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ncat999's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent, well-done thriller. I loved the backdrop of Africa, the anthropological approach, the damaged heroine, the African sorcery. It was an addictive read, and I plan to read the others.
qu33nofbookz's review against another edition
1.0
No idea how this has such a high rating. It's 3/4's info dump on something that may totally be made up but I don't have then energy after dragging myself through this book to wikipedia it (if I even cared to by the end I was ready to cry if it would smudge the pages of this crap). The "story" such as it was only covered about 1/4 of the book and it was beyond believable for the amount of crap that was being shoveled on you.
All the characters (who were all trying to be a different race then they were) besides the abused 4 year old were flat, racist despicable people with 0 emotion. This book was written in a clinical way there are no emotions what so ever. The characters feel nothing, they don't grow or change in any way and there is no emotion in what they are going through or what is happening around them. You can't connect to any of them and I felt nothing for them. By the end of the book I was wishing for the apocalypse to come and wipe everyone out. It would have been a better ending that way too.
The "thriller" part was non-existent and the "mystery" easy to guess despite the author trying to withhold parts of it by not naming people.
I will not be reading any further books in this series or by this author.
All the characters (who were all trying to be a different race then they were) besides the abused 4 year old were flat, racist despicable people with 0 emotion. This book was written in a clinical way there are no emotions what so ever. The characters feel nothing, they don't grow or change in any way and there is no emotion in what they are going through or what is happening around them. You can't connect to any of them and I felt nothing for them. By the end of the book I was wishing for the apocalypse to come and wipe everyone out. It would have been a better ending that way too.
The "thriller" part was non-existent and the "mystery" easy to guess despite the author trying to withhold parts of it by not naming people.
I will not be reading any further books in this series or by this author.
smblades21's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? No
3.0
stayshiny's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Started out slow and initially I struggled with the different character perspectives, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. Gruber is an excellent writer and really knows how to capture a sense of urgency and fear. The Olo are an invented tribe and he uses a LOT of foreign words, which I also struggled with, but the glossary in the back helped. Really good police procedural mixed with occult thriller.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Death, Pregnancy, Gore, Murder, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
leafdmcg's review against another edition
4.0
If he would just stop flogging his hobby horses, especially his new-agey conviction that science is deeply flawed, it would have had five stars, no problem. The Paz novels are imaginative genre busters in the vein of Dick or Lethem, but they suffer from self-indulgence.
jamesbullinger's review against another edition
4.0
Really fun to swim in the waters of African magic, but there were points where it didn’t keep my attention.
robynryle's review against another edition
5.0
So, this book makes me wonder why some books are the ones everyone is talking about and on the bestseller list, and why some aren't. How did this fall through the cracks? Maybe because it's a mystery? I don't know, but this book was interesting on a whole lot of levels. You've got your weird anthropology, santeria and sorcery, things going on with race and gender, and it's a mystery. The core idea is that sorcery and magic among hunter/gatherer societies is just a different kind of technology which we "civilized" peoples don't quite understand. What a cool idea! Definitely worth a read.
susieq17's review against another edition
5.0
I always wanted to get a Ph.D. In Anthropology. After reading this, I think I’ve earned it.
This is an excellent book! Very well-written, incredibly well researched, a delight to read and so exciting. The concepts are intriguing and I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.
This is an excellent book! Very well-written, incredibly well researched, a delight to read and so exciting. The concepts are intriguing and I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.
csdaley's review against another edition
1.0
My bad streak continues. I even gave it more than my usual 100 pages to decide but the story just never caught my attention. I am starting to wonder if I am just not in the mood to read right now.
ivinklerkomaric's review against another edition
1.0
Knjigu uopće nisam skužila i nije na mene ostavila baš nikakav dojam. Ono što je napisano na poleđini navodi čitatelja da će uživati u krimiću s magijskim elementima, ali na kraju sam je ja doživjela kao tešku, nerazumljivu i nadasve nezanimljivu knjigu.