Reviews with content warning for Violence - Just One Damned Thing After Another

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

35 reviews

mdpenguin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I had pretty much expected this to be a bit of a knockoff of Connie Willis' Oxford Time Travel series. It does have a couple of the more clever conceits from it, but Taylor definitely deserves credit for making it into its own thing. That said, a lot about it fell flat for me.

The overall story was good and there was some good adventure, but the characters were so poorly drawn and the in-story pacing wasn't clear. I'm not entirely sure how long of a period of time is covered in this book: the writing makes it feel like a year but certain lines in it suggest four or five or more. The characters, similarly, weren't clear. They'd get described as having such and such personality traits and then we'd never really see it. Mostly they were all pretty flat and sometimes they just didn't seem coherent. Sadly, that includes the protagonist and her love interest: the romance wasn't at all believable to me and even if it was, I just couldn't care because the characters were just plot devices. I'd shrug and say that it was just more plot-driven than I normally like but we're put in positions where we really are supposed to care about the characters and I just never felt it.

Overall, it's better than fair in as far as it's an entertaining novel playing with some entertaining ideas. If it didn't strive to be any more than that and maybe ended a little earlier in the story or let people be friends instead of lovers then I'd probably have a higher regard for it.

Content Warnings

ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous 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

0.5

Finished it out of spite because i have been DNFing quite frequently. Its all spoilers and rants I will not be tagging, proceed at own risk.

1. Fucking hate first person narratives that try to write purple prose. People do not have thoughts the way Taylor thinks her narrator does. Max also seems very smug and pleased with herself and her humor, its kinda icky. Especially when she rags on other characters hubris.

2. Characters are completely underdeveloped and replaceable. The entire book could have been written with a cast of 10 and instead it had 30. After awhile I stopped consulting the cast section at the beginning of the book because I realized not only did I not care but it truly did not matter which character did what because it was all just about moving the plot forward and centering Max at all times. Literally no other plot point was every made with another character, every single thing was directly tied to her. So obnoxious only seeing the story from one persons - very limited - point of view. She didn't even have an empathy or wondered about others experiences. Just all about her in her head and how the whole of St Marys revolves around her constantly. Main Character Syndrome and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible.

3. Completely out of character development. And not in a "he wouldnt say that" way but in a truly is this person secretly multiple personalities way. Chief barging into Max's room and accusing her of adultery? And then fine two pages later? Absolutely makes no sense narrative and makes their relationship seem weak and unstable (while Max clearly thinks they are soul mates)

4. Jodi Taylor claiming historical accuracy can eat my entire ass. I dont even like history and i know more about the time periods that some of this book took place in.

5. The sex scenes??? Literal wtf moment. Aggressive, harsh, fast, out of place, crass. This wasn't smut it wasn't erotica it wasnt even porn. Crashing the bosses car and then having sex on the hood so aggressively that people notice when they get back? To quote "if this had been one of those books there would have been 3 pages of head banging sex" -- this right after Max and Chief fall asleep after being almost killed. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN. Literally gibberish.

6. Speaking of sex, Sussmans bizarre sexual assault scene and then never mentioned again. What was the narrative point of having Sussman stick his dick in Max face? To prove she can beat someone else? Already done many times by her inflating her own fighting skills. To reinforce how bad he is? Taylor is just using nonsensical, out of left field sexual assault to make a character as bad. Do better. This is Outlander levels of "plot is stale so lets add some rape to move it along."

7. She lost a baby? She was pregnant? She had a cold and went to the clinic? Literal word salad. I was laughing on the bus because I thought I was having a stroke trying to understand what the fuck the author was trying to do with this story.

8. Casual, constant alcoholism, but clearly Jodi Taylor has never had a sip in her entire life. Max would go from black out drunk to writing a 100 page proposal in the same night. She also clearly was written to have an alcohol dependency but literally no one brought it up. This did not age well and Taylors lack of even basic understanding of this instantly pulled me from the story

In short, what an obnoxious, self-important I-am-so-quirky story. Probably the worst book I read all year and I've read a lot of shitty ones. So. Fucking. Weird.

Content Warnings

ariel_bloomer's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I wound up loving this book. It was a fast paced adventure… perhaps too quickly paced towards the end where so many things are happening and A HA! Moments are coming amid so much other action at the end that I several times had to stop and rewind to catch the important pieces. And almost did the whole last 2 chapters over again. So I wish the whole climax had been a bit easier to follow.

There is nothing subtle about this book. I loved the obvious, almost cheeky, foreshadowing. I found this book through a “readers also liked” section for Garth Nix’s Lefthanded Booksellers book series series, and I think would be a great fit for anyone who loved Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.

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chelseareads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Some persistent sexist interaction and aggressive flirtation.

Content Warnings

ohyeah_karyn's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

elsjefiederelsje's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

amachattie's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This felt like a fun romp and definitely appealed to me as someone broadly and sometimes professionally interested in history. I could see the tone (very British, very dry and glib) not working for everyone, but it felt mostly fun to me. I did not love the quantity of sexual assault and also that the author threw in a miscarriage as an important source of conflict.

Content Warnings