Reviews with content warning for Murder - Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

79 reviews

reagan_reads05's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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nolemdaer's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

Considering how annoying almost all of the characters (including the narrator) are, this book is incredibly easy to read. I'm not sure if it was the simple, clear prose, but I got through this very quickly. I actually left feeling like I'd missed half the book, despite reading 300+ pages; it seemed like the mystery concluded right after it began. I don't know if it was all the fourth-wall-breaking slight of hand - which I did find bearable after I gave into it a bit more and when the narrator stopped playing around with referencing specific numbers and such - but it genuinely seemed like the murder occurred, we had two scenes, and then the MC was gathering everyone to reveal whodunit with only a modicum of investigation and absolutely no insight into his thought process besides sly winks to the audience. I guess this is a long way of saying the pacing felt weird. The climax similarly just kind of happened, and then there was apparently a little mini extra climax that was over in about a paragraph, so I won't count it.

The little meta in-jokes and what-have-you were, as I said in my first journal entry, definitely the author trying to be too cute, but they weren't too bad the further you got in. There's not much helping the MC being white guy supreme (there's a scene where he says something sexist and then a moment after gets to be all like "no, that's not me; I feel so wrong saying that," which is having your cake of being sexist and eating it too by claiming you're not actually sexist), but I was able to read a whole book with him front and center.

I honestly don't know why I picked this book up after solidly DNF-ing the first one; I think the train setting was just too tantalizing. I'm not especially inspired to pick up the next, but at the same time this experience was so relatively painless (besides irritation at the characters) that I can see myself knocking any sequels back without a problem. While all the backstories are juicy, I don't think the mystery is really that interesting in itself, but this is a good popcorn book if you just want to get through something.

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korpney's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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? No

5.0

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toffishay's review

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funny 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

3.0

This was a really fun reading experience, enhanced by the fact that I actually read it on a long train ride! The meta, self-aware narrative device really works for me and I think it makes it stand out from other mysteries. I love a train-based mystery so I had fun with that as well, even if the mystery didn't grip me quite as much as I would have liked. Our narrator feels a little more far-removed in this sequel, but even that is worked into the plot...

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anntharai's review against another edition

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funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was very up and down for me - there was a lot of eyerolling early on but gradually got in the groove with it. I think as a writer there were things that annoyed me as it talked about several of the industry issues that rile me 🤣
It's all very meta and interesting, and it did what it said sequels should do for those who haven't read the first book - it made me want to read the first book. So. Well done.

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ccerpa's review against another edition

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3.5

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adventuresinfantasy's review

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funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

It's funny until things get serious. It is very worth the read.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was actually pretty fun and kept me on my toes, there was just a tad too many names, that made it hard to keep up and made the reveal a bit less impactful

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disguisedposer's review

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funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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mary_catherine's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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