Reviews - The Spare Man | The StoryGraph

1.09k reviews for:

The Spare Man

Mary Robinette Kowal

3.76 AVERAGE

jmslib's review

5.0

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

ethayden2's review

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense slow-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

myhomeisalibrary's review against another edition

1.75

mysterious fast-paced

saoki's review

4.0

This book is what the Avenue 5 series should have been. That said, it's still just a good book, not an amazing book and certainly not the author's best.

lastontheboat's review

4.0

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

itsjennie's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I had to really force myself to finish this one. The main character was completely unlikeable from page one. The mystery was a slog- it really felt like the main character was just running around in circles doing nothing but feeling self righteous and telling literally everyone to pet her service dog for the first 80% of the book. All the reveals just happened one after another right at the end, with some coming way out of left field while not really adding anything to the story, like

the kid being actually an abducted child from an unrelated cold case a decade prior

.

I definitely would have DNF'd this at 40% if I wasn't trying to read all the Hugo nominees this year.