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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this. Pacing got a bit slow as the novel progressed, but the mystery was engaging, characters interesting, and the historical details served the story (instead of being the point).
This book was set around the "Gangs of New York" time period. I'm not too up on details of that part of history, but apparently New York city was one of the last large cities to get its own police force, because the citizens didn't want the government to take over their lives. Nothing new under the sun, I guess.
We have an engaging main character, Timothy Wilde. He isn't especially interested in being a policeman, but needs a job after the bar he worked in burned down in a fire. His brother, Valentine (who I continually pictured as the main character from the movie "Clockwork Orange") is a mover and shaker in the Democratic Party, and wants to keep the police all in the family, as it were.
There are depictions of racism against the Irish, quite brutal and quite truthful. The author is excellent at evoking the chaotic, dirty, fascinating feel of nineteenth century New York. The mystery revolves around a secret graveyard of children found in a secluded park. Who killed these children and why? Tim, despite his lack of enthusiasm for police work, can't shake these children from his mind and follows the case even after he's told not to. He's the prototype of the "detective", someone who solves crimes instead of preventing them as the police are supposed to do.
The love interest, Mercy Underhill, wasn't too interesting to me because she was so much of an idealized fantasy for Tim. It was more interesting to see how he treated her (not ordering her around but watching to see what she'd do next) than to see what she actually did.
Also, be warned, there's a lot of slang, called "flash", in the book, even with a glossary at the beginning. I really liked this, but it might not be for everybody. For me, it was another glimpse into how the past makes the present, and how early slang has now become part and parcel of everyday language.
Tim's a great character, and so is New York in this book. I look forward to more in the series.
We have an engaging main character, Timothy Wilde. He isn't especially interested in being a policeman, but needs a job after the bar he worked in burned down in a fire. His brother, Valentine (who I continually pictured as the main character from the movie "Clockwork Orange") is a mover and shaker in the Democratic Party, and wants to keep the police all in the family, as it were.
There are depictions of racism against the Irish, quite brutal and quite truthful. The author is excellent at evoking the chaotic, dirty, fascinating feel of nineteenth century New York. The mystery revolves around a secret graveyard of children found in a secluded park. Who killed these children and why? Tim, despite his lack of enthusiasm for police work, can't shake these children from his mind and follows the case even after he's told not to. He's the prototype of the "detective", someone who solves crimes instead of preventing them as the police are supposed to do.
The love interest, Mercy Underhill, wasn't too interesting to me because she was so much of an idealized fantasy for Tim. It was more interesting to see how he treated her (not ordering her around but watching to see what she'd do next) than to see what she actually did.
Also, be warned, there's a lot of slang, called "flash", in the book, even with a glossary at the beginning. I really liked this, but it might not be for everybody. For me, it was another glimpse into how the past makes the present, and how early slang has now become part and parcel of everyday language.
Tim's a great character, and so is New York in this book. I look forward to more in the series.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was quite entertained by this thriller set in 1850s New York City. Someone is killing Irish child prostitutes and a newly-minted “copper star” on the fledgling NYC police force is on the case. But is the killer anti-Irish or anti-Roman Catholic —or both? The Irish immigrants, escaping starvation and destitution brought on by the potato famine, were Catholic, poor and desperate. Many in the Protestant religious majority are vehemently opposed to even allowing them into the country—all of this making for a tumultuous backdrop to the sickening murders.
Tons of period detail including slang. Thoroughly engrossing story.
Tons of period detail including slang. Thoroughly engrossing story.
I started reading this because it's close to the time period for the BBC Series "Copper." The book started out a little slow, but overall I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the mention of the "flash" language that had been adopted from British thieves. Many of the words used in the language have round their way into our every day vocabulary. Overall, great book about an interesting time period in American history.
i'm between 3 and four stars with this book. gods of gotham, about the inception of the new york police department, is well-researched. the author did an amazing job making the book feel like a piece of history. throughout the narrative, a reluctant copper star tries to solve the serial murders of several vagrant children in the city. it's interesting and compelling, with many historical facts woven into the pattern. to be honest, though, it took me a while to get into this book. i never wanted to abandon it, but if i set it down and left it, i forgot i was even reading it. the story hits its stride eventually, but then the ending was a little lackluster. i don't mind the resolution, but the reveal and the motives weren't as thrilling as i had hoped. still, the story is good, the writing strong. worth a read.
I've really enjoyed this book. There's something so human about it that makes each character empathetic when you realize everyone has their own reasons and ways for doing things. I've just finished it, and it has some discussion questions in the back that I'll jump into right away to get me started:
We learn that Timothy finds out more and more about the people he thought he knew as he spends more time with them, but I don't think that makes him an unreliable narrator, I think it just makes him honest; he admits that this is a flaw when everyone around him is so much the opposite, but this ends up making him a great cop. And it's more realistic to realize that we never truly know everything about a person just by how they look one day on the street compared to the next. Over that, it seems that the more he's involved with a person, the more misconception he has, like when they say someone's too close to something emotionally to pay attention to the facts.
I definitely feel like I've learned a bit more about New York by reading this. Not specifically about the city, perhaps, but more about of what happens when there's so much population of different people in one place. It's easy to say now that where we come from, race, religion, financial background, that none of that matters, but the whole point of this book is how that natural difference and general misguidance by the wrong people ruled by fear ultimately led up to something explosive. I feel bad for the doctor in this way too, that he's a man of science, and in turn is forced to work in secret on things that can help everyone, just because it's not something that stems from religion, or their beliefs. The majority's beliefs.
The point that's most interesting to me, is that why the city plays it's media games with mass paranoid about choosing sides, and politics, and religion - making a big deal about some crazed killer, and then in the end to have some random person who kinda casually laughs off, is that it had nothing to do with religion or anything like that. But people just wanted so badly to take whatever they could use, and it divides people so easily, it's insane to watch it play out. To be honest, I had a hard time remembering who was protestant or catholic, or all that, or what even the difference was when it counted, because it seemed so crazy to me, as someone who's never really been religious, that it WOULD matter so much?
The use of 'Flash' was mentioned too, and wondering how it relates to today. I think there's a lot of parallels we can see, to the early stages of detective work, like taking 'statements,' on paper, or calling for a 'hack,' carriage the same way people call for taxis. It's strange to me that they put so much stock on who can speak the "slang," like it's a surefire way to determine a criminal, by how they speak. It reminds me of the stereotyping when it comes to speech, for example, here in Louisiana, there's always the jokes about Southern people sounding uneducated, so I think I'd be a little hurt to be divided into the 'thug' pile because someone from a different area wasn't used to it. But in this case, the people seem to use it as a pride almost, like a thick as thieves thing, that those in a 'league have to stick together, and it's kind of harsh, but it's how it is'. I suppose in the way that today, older people try to learn new words that the younger people have come up with. Language is always changing, especially English, and a lot of it's from a constantly mixing and changing of cultures, so it's not a bad thing to continue progress..
I agree with Tim though, I do feel bad for Thomas. He loves his daughter, but again, I felt that most of everything came back to just not being completely educated with different cultures, so his hate of Catholics, and the Irish, and all those who were different - it's so tiring, but it speaks for itself, and I think that's the message; it makes us appreciate how far we've come. There's always gonna be friction and fear when opinion gets involved, especially with things people aren't familiar with; but it's no where near as bad as it was, so I'm incredibly thankful for that..
It's ironic how those who were against the formation of police were the ones already abusing power, doing something they weren't supposed to, or worried that they'll be stopped for doing things they aren't supposed to (Cough, criminals, cough, politicians, cough). But then again, there's a lot of responsibility in authority, and trust has to be earned by example, so I do feel bad for Timothy in that we know he was always a good person, but other roguish personalities just naturally tend to rub people the wrong way, I guess, when there's a struggle for power.. people in a higher position than others are always getting away with things, and it was sad to watch the others in the back just sit back and take it, so I felt supportive that they just wanted to put in some balance by wanting to stop bad people who do bad things.
Character wise, from the start to finish, Val actually turned out to be my favorite. Maybe it's because I'm also the oldest sibling, so I felt relatable, and thought about some of those similarities when Tim would find out that he'd actually been taking care of him somehow all this time on his own? At first, the pyro thing was a little weird, but then it clicked when Tim expressed how angry he was that Val kept fighting fires and running into burning buildings when their parents died of a fire in the first place; I saw it as a way of fighting fear, or fighting and overcoming the thing that diminished them, and took those things away from him. Everyone else around Tim kept commenting about how much character Val has, even their Police Chief who stated that he was so obviously gonna stay Captain material. But he has this reliable air to him, and seems happy with 'Gentle Jim,' so I hope that goes well for him.
Mercy turned out to be my next favorite, and I think that was from the way we saw her through Tim's eyes. It's always romantic the way he describes her, but there's so much attention being paid to, that you feel like you can see a whole new layer, every time he tells us what shade of color her eyes are today, or how her hair's fallen, or the twitch of her hands, what color fits her most in a situation. It's stunning, and even more shocking when we find out that he's been misreading her all along, too dazed on how much he feels for her to pay attention to how she's feeling unless it has to do with him. He even admits this, that he's guilty for just realizing that he's treated her like a "prize, and not a person." And I love that it's so humanly like him to do that, we all fall into blind spots for people we care about.
The thing about all of these characters is that none of them are truly who they seem like on the surface, and it works for us because of Tim's great perception skills from his time as a bartender, he picks on all their little tells and pieces their actions and words together in a way that lets us know exactly what kind of mask people wear to get through the day, and that's when it becomes the most interesting for me, trying to figure out who these people really are, and why they're letting people think such opposite things of them. I started reading it for a murder mystery, but I quickly became more interested in what'd happen to their interactions when their masks were breaking. The symbolism of that became even stronger when Tim's facial appearance had to literally take one on, almost like his was on the outside.
This book's just so clever, beautifully written, and I could go on all day about it. I feel I've learned a lot more about history than I did before, and it completely dawned on me why we call police "coppers." I only had to mark it down one because it was a little hard to get into the language at first, it took me a couple of tries to get used to it, and I was constantly having to go back and re-read what I'd just read until I just accepted that I wasn't gonna know what every little word meant, and that's alright. It did drag a bit as it went on, but the atmosphere's lovely, and it picked right back up again soon; the sentences are just so delightful to read. I can't wait for the next one!
We learn that Timothy finds out more and more about the people he thought he knew as he spends more time with them, but I don't think that makes him an unreliable narrator, I think it just makes him honest; he admits that this is a flaw when everyone around him is so much the opposite, but this ends up making him a great cop. And it's more realistic to realize that we never truly know everything about a person just by how they look one day on the street compared to the next. Over that, it seems that the more he's involved with a person, the more misconception he has, like when they say someone's too close to something emotionally to pay attention to the facts.
I definitely feel like I've learned a bit more about New York by reading this. Not specifically about the city, perhaps, but more about of what happens when there's so much population of different people in one place. It's easy to say now that where we come from, race, religion, financial background, that none of that matters, but the whole point of this book is how that natural difference and general misguidance by the wrong people ruled by fear ultimately led up to something explosive. I feel bad for the doctor in this way too, that he's a man of science, and in turn is forced to work in secret on things that can help everyone, just because it's not something that stems from religion, or their beliefs. The majority's beliefs.
The point that's most interesting to me, is that why the city plays it's media games with mass paranoid about choosing sides, and politics, and religion - making a big deal about some crazed killer, and then in the end to have some random person who kinda casually laughs off, is that it had nothing to do with religion or anything like that. But people just wanted so badly to take whatever they could use, and it divides people so easily, it's insane to watch it play out. To be honest, I had a hard time remembering who was protestant or catholic, or all that, or what even the difference was when it counted, because it seemed so crazy to me, as someone who's never really been religious, that it WOULD matter so much?
The use of 'Flash' was mentioned too, and wondering how it relates to today. I think there's a lot of parallels we can see, to the early stages of detective work, like taking 'statements,' on paper, or calling for a 'hack,' carriage the same way people call for taxis. It's strange to me that they put so much stock on who can speak the "slang," like it's a surefire way to determine a criminal, by how they speak. It reminds me of the stereotyping when it comes to speech, for example, here in Louisiana, there's always the jokes about Southern people sounding uneducated, so I think I'd be a little hurt to be divided into the 'thug' pile because someone from a different area wasn't used to it. But in this case, the people seem to use it as a pride almost, like a thick as thieves thing, that those in a 'league have to stick together, and it's kind of harsh, but it's how it is'. I suppose in the way that today, older people try to learn new words that the younger people have come up with. Language is always changing, especially English, and a lot of it's from a constantly mixing and changing of cultures, so it's not a bad thing to continue progress..
I agree with Tim though, I do feel bad for Thomas. He loves his daughter, but again, I felt that most of everything came back to just not being completely educated with different cultures, so his hate of Catholics, and the Irish, and all those who were different - it's so tiring, but it speaks for itself, and I think that's the message; it makes us appreciate how far we've come. There's always gonna be friction and fear when opinion gets involved, especially with things people aren't familiar with; but it's no where near as bad as it was, so I'm incredibly thankful for that..
It's ironic how those who were against the formation of police were the ones already abusing power, doing something they weren't supposed to, or worried that they'll be stopped for doing things they aren't supposed to (Cough, criminals, cough, politicians, cough). But then again, there's a lot of responsibility in authority, and trust has to be earned by example, so I do feel bad for Timothy in that we know he was always a good person, but other roguish personalities just naturally tend to rub people the wrong way, I guess, when there's a struggle for power.. people in a higher position than others are always getting away with things, and it was sad to watch the others in the back just sit back and take it, so I felt supportive that they just wanted to put in some balance by wanting to stop bad people who do bad things.
Character wise, from the start to finish, Val actually turned out to be my favorite. Maybe it's because I'm also the oldest sibling, so I felt relatable, and thought about some of those similarities when Tim would find out that he'd actually been taking care of him somehow all this time on his own? At first, the pyro thing was a little weird, but then it clicked when Tim expressed how angry he was that Val kept fighting fires and running into burning buildings when their parents died of a fire in the first place; I saw it as a way of fighting fear, or fighting and overcoming the thing that diminished them, and took those things away from him. Everyone else around Tim kept commenting about how much character Val has, even their Police Chief who stated that he was so obviously gonna stay Captain material. But he has this reliable air to him, and seems happy with 'Gentle Jim,' so I hope that goes well for him.
Mercy turned out to be my next favorite, and I think that was from the way we saw her through Tim's eyes. It's always romantic the way he describes her, but there's so much attention being paid to, that you feel like you can see a whole new layer, every time he tells us what shade of color her eyes are today, or how her hair's fallen, or the twitch of her hands, what color fits her most in a situation. It's stunning, and even more shocking when we find out that he's been misreading her all along, too dazed on how much he feels for her to pay attention to how she's feeling unless it has to do with him. He even admits this, that he's guilty for just realizing that he's treated her like a "prize, and not a person." And I love that it's so humanly like him to do that, we all fall into blind spots for people we care about.
The thing about all of these characters is that none of them are truly who they seem like on the surface, and it works for us because of Tim's great perception skills from his time as a bartender, he picks on all their little tells and pieces their actions and words together in a way that lets us know exactly what kind of mask people wear to get through the day, and that's when it becomes the most interesting for me, trying to figure out who these people really are, and why they're letting people think such opposite things of them. I started reading it for a murder mystery, but I quickly became more interested in what'd happen to their interactions when their masks were breaking. The symbolism of that became even stronger when Tim's facial appearance had to literally take one on, almost like his was on the outside.
This book's just so clever, beautifully written, and I could go on all day about it. I feel I've learned a lot more about history than I did before, and it completely dawned on me why we call police "coppers." I only had to mark it down one because it was a little hard to get into the language at first, it took me a couple of tries to get used to it, and I was constantly having to go back and re-read what I'd just read until I just accepted that I wasn't gonna know what every little word meant, and that's alright. It did drag a bit as it went on, but the atmosphere's lovely, and it picked right back up again soon; the sentences are just so delightful to read. I can't wait for the next one!
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book all the way through, but I wasn't blown away. The book blurbs led me to believe I was tackling something extraordinary. To me, not so much.
The time and the location are fascinating. The beginning of the NYPD, the assimilation of the Irish, the issues related to the tenements all create a rich array of people and situations. However, the characters are so hard to like. And the situations are a little out there.
In addition, I was shocked to learn that I had figured out the culprits fairly early on in the book. And I usually don't try to solve the mysteries myself - I just follow the detective and lit her/him lead the way. So if I figured it out, it's gotta be pretty clumsy.
I may read the next book, but then again, I may not.
The time and the location are fascinating. The beginning of the NYPD, the assimilation of the Irish, the issues related to the tenements all create a rich array of people and situations. However, the characters are so hard to like. And the situations are a little out there.
In addition, I was shocked to learn that I had figured out the culprits fairly early on in the book. And I usually don't try to solve the mysteries myself - I just follow the detective and lit her/him lead the way. So if I figured it out, it's gotta be pretty clumsy.
I may read the next book, but then again, I may not.