Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan

2 reviews

katjacatbeans's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

3.5

This is pretty cute! It's more of a police procedural than I was expecting. Something about the writing & story made me keep thinking of The Coroner's Lunch, and they are definitely not the same. A couple similarities, but I think I just like Coroner's Lunch better and wanted Chopra's story to be the same. 

One thing I really really love is how well the story handles
Poppy & Ashwin's infertility, and the sensitivity taken with showing how each of them mourns the loss of raising children, but each bears that grief and disappointment in a way that places no weight on the other person. That seems unique and really touching to me.
 

One thing I was disappointed by is the relative lack of
baby Ganesh in the action of the story. He doesn't get enough scenting l screen time! The scene with Poppy & Ganesh watching tv and eating banana chips is truly precious, and i thought that would be a jumping off point for more involvement in the story but it never really comes to fruition.
I think I expected it to be more of a buddy-cop scenario and it just isn't. 

Lastly, I was pretty taken aback by the epilogue's revelation re: Ashwin's dream of
opening a cops-only restaurant, where policemen can just be themselves. I'm pretty ACAB so this didn't sit well with me, even though some pains are taken to explain that cops in India are treated differently in public than they are in USA.
It was a jarring surprise, and one that I didn't feel was hinted at, at all, throughout the book - so it feels a little unnecessary. 
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shelbydong's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

More of a 3.5 star. I thought the story line was great, a little slow at first but definitely picked up. I felt like Poppy’s story could have been taken out, it didn’t really do anything for the book. It did make me a little sad the treatment of the animals in the book, as well as just the overall setting of India. The author talks a lot about the poverty of India which I think is good to read, especially not knowing anything about India myself. But it was sad to read the lifestyle that Indians have.
Overall, I will definitely read the second book in this series!
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