Matt Orlando Reviews Books

The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Power of the Dog spans years, sparked by the DEA’s first foray into a foreign country's drug policy.
Don Winslow took characters from across the US and all through Mexico and all the way down to Columbia… Furthermore, The Don fleshed out each character in very satisfying ways that served the story. That served the characters themselves. Of course they did that, you would think as you read. Of course.

Mr. Winslow brought you into the minds of cartel leaders before there were even cartels, and the minds of their families, and those of the people trying desperately to stop them.

It’s hard sometimes knowing who to root for when you get to know a character like that. You’ve been with them their whole life. And somehow, if you’re paying attention, you get it. You don’t like what they do. But you get it. There are moments in the book that are like the short pauses on a roller coaster when you realize that you're only being brought up to the top so that he can drop you down screaming.

I’m already on his second book in the trilogy, The Cartel. I wish he could write as fast as I can read.

Read the full "The Power of The Dog" review here!

I’m telling you, Don Winslow is a beast.

The Cartel by Don Winslow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like learning about myself. I like my ideas being challenged. Or something to come along and slap me across the face and wake me up.

I had never seen the problem with drugs coming from Mexico as an American problem. The cartels were behaving as savages...elsewhere. Killing each other over territory so that they could get more money. And the leaders were already showing up on “Richest Men in the World” lists. For selling illegal drugs! I found this ridiculous and mostly annoying. If the Mexicans can’t control their little cartel people, then so be it. It’s not my problem. I mean how hard can it be?

There would be stories of mutilations, burning people alive in fifty-five-gallon drums, decapitations. Better them than me, I’d think. Friggin' Mexico, get your sh*t together. Why can’t you be more like us? More amazing, like we are? We don’t decapitate our people. We’re civilized.

The Cartel had made it clear. This was OUR problem.

If you don’t want to get slapped in the face with graphic images of how this situation, just on the other side of that fence, went down—then don’t read this book. It’s heavy. It’s gut wrenching. And while a fictional story, it is also based on factual numbers and situations. These things did take place and continue to do so.

Read the full "The Cartel" review here!

The Border by Don Winslow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Border is a fascinating journey into the psychology and monetary economy of the War on Drugs.

This book hit home the drug and money issues plaguing our people, and the United State’s involvement in these issues even more and connected the points of the web, weaving that circular spiral anchored off the support beams to the center.

I’ve already written about Don Winslow's writing style in my first review and second review of The Power of Dog Series, how he can fit so much into one paragraph that you think there can’t be more to say about that person’s life or the story, that there can’t be much left to happen, and yet, Don always delivers so much more. All of that while getting to the point so fast with economy of words that you can’t look away.

You just keep reading.

I’ve also said before that while you judge the atrocities, you have trouble judging the people. With something so complex, and with so much at stake, you can put yourself in their shoes. That’s simply you in their circumstances, like it or not. I understand that dynamic better.

Lastly, I have to say, I’m going to miss all of the characters in that series, even the villains.

Read the full "The Border" review here!

The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tiffany McDaniel debuted with this book. I remember reading Gillian Flynn’s, Sharp Objects, and thinking how tasty her sentences were with tone for salt and story for pepper. Just resonated with me. I admired it. Tiffany McDaniel writes every sentence like a poem. Her sentences are like a rich dessert, not like a salty steak, and the story starts to go down just like a cheesecake too rich to finish… but you must.

Read the full "The Summer That Melted Everything" review here!

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will not go into what the plot is, or what the book is about, just that you should read it. Donna Tartt is so intelligent, that the only person I did in fact judge was myself. It made me wish I had tried harder in school. It made me want to become a better writer. A better learner. Her knowledge of so many different arts, languages, cultures, is stunning. After you finish the book, you will feel like you’ve visited different countries, states, and cities, even though you didn’t leave your couch. She will leave you awestruck, and all of those details, that at first, I thought were unnecessary, and maybe (don’t hate me) boring, eventually quickened my heart and opened my mind in ways that very few books have done. I won’t compare any here, because there is no comparison.

Read the full "The Goldfinch" review here!

Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love when authors make you seek justice, and make you turn the page to get it, adding layer upon layer of stress for the hero.

Barclay created an interesting, layered, and believable world.

He makes you want to turn the page, and he doesn’t smother the whole damn thing with cheese.

I will be reading more of Barclay’s books, and I’ll be letting you know what I think of them. If you’re looking for a fun ride, like a good mystery that isn’t driven by some superhero ex-green beret private investigator, who knows three languages, is an expert marksman after also training with Mossad agents in Israel, all who he calls upon for help when things get sticky… then give Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay a Try.

Read the full "Too Close to Home" Review here

Linwood Barclay~