Reviews with content warning for Death - Miss Maxwells kurioses Zeitarchiv

As many others have said, I really wanted to like it.

None of the characters are well fleshed-out. Even this far through I have no sense of what the main character is like. When it's mentioned that she enjoys painting, I was so confused, because she is never mentioned to be artistic at all. This seemed like a strange detail added with nothing to support it.

The characters are supposed to be in their 30s, but their actions are like teenagers. Despite having numerous female characters, there seems to be a real lack of meaningful interaction, and lots of catty name calling. It feels immature and off-putting, and I'm surprised nobody has been described as 'shrill' so far. Also, it seems like everyone is white, and the one character with, "dark hair and dark eyes" is bad.

What really killed it for me was the treatment of serious concepts.

Sussman attempts to rape Max, films video of violating her in her sleep, and attempts murder, and yet she asks for his name to be recognized on the dinosaur presentation? Are you kidding me? In addition, management forbids her from telling anyone about what he did. It's absurd. Then there's a sex scene out of nowhere, which feels unbelievable.

From reading other reviews, I've been tipped off to some more disappointing plot points ahead, so I decided to stop here.

Content Warnings

sassyshark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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lucyselim's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I am so confused. The premise of historians and time travel sounded right up my street, which is why I gave this a go. However, I spent the first half of the book in literal agony about how bad the writing was and that the plot was not being executed fully. Ironically, I could not keep up with the jumping of time. One moment she had been at the institute a week and the next it had been years.
One of my biggest problems was the terrible writing, but also the treatment of female characters. The main character is a classic Mary Sue who has all the men at her feet despite being average at best. She immediately clashes with the other female character who also has red hair for no real reason. One of her 'friends' leaves the institute during their training and she is really upset about it, despite having never been seen speaking to her before. In short, I was ready to give up on this book.

But sometime happened just after halfway through.

I believe it was when Leon reveals he is from the future

Suddenly the plot became interesting enough for me to want to continue. I actually even enjoyed the last 50 pages or so.

Overall, this book definitely needs some work, but having realised it is the authors first published novel, I can understand where the writing may fall down. I will be giving the next book a go, but only because my boyfriend already bought it for me. Otherwise, perhaps I would be giving this lengthy series a miss.

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bebidocrimes's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

With such an incredible set up for time travelling historians, you'd think they would think a bit further out than Europe/Mediterranean. Sure, a good chunk was in dinosaur times, but even history mentioned in passing was limited. Despite that, this was a really fun read! Super fast, fun characters, and some surprisingly realistic heavy moments. Gotta say, I liked the romance because it made sense that those characters were good for one another, BUT (present) time passed so quickly it felt super rushed. Like, yeah they'd get there eventually, but it feels a bit soon, what do you mean it's been 5 years? I'd kill for more focus on the Wardrobe department and the Research & Development team (those mad scientists are gay, change my mind). I couldn't stand that all the women had negative attributes to them (she's a bitch, she's not friendly, she's stuck up), and most of them got better developed throughout, but would it kill the author to give Max some female friends? Or at least give her and Kal more on screen friendship development. Overall, ups and downs for this whole book, but it was exciting and I own the next 3 so I'm sticking around.

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sallysimply's review against another edition

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adventurous

3.0

I dove into this anticipating a fun, lighthearted read and was not prepared for all the darker events, so please do check out the content warnings!

I love The Nothing Girl and enjoy Jodi Taylor's writing in general. This felt really long to me and not always engaging. I can see myself picking up another book in the series, but I'm not in any rush to do so, nor do I feel the need to go in order. I might see which ones are most beloved and keep those in mind for if/when I'd ever like to spend some more time in this world.

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schnaucl's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really enjoyed it. It was witty, fun, and well written. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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tnociti's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Hilarious but not silly. A wonderfully perfect romp. Loved it.

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