Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Snowman

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø

6 reviews

laurenleigh's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

3.5

I’m getting to the end of the year where I have random reading challenge prompts left, and this was my pick for Nordic Noir. I love a mystery detective novel, but the super dark, explicit, gritty quality to Nordic Noir just turns me off. Maybe I just wasn’t enjoying it, but it also felt like there could have been some editing. They are certain they found the culprit like five times before they actually solve the case.

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itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-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

2.0

This was simply not a book for me. The amount of times I started and stopped reading was absurd. It was really giving me reading slump vibes. However, if I’m going to say something positive about it (and I will since I know some people would and have eaten this book up) it would be that the author is very creative. I haven’t read murders like this before. Nor have I read a plot or reasoning for killing like this before! I don’t think that makes up for how convoluted and confusing the whole plot and story structure was, but it’s something.

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ana_reads's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-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

2.25

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purplemuskogee's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

As a thriller, it's not all bad - I genuinely didn't know who the killer would be until I had a third of the book left. The plot itself was quite clever, although there were maybe too many red herrings - with culprits being found who ended up not being the right person, etc.

What really ruined the book for me was the misogyny, and despite the theme (the serial killer only kills women, for a very specific reason) it was not the only reason for it. There's just now redeemable character there. The women are either victims (of the serial killer), or props. They are always somewhat mysterious, sexy, and every interaction between them and the main character involves some sort of sexual tension - mostly on the part of the hero, Harry Hole, as what the female characters think... we just don't know. It became so much that it was kind of gross - every time a female character appears, there's a neat paragraph on the male's character's dick, her legs, what he would do to her.

I read very few male authors - in fact, I try and avoid them unless I am sure that I won't be absolutely disgusted when I read them, but I craved a thriller like I do every time come late December. This reminded me exactly just why I normally stick to female writers.

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leoniemacleod's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This could’ve been much, much shorter. I don’t see the 5-star hype but it was pretty good.

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alylentz's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Read this for a class--really long, the translation can make it a little clunky at times.

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