Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - La dame de Reykjavik

I read this as an audiobook, there are multiple POVs and multiple timelines, but there were no obvious indications whose POV you were in. The premise was interesting and the twists were unexpected. The ending was dissatisfying for me.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I read this as part of the 52 book challenge as a Nordic Noir. It's an Icelandic police procedural coldcase book, about a woman who is about to retire from the police force.

Exploring the themes of the book it discusses how being a woman in the police can be lonely, but later in the book it starts to nuance that stance by suggesting that maybe this woman was deliberately isolating herself from co-workers, and that maybe if she had just tried harder then she wouldn't have felt so alone in the job.. which feels a bit minimising and gaslighty? But it could be just chalked up to her insecurity and double guessing herself.

It's supposed to be a hard story.. with grit and dark themes. We have to asylum seeking refugees, or are they really secret prostitutes who are overstayers,.. we have people trying to scrape by and make a living, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, pedophilia, and of course, missing girls, sexual assault, murder... etc.
The ending is not exactly guaranteed to be happy.

I think I would have felt a bit better about this all if it had been emotionally resonant, or given me more puzzle solving to indulge in.

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petitemass15's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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ekmoore11's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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clarita's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

The dialogues are not that good

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sajida's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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mosscovereddreams's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.25

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ege's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.0

I really liked the sense of setting and atmosphere throughout the story. I really didn't like the character work. Most of the characters felt stale and flat, and it felt like the author has a list of characteristics for everyone, and just reads over the list before they write each scene. The conflict between different bullet points on the list, and the conflict between bullet points, and the conflict between those characteristics and the plot are never really addressed in any way.

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