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katjacatbeans's review against another edition
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 handlesPoppy & 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 ofbaby 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 ofopening 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.
One thing I really really love is how well the story handles
One thing I was disappointed by is the relative lack of
Lastly, I was pretty taken aback by the epilogue's revelation re: Ashwin's dream of
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder
Moderate: Trafficking and Infertility
Minor: Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Abortion
fromjuliereads's review
I skim read massive chunks of this to see if it was worth it to keep going. But for me, it just isn't. I literally only care about the elephant at this point and he's constantly forgotten in the story.
It's all about how this Inspector cannot let things go, keeps working on a case even though he is retired - which couldn't that be illegal? And there are huge boring sections about retirement, backstory, elephant info, and infertility. So much discussion of how they wished they could have kids and couldn't. But don't worry - a cousin has a daughter who got pregnant. You can immediately tell where that's going - they are going to take the baby and raise it I guess.
Sure there is a murder with a mystery element to it. But I just didn't care. There was no connection to any of the characters, little character development in terms of showing the reader who the characters are. Just not for me.
It's all about how this Inspector cannot let things go, keeps working on a case even though he is retired - which couldn't that be illegal? And there are huge boring sections about retirement, backstory, elephant info, and infertility. So much discussion of how they wished they could have kids and couldn't. But don't worry - a cousin has a daughter who got pregnant. You can immediately tell where that's going - they are going to take the baby and raise it I guess.
Sure there is a murder with a mystery element to it. But I just didn't care. There was no connection to any of the characters, little character development in terms of showing the reader who the characters are. Just not for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Infertility, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy
Animal neglect
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