Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

6 reviews

hannahthomnoble's review against another edition

dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

A good crime thriller overall, but it was let down by some very outdated portrayals of autistic children, including references to parents trying to "cure" their autistic kids (so a major trigger warning for any neurodivergent folks out there!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Ableism

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

2.75

Finished reading: May 4th 2024

"That Ghanaian police officers were constantly looking for a handout from the citizenry wasn't even a secret anymore."

I love a good dose of armchair travel when I'm reading, so it's easy to understand why this thriller series set in Ghana caught my attention. I've been meaning to read The Missing American for a while, and I even added it to my 2024 priorities list to make sure I did... And when I was craving a crime thriller the other day, I decided to give in and finally travel to Ghana to meet main character Emma. I fully expected to love my time with this story, but unfortunately I ended up with mixed thoughts instead. Don't get me wrong, I loved both the premise and the Ghanaian setting. The descriptions of the different locations really made the country come alive for me, and it was without doubt one of the highlights of this book for me. It was interesting to learn more about Ghana as well as dive into some of the issues people have to face while living there... The whole situation with the sakawa scams, the priest and corruption in general was fascinating. BUT. And here is where it mainly went wrong for me: there was SO much going on and there were SO many POVs and storylines, and as a result the story felt both overcrowded and the plot lacked cohesion. The plot switches constantly to yet another POV, and there are way too many storylines with some of them appearing completely random. These constant switches ment that I never really got a feel for the many characters in play, and they mostly felt like cardboard copies to me. Emma is supposed to be the star of the show as the series is named after her, but I felt like we hardly spent time with her and I never got to know her as a result. The little I did see was promising, but her character seemed completely buried under all the other storylines/POVs. I also struggled with the writing and pace, which sometimes felt off for me. That said, the premise was intriguing, as was the murder investigation itself and how everything was woven together in the end. It just took a LONG time and lots of sidetracks to finally get to that point, which was a shame. I might still read the sequel for the Ghanaian setting alone though, which made The Missing American worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Violence, Classism, Death, Rape, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Body horror, Murder, and Sexual content

chailady's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Starts off slow, but definitely improves. This was nearly a dnf due to language in the first few chapters, however, that also improved. The translation page would have been more helpful in the beginning of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Sexism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death, Animal cruelty, and Police brutality

leniece94's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Missing American is a change of pace for me but I really enjoyed it. It did an amazing job of describing all of the characters in their own worlds and slowly pulling those characters together through history and circumstances. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, and Sexual assault

sarah984's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was okay. I liked the descriptions of life in Ghana and the mystery was interesting enough, but most of the characters felt pretty flat and the writing was in an overly clinical style that I didn't really enjoy. I also caught something that looked like an editor's note that didn't get deleted (seemed like a suggestion to alter some dialogue) but that might just be in the kindle edition.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Classism, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Vomit

ogokoo's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

My second read by Quartey, and unfortunately, the writing here is really lacking. Some of the plot was either too convoluted, or underwhelming. I enjoyed some of the main characters and I hope the next Emma Djan book is better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny