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I love Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series so I was excited to check out this new stand-alone book. Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about it. It KILLS me to say that because the characters are interesting. The action is exciting. The twists are fun. But this could have used some serious editing. It’s got a meandering problem and things wind up all over the place. Characters are introduced as if you should know who they are and then dispatched swiftly several pages later. It seems a little slapped together—we need to link X to Y, so let’s insert this chapter to help that make sense. The chemistry between some of the characters feels strange. Basically, the characters are most engaging when they’re on their own with no dialogue on the page. Yikes. Jo Nesbo is one of my favorite crime authors, but I found this only so-so compared to the other books of his I’ve read (I loved The Snowman).
100% meh. DNF. I was planning on at least finishing it but the characters just kept getting more and more cliched, and I’m not willing to waste my time on that nonsense.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another strong book from Nesbø, he never fails to deliver! Refreshing to read something from him that isn't about Det. Harry Hole (much as I love him)! Writing is excellent as usual, beautiful characters who draw you in from the first. There are no pointless characters in this novel, from the biggest players to the smallest they all have something to offer, they all add to the richness of this novel.
“What determines the outcome of a life? A series of random events you had no control over or did some cosmic gravity pull everything in the direction it was predestined to go?” P16
The Son, stand alone novel by the inimitable Jo Nesbø is a beautifully woven tale of humanity, complete with all the emotion of regret, loss, hope and hopelessness. It is a story of a young man and an older man and the journey that each must take, separately together to find completeness.
Simon Kefas and Sonny Lofthus each have their own past, their present and carve out trajectories of the future that cause them to question the decisions they have made, the truths they believed and the people around them who have influenced them in ways they could never have dreamed.
Sonny is a tortured young man, yet out of the heartache he has experienced comes a spirit that is so sincere, so authentic and so simplistic, that he impacts everyone who enters his presence. There is almost something spiritual and archetypal about him and it is hard not to be drawn to him.
Simon Kefas is equally impacting, the chief inspector with his own checkered history, the sum of a myriad of decisions that beset him and a tenacity and desperation to right wrongs in the only ways he can work out at the time. He is gritty and real and epitomizes an authenticity that I recognize as something of the flawed humanity that I carry around with me each day.
I must admit I am a huge fan of Jo Nesbø. His Harry Hole series is sensational but it is his standalone novels that are leaving me quite breathless. Nesbø’s capacity for elucidating all the elements of the human condition as he crafts his stories is superb.
The Son is a story of hope, of flesh and blood, mistakes and regrets, living with yourself and the decisions made. I loved it and I know it will stay with me.
The Son, stand alone novel by the inimitable Jo Nesbø is a beautifully woven tale of humanity, complete with all the emotion of regret, loss, hope and hopelessness. It is a story of a young man and an older man and the journey that each must take, separately together to find completeness.
Simon Kefas and Sonny Lofthus each have their own past, their present and carve out trajectories of the future that cause them to question the decisions they have made, the truths they believed and the people around them who have influenced them in ways they could never have dreamed.
Sonny is a tortured young man, yet out of the heartache he has experienced comes a spirit that is so sincere, so authentic and so simplistic, that he impacts everyone who enters his presence. There is almost something spiritual and archetypal about him and it is hard not to be drawn to him.
Simon Kefas is equally impacting, the chief inspector with his own checkered history, the sum of a myriad of decisions that beset him and a tenacity and desperation to right wrongs in the only ways he can work out at the time. He is gritty and real and epitomizes an authenticity that I recognize as something of the flawed humanity that I carry around with me each day.
I must admit I am a huge fan of Jo Nesbø. His Harry Hole series is sensational but it is his standalone novels that are leaving me quite breathless. Nesbø’s capacity for elucidating all the elements of the human condition as he crafts his stories is superb.
The Son is a story of hope, of flesh and blood, mistakes and regrets, living with yourself and the decisions made. I loved it and I know it will stay with me.
У автора удивительный талант вызывать симпатию к убийцам. Не думал, что меня можно привлечь сюжетом в стиле современного графа Монте-Кристо.
Only Jo Nesbo can make you start thinking that maybe, on occasion, it is acceptable to murder someone. Or even several someones... He is the master of the grey area!
Excellent thriller from Jo Nesbø. It starts like an usual revenge story, but it wouldn't be a Jo Nesbø book, if it weren't really well written and full of interesting twists and turns. The story is gripping and very effective. Very good, glad to see Nesbø writing top-notch crime fiction without Harry Hole being involved.