little to no dialogue in it. Like there's too much description that, in my opinion, is unnecessary, but at the same time half of the dialogue that is actually there is Michel Maloof (idk how to spell his name) saying "Yeah, yeah." and that just- ugh annoyed me so much.
I read this book in greek, my native tongue, so I'm guessing that kind of played a role, since I prefer reading in English. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't have been bored had I read it in English. Also, I know it was for the sake of showing that Alexandra or whatever her name was talks a lot and that's how she gave most info away, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't tire the reader as much as it does Michel! And on top of that I had Michel say "Yeah yeah" every now and then HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO NOT GET BORED AND TIRED OF SUCH REPETITION. I get that repetition helps but not to that extent.
I was surprised to read that the author was a screenwriter, because I was expecting dialogues would be something he would focus on more. I did see the way he kind of started introducing the characters like a movie script would have it done, but that's for movies. I want to actually remember who the characters are and what their roles in the heist were rather than whether "the sky was gloomy hinting the chances of the heist being successful were high" or something of the sort.
I usually read a 600 page book in at most 5-6 days depending on my schedule (even during school) but it took me 7 DAYS to read up to page 400! And it's summer which meant I took the book everywhere with me and had time to read at the beach! But instead I ended up reading about 20 pages, getting tired and then sleeping! I barely had the energy to go swim after getting so tired of reading.
I didn't want to leave a bad review for this book, but I really tried to love it and was disappointed. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone who reads slow, or doesn't like books that drag their plot without there being the need to do so, or anyone who gets tired easily, because I'm known for being patient with my books. I'm sad to finish this review on such a note.
xoxo