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lilgriff's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Cursing, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Violence, Rape, Self harm, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Murder, Alcohol, Racism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Medical content, Addiction, and Drug abuse
pickpoppies's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
She’s not like a regular nun, she’s a cool nun.
Sister Holiday is pretty messed up and I like it, she’s got plenty of tattoo and has no problem with stealing her students weed. My kind of nun.
After a fire and a dead student Sister Holiday goes straight (no pun intended for the gay nun) into sleuth mood to find out what happened.
As a mystery there’s not much of a puzzle but I like Sister Holiday and hope the second book gives more of a mystery.
I hate when there's a bunch of religion in stories but this is fine.
CW/TW: Death of a parent, cancer, violence
Sister Holiday is pretty messed up and I like it, she’s got plenty of tattoo and has no problem with stealing her students weed. My kind of nun.
After a fire and a dead student Sister Holiday goes straight (no pun intended for the gay nun) into sleuth mood to find out what happened.
As a mystery there’s not much of a puzzle but I like Sister Holiday and hope the second book gives more of a mystery.
I hate when there's a bunch of religion in stories but this is fine.
CW/TW: Death of a parent, cancer, violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence
yulia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really liked the premise and author's style. There are some really hard hitting emotional parts that I loved.
However it just felt all over the place, especially closer to the end. There were some scenes that just lead nowhere.Like Holiday's ex girlfriend appearing for a chapter out of nowhere and without particular significance to the plot/character development.
I had mixed feeling on the main character, but there were barely any likeable characters in the book so by comparison she wasn't so bad.
I also felt that her attitude to cops was very inconsistent considering her history. Especially her betraying John's secret to the cops without any solid reason
Not a hard read, but if you like any joy in your stories, I would pass on this one.
However it just felt all over the place, especially closer to the end. There were some scenes that just lead nowhere.
I had mixed feeling on the main character, but there were barely any likeable characters in the book so by comparison she wasn't so bad.
Not a hard read, but if you like any joy in your stories, I would pass on this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Violence, Police brutality, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Self harm, and Medical content
itsbilliam's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-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
4.75
okay so the first thing i heard about this was queer nun and i was sold. this book was SO FUN. i loved the feeling of reading a classic detective crime novel with the coupling of queer representation. as someone who grew up in the church and is no longer present in that belief, it was awesome seeing the duality of faith and queer culture. i wish the ending gave me a bit more but the story was worth it and ill definitely be reading the next one!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Violence
owlish1's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Incest and Rape
grunbean's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The first half of this book would’ve been a two and half stars for me. The second half was closer to three and a half stars. But the ending was like reading something that had a deadline, and the author realised it was due the night before.
The idea of a queer nun detective is fresh, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I think the religious trauma and exploration of what it’s like to grow up queer in these communities was interesting. But these didn’t really have much to do with the story of THIS book. A lot of the book didn’t have much to do with the story and mystery. I don’t know whether I’m not smart enough and I didn’t pick up on all the clues, or whether the answer to the mystery was shoe horned in at the end.
I found myself questioning the choices of the characters a lot. Not because they’re bad, but because their choices just didn’t make sense to me in the context.
Given that this is a series I feel like more time was spent on building up this world and characters for the series than on the story. It sort of felt like the author remembered there was a mystery to answer at the very end. It gave me whiplash, but not in the ‘oh my gosh I don’t know how I didn’t see this coming’ way. It was more of like ‘was I meant to see this coming’ way. If that makes sense.
There’s a lot of promise and the writing is beautiful in places. The author definitely has a flair for description. There’s a lot of promise, but it doesn’t deliver here. I will be picking up the next book in the series out of curiosity.
The idea of a queer nun detective is fresh, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I think the religious trauma and exploration of what it’s like to grow up queer in these communities was interesting. But these didn’t really have much to do with the story of THIS book. A lot of the book didn’t have much to do with the story and mystery. I don’t know whether I’m not smart enough and I didn’t pick up on all the clues, or whether the answer to the mystery was shoe horned in at the end.
I found myself questioning the choices of the characters a lot. Not because they’re bad, but because their choices just didn’t make sense to me in the context.
Given that this is a series I feel like more time was spent on building up this world and characters for the series than on the story. It sort of felt like the author remembered there was a mystery to answer at the very end. It gave me whiplash, but not in the ‘oh my gosh I don’t know how I didn’t see this coming’ way. It was more of like ‘was I meant to see this coming’ way. If that makes sense.
There’s a lot of promise and the writing is beautiful in places. The author definitely has a flair for description. There’s a lot of promise, but it doesn’t deliver here. I will be picking up the next book in the series out of curiosity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Rape, and Violence
midnightcxreal's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Addiction, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Death
sidneyreads_'s review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Moderate: Incest, Rape, and Violence
Minor: Addiction and Lesbophobia
sehenry20's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Violence and Murder
iasmy's review against another edition
dark
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I finished this book just to leave this review; otherwise, I would have DNFed it during the first chapter. I wasn’t surprised by how much I hated this book. I guess stereotypically violent nuns who think they aren’t the problem run in the Catholic Church.
The mystery is very cliché, and the characters are one-dimensional. The thought that enrages me throughout the book is the glorification of being in pain and suffering. Her fetish, because I am sure that our protagonist is at least partially into BDSM, is used to justify abusing kids.
Two of the more memorable incidents are making kids practice guitar until their fingers hurt so much that they complained to the principal. Even our masochist mother superior decided she went too far and punished her. The punishment was in fact enjoyed by our protagonist, who lamented that one of the kids who went to the principal was anonymous. I wonder why, since our protagonist is so nice and caring toward disabled kids and not at all ill equipped to dialog with them and out to get them.
Our lovely nun also beats a disabled foster kid to encourage him to tell the truth, and when he, rightfully so, wants to tell on her, she responds that nobody would believe him. I wonder why foster kids can’t get out of the system. Not to talk about the double standard, she was way gentler with the kid who has a family, was actually present during the first incident, and had bigger secrets. I wonder why that is.
The constant mention of pain and suffering as a good thing, backed up by church talk, was infuriating but not surprising, and the author seemed tune-deaf as to the consequences of her words. Our sadomasochistic protagonist should have gone to therapy instead of becoming a nun; she would also have learned to explore that part of her personality in a safe way without taking it on the kids.
What enrages mein the resolution is that even in acknowledging that one person got too far , our protagonist and author fail to recognize that the rhetoric and behavior throughout the book are a symptom that let the “mystery” happen, not an isolated incident or caused only by personal struggles. Even if our protagonist isn’t going to commit any murders in the future, the rhetoric that she is participating in is going to produce more people like that . The system is broken.
The mystery is very cliché, and the characters are one-dimensional. The thought that enrages me throughout the book is the glorification of being in pain and suffering. Her fetish, because I am sure that our protagonist is at least partially into BDSM, is used to justify abusing kids.
Two of the more memorable incidents are making kids practice guitar until their fingers hurt so much that they complained to the principal. Even our masochist mother superior decided she went too far and punished her. The punishment was in fact enjoyed by our protagonist, who lamented that one of the kids who went to the principal was anonymous. I wonder why, since our protagonist is so nice and caring toward disabled kids and not at all ill equipped to dialog with them and out to get them.
Our lovely nun also beats a disabled foster kid to encourage him to tell the truth, and when he, rightfully so, wants to tell on her, she responds that nobody would believe him. I wonder why foster kids can’t get out of the system. Not to talk about the double standard, she was way gentler with the kid who has a family, was actually present during the first incident, and had bigger secrets. I wonder why that is.
The constant mention of pain and suffering as a good thing, backed up by church talk, was infuriating but not surprising, and the author seemed tune-deaf as to the consequences of her words. Our sadomasochistic protagonist should have gone to therapy instead of becoming a nun; she would also have learned to explore that part of her personality in a safe way without taking it on the kids.
What enrages me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Religious bigotry
Minor: Police brutality, Homophobia, and Animal death