Reviews - Casas estranhas | The StoryGraph

2.5k reviews for:

Casas estranhas

Uketsu

3.71 AVERAGE

h_munro's review against another edition

2.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

saplingking's review against another edition

2.0

for them to have essentially figured out the function of the house right out the gate was underwhelming

wildery's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A murder mystery wrapped in an architectural point of view is very fresh and interesting. The idea itself, and the first pages of the book hooked me. And the use of the houses' blueprints as the main mystery item throughout the book is visually striking—so our minds won't spend much time in imagining the shape of the house itself. Unfortunately, I have been spoiled for the first two chapters—and it definitely affected my experience of reading the book. I didn't particularly like the use of a drama-like dialogue tags (using : instead of ") and how they bold the sentences that reveals a new revelation, but it's a technical matter so it may not matter much. My biggest issue is that this entire book is made by oral storytelling—by Kurihara, Miyae, then her mother—and thus the main character, 'I' didn't have enough spotlight except for the first chapter where he was asked the opinion of should his friend buy this particular house or not—which opens the entire story. The plot twists at chapter three and four are quite unexpected, but somehow I didn't like how it all was unwrapped—I don't know how to name it, maybe it felt forced? The dialogues were kind of rigid too, it was like the dialogues in manga rather than in a novel. But it was a quick, one-sitting read and even with all of its downsides, I wasn't able put this book down.