Reviews with content warning for Rape - Malice

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Malice by Keigo Higashino

31 reviews

shanks1130's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

An interesting writing style, very different, very unusual. Nonetheless, a profound emotional story, with phenomenal twists, and a brilliant multi-layered approach that I hadn't read ever before.

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iread2dream's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

4.5

I really enjoyed the twists and turns and was eager to find out the truth. I liked that it was multiple points of view and that all the facts that were thrown at us weren't easy to keep track of, which makes things more fun to read (eg, who said what and who's lying). The beginning felt a bit slow for my taste but it definitely picked up once the investigation picked up.

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stories_of_the_soul27's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I like a story where the line between right and wrong is not blurred. And seeing the title of this book, I was convinced that I was in for a mystery that focused on the malicious and evil nature of the humans. The book did deliver brilliantly on that.
The translation was indeed very good because the writing did keep me hooked. It was easy and there were good choice of words that helped the narrative. It was enjoyable and couldn't put the book down!
I have read my fair share of mysteries and still I was left surprised by this book. I annotate my books so I can pinpoint the precise moments where I was completely fooled by the author and the murderer. The story also explains in detail how Detective Kaga unfurls the mystery and I like method breakdown of arriving at the conclusion. It's a classic mystery story something we don't see much written nowadays. To say more about the plot will be giving too much up. Suffice it to say that this story will definitely allow you to think more about human nature and what it results into and where it begins for everything to fall apart.

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corar's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is pure genius. You’ve heard of a whodunnit, and a howdunnit (Higashino’s ‘Devotion of Suspect X’) this is a whydunnit. The murderer is glaringly obvious and actually revealed within the first 100 pages, but the story is so much more. It’s a fabulously written book of misdirection, with major themes of bullying. Not everything is as clean cut as it may seem.

There are lots of twists, but there is one bit- more misdirection than a twist- that totally got me. I gasped out loud and immediately ran to tell someone the genius of this book. It’s such an incredible thing, but I absolutely was fooled, and that made this read all the more interesting.

I’ve read a lot of crime, and eventually they all start to get boring. You guess the structure, you guess who did it based on stereotypes and build ups and where they are placed in a story. This kept me guessing throughout the whole story. Every time I thought I had something, it was disproved. Keigo Higashino is one of the best crime writers ever. Not even just in Japan, but I believe internationally. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into his other novels. (I loved Suspect X)

Spoilers below!

The final twist is pure and utter genius. Having the cat, such a small detail only mentioned once, be such a huge defining factor of “Hidaka’s” personality is genius beyond belief. It truly worked on me. I was fooled because every reaction to any interaction, good or bad, from Hidaka hinged on the fact that he had killed this cat. Bad guys kill cats, but Hidaka is described as both a good and bad guy depending. How can a good guy kill an animal? Do these people know he does? I never even once suspected that he doesn’t, or wouldn’t. Higashino planted that seed of anger and disgust in me and it grew until it blocked my vision. I’m so amazed at how well it worked, even when I forgot about the cat, I was always thinking of it. Nonoguchi is a great villain, if not a pathetic one. But I suppose the great thing about crime novels is that they’re sad, no one wins. Definitely not in this one anyway. Not even Kaga.

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kaelcozoro's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow! This was so good. I couldn’t put it down. Not quite as clever as Newcomer, but perhaps more engaging. Would recommend to any mystery fan.

Love Detective Kaga, I hope more of the series are translated into English!

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cada's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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readingtheend's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this! Rather than being a whodunnit, it's a story of a police inspector trying to work out a motive for WHY their chief/only suspect would do this murder. While I didn't necessarily find it plausible that a cop would expend this much effort to understand a crime they had already solved, I did find the twists and turns of possible motives and stories to be really interesting. I definitely want to read more by this author!

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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dark tense

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

2.75

I read this for the Popsugar reading challenge, for the prompt "a locked-door mystery." I didn't really care for this at all, so I don't think I'll be reading mysteries again in the future. I liked the style of the dialogue in general, but there was a lot more telling instead of showing. I didn't like how the only women in the book were love interests or parents with no real character traits. In any case, I'm glad to have checked this off my list.

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astereads's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-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

4.0

I’m the stupidest person on earth. Bye.

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