Reviews with content warning for Rape - L'età del male

A rollercoaster with a slow, cliffhanger finish. I just found out that this is supposed to be a trilogy so I am excited to see where the story goes. I definitely am glad I did the audio route because I feel if I did the physical version, I may not have been able to keep up. The speed is kind of like a loopy di-loop type of novel - we experience the trials and tribulations of Ajay then veer toward Sunny (who I honestly could have done without but his voice was also essential but my least favorite) Then we do a complete 180 to Sunny's love interest Neda who is a journalist who is way over her head when getting close to Sunny. High paced in the beginning, slow in the middle and picks right back up towards the end. I reccomend this to anyone who is a fan of The Sopranos, heavily character driven, slower paced novels set in diverse places such as India.

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elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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meganwhitis's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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shelby1994's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-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

3.0

Thank you to Riverhead for the review copy - out 3 JAN

“Did my father cut corners on the way? Yes. This is India. The game is rigged, the rules are stacked, you people make the rules in the first place. You already have everything, and you don’t want to share. So sometimes things must be taken.”

Three people survive a horrifying night in Delhi, sending their lives ricocheting out in new, dark trajectories as they struggle to make sense of a city and a country on the verge of everything.

Anju, Neda, and Sunny show us different sides of the nouveau riche in India in the early 2000s. The servant, the journalist, and the reluctant master, all cowards in their own way, and all with blood on their hands.

Not gonna lie, I thought this was going to be more Gatsby, less Godfather, so my expectations were skewed from the start. The three perspectives work chillingly well for the most part, but the thing that kept derailing it for me was Neda. Anju was a coward in order to survive, Sunny a coward in a perverse bid for his father’s love; but Neda was a coward because she was passive. Neda is the clearest audience stand-in, the bystander effect personified, but that doesn’t make her any more appealing to spend ⅓ of this chunky book with.

This is the first in a trilogy though, and the expansive breadth of this installment leaves more than enough room for all of these characters to grow in -presumably- twisted ways.

Read if you:

Have been the only sober person at a coke party.
Are tempted to give up your life and go live in a beach shack
Know how many states and territories are in India (buy a map if you don’t)

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annreadsabook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Money, corruption, deceit, intrigue, family drama—Deepti Kapoor’s upcoming novel set in contemporary India has it all. AGE OF VICE is a real page turner, and don’t be fooled by its length (almost 600 pages)!

We’re introduced to Ajay, a young man uprooted from his rural childhood village to serve in the homes of the wealthy; Sunny, a young heir in a constant struggle with his powerful father; and Neda, a journalist attempting to break into the story of an infamous and violent family. Leading up to and after a deadly accident, these three characters’ lives are entangled across time, socioeconomic status, and space. This novel is a riveting drama that I think literary fiction and crime thriller fans alike can enjoy.

This book is not a light read by any means, and it is full of antiheroes and villains, but there’s something to be said about the deep complexity with which Kapoor crafts each of the main characters. There is evil, there is corruption, but there is also pain and longing.

Anyway, I think this is one book you’ll absolutely want to have on your radar when it comes out January 2023, especially if you’re looking for a The Godfather-esque read.

Thanks so much to Riverhead Books for the gifted copy!

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deedireads's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Age of Vice is a super-readable literary crime novel set in India. While I didn’t love it as much as some others (crime isn’t my genre), I definitely read it quickly and enjoyed it.

For you if: You like gangster movies like The Sopranos or The Godfather (but this time, make the story written by a woman!).

FULL REVIEW:

First, big thanks to Riverhead for sending me an advanced copy of this book — it comes out in January, and the amount of early hype that’s being built around it tells you just how successful they think it’s going to be. I’m inclined to agree with them — Age of Vice is a super-bingeable, decadent, brutal read.

This book is set mostly in Delhi, India in the early 2000s. The story revolves around the Wadias, a powerful gangster family who run pretty much everything. We have three main characters: Ajay, who ends up working for them; Sunny, son of the patriarch; and Neda, a journalist who gets herself very personally involved. There’s a deadly car crash at the beginning, and we flash back and forth to not only learn what happened but also see how it shaped what will come next for these characters.

A couple things to know about this book: First, it’s book one of a planned trilogy, which I didn't know until later, but was very glad to hear after I finished it. Second, this kind of crime novel set in India and written a woman is a rare thing, and the kind of attention this book is getting is an excellent, boundary-pushing thing. We love to see it, and it’s well-deserved.

While I don’t think I fell quite as head over heels for this one as much as some other early reviewers — simply because this kind of antihero crime fiction is not my genre; I don’t really like things like The Sopranos or The Godfather — I did really like it, and I did read it very quickly. To me, the three main characters make the book especially notable; they are beautifully, exceptionally morally gray. Some of them are better people than others, and their degree of goodness changes wonderfully over the course of the novel, but Kapoor has made sure that we always at least nugget of sympathy for all three of them.

I’m eager for more readers to get their hands on this book and to see what they think, and I’m definitely looking forward to book two!

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abbennsky's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Age of Vice is the first in a planned series of books by Deepti Kapoor that explore mafia-controlled corruption in India. Overindulgence, cheating, lying, and emotionally broken characters bring home the need for secrecy and loyalty from employees. Sunny and Neda seemed doomed as a couple from the beginning, and loyal servant Ajay will break your heart.

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