Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

7 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

Full disclosure, I am not normally a fan of murder mystery, and I picked this one up as a book club read. I tend to like a bit of Midsomer Murders and have often quipped that most episodes of the show have an Autistic character somewhere in there, but this is the first time I have ever heard a little-Britain story that explicitly says that the weird loner is Autistic.

This story is meta as füc# .. the main character is an Editor who is reading the last work of a murder mystery writer. The author of the work she wishes to publish, dies with unfinished business but appears to have ended his own life.. or has he? Or is a murder mystery fan just taking off on flights of fancy and imagining herself a sleuth.

As a book reviewer.. this book is really strange to read. Every point that I recognise in story construction is explained by the main character as she tries to assess the work she is reading; it feels really weird to look at a story and think "ah it could be this person, but that wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion, and this person is an OBvious choice and so therefore will HAVE to be a red herring.. " only to then have those ideas explicitly expounded upon by the narrator of the story. How can your review a book that it reviewing itself?!

Events in the unpublished fiction, tend to echo events that are unfolding in the story of the Editor, and  it starts to get blurry in places and you wonder how much of what is going on is conspiracy, how much is causal, and how much is coincidental.

Amongst this stuff, conversations in the "real world" (of the book) feel like self-criticisms of the genre as a whole, and of the book itself. I can't help but feel THIS book is just trying to be clever, but it leaves me holding a handful of messy hints that the author of THIS book, feels like writing murder mysteries is a practice of making a product that sells well, rather than being good literature.

I did like the Disability narratives in the book. There is a person who is considered despicable for thinking of Down Syndrome as a disease, a person who has to deal with vision loss (and Audiobooks), and several characters with terminal illnesses.

It was kind of fun, but I was listening at 125% speed, which probably says a lot about the drawn out pace of the book and my desire to get it finished rather than actually enjoying the content. For that, I did have a couple of YUSS! moments where I had predicted things accurately or big reveals that felt fairly rewarding. Maybe if you like these sorts of books more you would get more out of it. It does feel quite like a Midsomer Murders story, with word puzzles in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Cancer, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Ableism, Child death, Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Stalking

Minor: Pedophilia and Cursing

kitpotter's review against another edition

challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

It's an interesting and intricate plot. Just not 100% convinced with the motive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Child death, and Mental illness

thedistortionist's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Fire/Fire injury

anagspereira's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the premise and its execution, although the ending of the modern day/ real side of the story within a story was a bit disappointing. It was overall a very fun experience and I loved annotating the book with my own comments/ theories throughout the read. 

 

I thought the romantic sub-plot in the modern day era was unnecessary, plus it overall cheapened the story with the whole “will the workaholic woman forgo everything she cares about for romance?” clichê. Specially since by the end she had lost agency to even decide on the matter.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Suicide, Animal death, Child death, and Classism

streberkatze's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Genocide

rieviolet's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Dementia, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

readerette's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I much preferred the Atticus Pünd story (the "inner" mystery) to the "outer" mystery that wrapped around it about Alan Conway, the author of the Atticus Pünd stories. I didn't much like Susan Ryeland's character voice, and while I didn't guess the whodunnit in either mystery, the behavior of the revealed perpetrator in the "outer" mystery didn't feel in line with their character, which cheapened the whole ending of Susan's story for me.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Violence