Reviews - All the Sinners Bleed

7.15k reviews for:

All the Sinners Bleed

S.A. Cosby

4.28 AVERAGE

evan_price's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

kristinawidda_k's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

glitterwater79's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

Whew chile, this was a good read! This was my second S.A. Cosby read and I remain totally impressed by his work. Between this one and “King of Ashes” this was more up my alley naturally because I lean more to serial killer stories or as Marquis says in the book “some ‘Silence of the Lambs’ type shit” 🤣😩 But I would still give KOA the slight edge between my fave of the two.

The main character, Titus Crown, is given great definition across the life of the book but from the very beginning I was intrigued by him and how his mind worked trying to solve cases. And as this became more of a book where he had to call on expertise as a profiler and such it became more engrossing. It was like watching a new Colombo, Murder She Wrote or any of Agatha Christie’s great sleuths.

I liked the scenes with Titus interacting with the secondary and minor characters, but I did feel there were some that might have been included more to tell us more about him or a play a bigger role in the plot, namely his brother Marquis. We only got to see him a few times and one of those was a key scene and reveal about Titus’s experience in Indiana which was great, but there could have been more so we get the full payoff when things come together in the end. Also the scene with Titus’s mother was so moving but I think too would have been more meaningful if he had more visions of her throughout. Interestingly, both the brother relationships and a bigger role for an exploration of a main Black male protagonist is what KOA gives which makes me wonder how much of writing this book pointed toward those relationships as things Cosby wanted to explore more but in another story.

If I had one complaint it was that the rollout of the serial killer as promises in the book description took longer than I anticipated, such that I was well into the book and the story that ultimately was the serial killer narrative before I realized I was already reading about that person.

Other thoughts:
-yes, Darlene, break up with him sis! Tituswas only giving half measures. A “thin love” we Morrison might say. When she jumped in that car and chuck the deuces I hollered. She said I’m not gonna have Kelly sloppy Indiana seconds. 💅🏿💅🏿💅🏿

-Amazed at how the book synthesized historic and contemporary in such a clear and powerful way. Missing and murdered Black children (I thought of the Atlanta Child Murders) but also movements to address Missing and Murdered Black/Indigenous women now.

- The conversations on the phone with the killer were scary as shit. As were the reveals of the bodies and clues, especially the “parchment paper” and gift in the box 😳.

- now I want some grilled oysters 😩🤣

- The very ending with that petty ass chuckle as he drove away sent meeee. I know that’s right, Titus! He told the pastor that statue would fall one day and it did. He said I may not be Christian but lemme prophecy and execute real quick 🤣

Overall, great book! Looking forward to reading another of his books soon. What would folx sho have read some of his other books say is a great one to read next ? Are there other authors whose work you think is similar and I might also enjoy since I liked this book. All suggestions are appreciated.

syndrie's review against another edition

4.0

Well-written and perfectly paced, All the Sinners Bleed is a murder-mystery that will manage to captivate you, even in the midst of some rather disturbing crimes.

Cosby has done a fantastic job of creating a realistic setting with the town of Charon. He's really captured the, at times very questionable, Southern small town atmosphere and community perfectly. I think that the criminal investigation was also handled really well; the clues were revealed and pieced together in a natural manner and it didn't feel like there were a lot of sudden revelations out of nowhere.

I would've given this one five stars if it weren't for two points that bothered me a bit:

1. There are a lot of characters in this book. It was to the point that I was having trouble keeping all the names straight for a lot of the more background characters. For those that are only mentioned during one scene of the book this is fine, but for those that had multiple small mentions throughout it really would've helped if they somehow could've been characterized a bit more (if not just cutting a few of them out altogether).

2. Although I do think this was well-written, it also felt like some parts of it were a little overwritten in comparison to the majority of the book. It didn't happen a ton, but there were definitely points where suddenly it seemed to switch from standard prose into more literary prose, and then easing back into standard. The literary passages were still nice to read but I did feel a little thrown off a few times because of the jump in style.

But aside from those points, I otherwise found this to be a very engaging story and the only reason it took me four days to finish it was because I was already using all the free time I had to pick it up whenever I could!

readsandsuch's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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: Complicated

There were too many moving parts (and characters) that muddled the story. There was just too much telling and not enough showing that caused it to drag. This also didn’t have as strong of an emotional core as Razorblade Tears did.

Content Warnings

reddragonorion's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark mysterious 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: Complicated

vas_b's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

jtwongwriting's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nikischmidt's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-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: Complicated

A thriller that's actually full of depth; depth of character, of historical truth and of language.

cartogram's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious 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

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