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laerun's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Larry McMurtry you got me like no one else
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Rape
Moderate: Torture, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, and Suicide
Minor: War
spreadbookjoy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-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
3.75
If you want to know what happened to the characters after Lonesome Dove, then you will want to read this book. However, don’t expect anything as special as the first book. That isn’t to say that this isn’t a good book, it is just not a great book. The central premise is a man hunt for a violent train robber, leading Captain Call back out on the trail of a killer. Where this book falls down in relation to Lonesome Dove is that I cared less about the characters and it lacked the description of the natural landscape and frontier life that made Lonesome Dove so engaging. I really felt a great sense of the time and place and was thoroughly drawn into the setting, as well as deeply caring about the plight of each of the main characters, whether they were driving cattle to try and reach Montana or searching for criminals or lost wives. In Streets of Laredo, I cared less about the newer characters that were introduced and some just felt as though they were there for awful things to happen to them. A female character who was central to the book behaved in ways that made it confusing to know how to feel about her and so I ended up disliking her and not really caring enough about her to read so much. The bad characters were downright evil and the good characters were not featured enough for me take real interest in them. On top of this, the number of horrific scenes and things that happened felt gratuitous at times and the story did not have enough humour to offset them. Larry McMurtry can write a good story though and I did want to know what happened enough to read the last third of the book quite quickly. I also appreciate the level of depth he puts into his characters and the development of them, though several of them felt less well-drawn than characters in previous books and there were a couple a of instances that I just wondered why they were in the book at all. It was great to read about the remaining characters from Lonesome Dove and wanting to know what happened to them by the end of this book kept me going. However, if this had been the first in the series, however, I probably would not have read a second due to the amount of violent content. I will continue with the series because Lonesome Dove was so good, I really do want to read more about the Hat Creek outfit and I believe the next book is a prequel where we will be treated to the return of many of the characters we loved from that book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, and Rape
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