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dw_'s review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
campbelltaral's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A retelling of S. Holmes & Dr. Watson in an alternate reality/near future setting where the protagonists are two black women in the WA DC area. Gritty and dark, with a close look at what returning soldiers of war endure when they don't fit into society (PTSD, disability, etc). The characters are intriguing while the story is kind of clunky at times, like it needed another round of edits. Still, I liked this a lot and looking forward to the next.
lezreadalot's review against another edition
4.0
Me, a black lesbian obsessed with scifi and ACD Holmes, reading this book:
- WATSON. We stan one (1) PTSD doctor. I loved that the narrative didn't shy away from showing her as hurt and fragile and vulnerable, but she also got to be righteously angry and brave and wonderful. Holmes was probably my favourite character, as Holmes generally tends to be in all universes, but I love Holmes because we get to see her through Watson's long-suffering normie eyes. Every time Watson wanted to take off her prosthetic and smack Holmes with it I was like girl same.
- The politics, honestly? I'm so used to authors dancing around real life politics in fiction books, it was really surprising that the author approached it in such a frank and explicit manner? But then I decided that I liked it.
- "My love", and all it's iterations. Fucking... SWOON. All a Holmes adaptation really needs for me to like it is good Holmes/Watson interaction and this had SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much of that. Gah. Also not to get into specifics but HELL YEAH for turning subtext into text.
- The world-building/tech. Futuristic sci-fi civil war America makes a unique setting, especially since it's apparently not that far into the future. Made it feel very grounded, while clearly being science fiction.
- Just... everything!!! All the references and shout-outs and little details... I LOVED feeling like I was reading another Holmes story.
My one nitpick that didn't detract TOO much from my enjoyment:
- Black queer lady Holmes in the future is a fucken... cop?? I'm sorry, even worse: a FED??? Lol... ?_? I couldn't get behind it. I solidly expected at some point she would come out and be like 'psyche, I've just been impersonating one for this case, FTP'. I guess it threw me not only because it's such a clashing role for Holmes, and THIS Holmes in particular, but also Holmes is stalwartly NOT one of the regulars, and seeing her with an actual j-o-b, instead of being a consultant was just... weird. She was suitably cavalier about it, and the blurb for the next book calls her a 'former agent' so like... fingers crossed.
ETA: Actually, one more nitpick:
- Where were the DEDUCTIONS? Like I said, I loved that this was sci-fi and I would have been disappointed if Holmes DIDN'T make use of some sort of gadgets, but I wanted to see more of her figuring shit out. What's the point of her keeping shit from Watson if she doesn't smugly explain it all at the end of the book while smoking a clove cigarette while lounging in her armchair in Q Street? I know, I know, the science of deduction has many holes in it, and people have poked at them plenty, but it's such an integral and charming part of the mythos... I missed it, and really hope there'll be some of it in future books.
I've been looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it. I put off reading it for a good long while, but I really enjoyed it, and it ended up being the perfect way to bow out of 2018. The fact that it's a series makes me very happy. Really looking forward to the next one!
Spoiler
Things I liked!- WATSON. We stan one (1) PTSD doctor. I loved that the narrative didn't shy away from showing her as hurt and fragile and vulnerable, but she also got to be righteously angry and brave and wonderful. Holmes was probably my favourite character, as Holmes generally tends to be in all universes, but I love Holmes because we get to see her through Watson's long-suffering normie eyes. Every time Watson wanted to take off her prosthetic and smack Holmes with it I was like girl same.
- The politics, honestly? I'm so used to authors dancing around real life politics in fiction books, it was really surprising that the author approached it in such a frank and explicit manner? But then I decided that I liked it.
- "My love", and all it's iterations. Fucking... SWOON. All a Holmes adaptation really needs for me to like it is good Holmes/Watson interaction and this had SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much of that. Gah. Also not to get into specifics but HELL YEAH for turning subtext into text.
- The world-building/tech. Futuristic sci-fi civil war America makes a unique setting, especially since it's apparently not that far into the future. Made it feel very grounded, while clearly being science fiction.
- Just... everything!!! All the references and shout-outs and little details... I LOVED feeling like I was reading another Holmes story.
My one nitpick that didn't detract TOO much from my enjoyment:
- Black queer lady Holmes in the future is a fucken... cop?? I'm sorry, even worse: a FED??? Lol... ?_? I couldn't get behind it. I solidly expected at some point she would come out and be like 'psyche, I've just been impersonating one for this case, FTP'. I guess it threw me not only because it's such a clashing role for Holmes, and THIS Holmes in particular, but also Holmes is stalwartly NOT one of the regulars, and seeing her with an actual j-o-b, instead of being a consultant was just... weird. She was suitably cavalier about it, and the blurb for the next book calls her a 'former agent' so like... fingers crossed.
ETA: Actually, one more nitpick:
- Where were the DEDUCTIONS? Like I said, I loved that this was sci-fi and I would have been disappointed if Holmes DIDN'T make use of some sort of gadgets, but I wanted to see more of her figuring shit out. What's the point of her keeping shit from Watson if she doesn't smugly explain it all at the end of the book while smoking a clove cigarette while lounging in her armchair in Q Street? I know, I know, the science of deduction has many holes in it, and people have poked at them plenty, but it's such an integral and charming part of the mythos... I missed it, and really hope there'll be some of it in future books.
I've been looking forward to this book ever since I heard about it. I put off reading it for a good long while, but I really enjoyed it, and it ended up being the perfect way to bow out of 2018. The fact that it's a series makes me very happy. Really looking forward to the next one!
nabenn67's review against another edition
3.0
What an interesting take on the Holmes/Watson universe. The dystopian nature hit too close to home sometimes, but I look forward to the next book (in what I understand is to happen).
soundsgay_imin's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
taliatiss's review against another edition
1.0
What a letdown. I'm having trouble deciding what was worse: the hamfisted attempts at writing about racism, the lack of actual mystery, or the fact that it was incredibly boring.
I really loved the idea of queer, black, female Holmes and Watson. But no part of Janet Watson's intersecting identities feels real, save perhaps some elements of her disability and PTSD. At first, I liked how much time we were spending with Janet, getting to know her before she stepped into Sara Holmes' world. Except we never truly get to see Sara's world, we never even understand the mystery until it's over, and
Here's one of my favourite bad lines of dialogue, since I don't want to get any further into the purple writing:
Sara Holmes: We glide, like swans over a lake, our eyes cast discreetly toward the ground so that any chance light does not reflect from them.
Alright, let's get into the details:
Sloppy worldbuilding
I'm never really convinced of the civil war aspect. Everyone's waging old-timey war with skirmishes between soldiers... meanwhile Sara can show Watson the footage from drones... and if you lose an arm you can get a metal replacement that picks up your brain waves and can detach whenever you want. It doesn't feel like a war is going on at all, and certainly not a modern one. It's unclear exactly how the civil war started, as politics in this book are reduced to "she's the good leftist one" and "he's the bad white centrist one" and so on. What do voters in this world actually care about, other than race? And even then, why is the racism in this book only the blatant kind, where Watson would narrate things like "angry black woman" and "don't touch my hair" like the author is playing racism bingo. Oh, and the feel tacked on. Actually, that brings me to my next point.
The mystery is tacked on
There arguably isn't a mystery in this book at all. Holmes is a spy, not a detective. There isn't a clear mystery to solve, just a series of possibly connected events, and "almost" inciting incidents that don't incite much. I suppose that's a plot spoiler, but it's difficult to say when there's so little plot.
Sara Holmes
While Watson feels like a person with goals and fears and flaws, Sara Holmes is none of those things. She's distanced throughout the story. Like Holmes and Watson physically do not spend enough time together. Nor do they accomplish much together. It's often a case of Sara filling Janet in about something. Oh and she's a terrible person. As many other reviewers have pointed out,. Also, she isn't convincingly intelligent. She's supposed to me a master of deduction, but she gets all her intel from her So she isn't convincingly a genius, though she is convincingly an asshole.
How the author thinks black women think
So I mentioned that this book feels like woke bingo. And while I'm not American or black, I am a queer woman of colour and this book really lacked a sense of intersectionality for me. Is the military not homophobic at all? Watson mentions she but otherwise, her queerness rarely seems to factor into her oppression. Which would be fine, if so much of this book wasn't about oppression. Sometimes she's black, and sometimes she's queer, but is she ever really both at the same time? There are so many interesting ideas to explore: being visibly black while only occasionally being visibly queer, how black people treat her differently for being queer and queer people treat her differently for being black, and so on. There's some very surface-level commentary on class differences between black people, but it's stuff like Watson seeing a rich black character as "a young Barack Obama" and being upset with him for being rich while she has to hold all the pain of war. I think there are good ideas buried in there. But the author lost me at the idea that a real-life black person would equate a rich black man with Obama just for existing as a rich black man. Yikes. Let's not forget that Watson thinks she looks homeless at another point because she's wearing a hoodie and baggy pants. Good job being classist, author, I truly do not know how privileged you have to be to assume that's all it takes to "look homeless" when Watson grew up poor and her internalized classism probably wouldn't look like that.
Alright, I've given far too much of my time to this review, and to this book. On to better, I hope
I really loved the idea of queer, black, female Holmes and Watson. But no part of Janet Watson's intersecting identities feels real, save perhaps some elements of her disability and PTSD. At first, I liked how much time we were spending with Janet, getting to know her before she stepped into Sara Holmes' world. Except we never truly get to see Sara's world, we never even understand the mystery until it's over, and
Spoiler
Janet's in the hospital for all of that anyways!Here's one of my favourite bad lines of dialogue, since I don't want to get any further into the purple writing:
Sara Holmes: We glide, like swans over a lake, our eyes cast discreetly toward the ground so that any chance light does not reflect from them.
Alright, let's get into the details:
Sloppy worldbuilding
I'm never really convinced of the civil war aspect. Everyone's waging old-timey war with skirmishes between soldiers... meanwhile Sara can show Watson the footage from drones... and if you lose an arm you can get a metal replacement that picks up your brain waves and can detach whenever you want. It doesn't feel like a war is going on at all, and certainly not a modern one. It's unclear exactly how the civil war started, as politics in this book are reduced to "she's the good leftist one" and "he's the bad white centrist one" and so on. What do voters in this world actually care about, other than race? And even then, why is the racism in this book only the blatant kind, where Watson would narrate things like "angry black woman" and "don't touch my hair" like the author is playing racism bingo. Oh, and the
Spoiler
super soldiersThe mystery is tacked on
There arguably isn't a mystery in this book at all. Holmes is a spy, not a detective. There isn't a clear mystery to solve, just a series of possibly connected events, and "almost" inciting incidents that don't incite much.
Spoiler
We never get a moment where it all comes together and the villain is revealed.Sara Holmes
While Watson feels like a person with goals and fears and flaws, Sara Holmes is none of those things. She's distanced throughout the story. Like Holmes and Watson physically do not spend enough time together. Nor do they accomplish much together. It's often a case of Sara filling Janet in about something. Oh and she's a terrible person. As many other reviewers have pointed out,
Spoiler
she drugs Watson twice, she lies all the time, she calls Watson "my love" all the time despite repeatedly being asked not to, and she kisses Watson without her consentSpoiler
spy tech. Watson says that Holmes has always thought about the next dozen possibilities and accounted for every variation, but she also forgets to account for Watson's needs, and can't even remember to tell Watson to bring her gloves in one scene.How the author thinks black women think
So I mentioned that this book feels like woke bingo. And while I'm not American or black, I am a queer woman of colour and this book really lacked a sense of intersectionality for me. Is the military not homophobic at all? Watson mentions she
Spoiler
left the church when she started questioning her identityAlright, I've given far too much of my time to this review, and to this book. On to better, I hope
qalminator's review against another edition
5.0
Surprisingly good. Surprising, because early on I found it odd that the author had used versions of Watson and Holmes for what is, essentially, a thriller, with an embedded mystery as a minor detail of that thriller. Yet it captures nicely the adversarial relationship between Watson and Holmes, and allows Holmes to react to Holmes' mysterioso arrogance in more realistic fashion than the original ever did.
That said, if you are looking for a mystery plot, you'll be disappointed. The first details that lead to the mystery component don't really show up until the 30% mark or so. Also, if you're overly attached to Holmes and Watson as white, British gentlemen, you probably won't care for an adaptation where they are both black women (at least one lesbian; Holmes only ever performs, so it's unclear what her actual orientation is). As I enjoyed the characters immensely, I had no problem with this (other than some occasional puzzlement at "where's the mystery?"). It's also a believable touch that Watson has PTSD from her time in the military.
Recommended (but read the sample first to see if you like this version of Watson and Holmes)
That said, if you are looking for a mystery plot, you'll be disappointed. The first details that lead to the mystery component don't really show up until the 30% mark or so. Also, if you're overly attached to Holmes and Watson as white, British gentlemen, you probably won't care for an adaptation where they are both black women (at least one lesbian; Holmes only ever performs, so it's unclear what her actual orientation is). As I enjoyed the characters immensely, I had no problem with this (other than some occasional puzzlement at "where's the mystery?"). It's also a believable touch that Watson has PTSD from her time in the military.
Recommended (but read the sample first to see if you like this version of Watson and Holmes)
walwoodr's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book, but a lot of it landed a bit sideways for me. I have nothing to complain about in regards to the writing, however the experience of reading the book is disjointed. Watson often makes decisions that seem as though they could not possibly be internally motivated, but are instead made only to drive the plot forward -- a flaw that could be forgiven in a more peripheral character, but doesn't fly in the narrator. While the backstories and factual details of Holmes and Watson are interesting and their world is richly imagined, the characters never gain dimension, and their relationship never becomes as richly textured as I'd have liked.
The world in which the story takes place is an interesting and realistic modern/dystopian setting, but it's really the only thing this book has going for it.
Another reviewer called out the fact that the author appears to be a white woman, and while that wouldn't turn me off completely on its own, in combination with the flat characters seems doubly problematic.
The world in which the story takes place is an interesting and realistic modern/dystopian setting, but it's really the only thing this book has going for it.
Another reviewer called out the fact that the author appears to be a white woman, and while that wouldn't turn me off completely on its own, in combination with the flat characters seems doubly problematic.
mizpurplest's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, but it definitely doesn't have anything to do with Sherlock Holmes other than the characters' names. Regardless, I enjoyed the characters and the story, and I look forward to reading sequels.
jmbq_reads's review against another edition
3.0
A new twist on the Holmes and Watson partnership, with more attention given to Watson's struggles with PTSD and less on Holmes's deduction abilities, and set in a future America torn by civil war with the New Confederacy. Not perfect, but a fascinating read nonetheless.