Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Ink Black Heart

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

41 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

I love the Cormoran Strike series. Rowling (aka, Galbraith) is an accomplished storyteller who can handle multiple characters and a complex storyline. Here she shows a facility with online gaming that, to me as a non-gamer, is mind-boggling. While I really respect her talent, I found the story so complex that I need to go back and reread this to see what I missed. Definitely recommend the entire series starting with The Cuckoo’s Calling.

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romonko'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? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Perhaps it is my age, or perhaps it's my total indifference to social media and all its iterations like Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, instagram, but I truly did not get really into this book like I usually do with this series. The mystery was a good one, and it finally did get really exciting at the end. And that is another of the things that caused me to shake my head - the sheer length of the book! 1,300 odd pages is a lot of book! The writing is superb as well, but I did find some of the dialogues and transcripts of Twitter feeds and internet chats far too graphic for my tastes. I was extremely uncomfortable through about 30% of the book, but the other 70% held me enthralled. There is no doubt that Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) is a very skilled and talented author, and her characterizations are incredible. In this book Corm and Robin's detective agency are run off their feet with business. Then along comes a visitor that Robin meets. A young Gothic woman who has a very strange tale to tell about her on-line cartoon called The Ink Black Heart and the on-line abuse that she is receiving.. Robin is intrigued but knows that they're too busy to take on this case. Then Robin hears that the young woman is killed and her boyfriend was stabbed in the very graveyard on which her story is based. So Corm, Robin and their three contract detectives are on the tail of a particularly odious killer. At much risk to Comoran and Robin and to their business they continue on the quest to find a killer who uses the internet as his/her hunting ground. This is a particularly horrifying book, and probably realistically illustrates the danger of on-line relationships and influences. And it reminds parents that they must be particularly vigilant in monitoring their offspring's on-line footprint. Rowling has shown us in this book what a truly scary world we live in now. Although I did not like the format and the pages and pages of internet-speak, I still enjoyed the story, and I love Comoran and Robin and will eagerly awake the next instalment.

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druknduck's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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proceduralbob's review against another edition

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1.0

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librariangeorgia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I bloody loved this book - it’s another great addition to the series!

There’s a lot more character development for Strike and Robin whilst keeping it in line with what you’d expect for them. Strike keeps his moody persona whilst the story brings in more about his amputation and how he’s struggling. Robin being a partner and it (finally) being accepted by the team - though outsiders will still go for Strike as apposed to her but she does handle it really well.

Being set in 2015, the mentions of Tumblr was a real throwback for me! All the social media and game chats were a great addition in telling the story, though it did take a while for me to get the hang of which order to read them in.

For the killer, I did have an inking who it was. This was purely based on the details they gave in the game chat relating to the kind of person they acted like, how Strike and Robin described them and then matching that up with each of the characters that had been mentioned and how often the appeared in the book.

My only real complaint is how long the book is! It’s extremely detailed, which I liked and was really engrossed in, but at the same time it just felt like it was never going to end! I did actually take my time reading this book though, knowing from the previous 5 just how detailed they can be and I didn’t want to miss any details by skim reading it.

I am extremely excited to see this book adapted for the TV series and I cannot wait for the next book, I just need to know what happens next with Strike and Robin!

* I do not support the author or agree with their views *

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