Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Word Is Murder

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

69 reviews

thoughtswerehad's review

4.0

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Surprised by how much I liked this one! Dry British humor isn’t always my thing, but it really worked here. The audiobook’s deadpan narration added to the appeal.

It gave me Benjamin Stevenson vibes, not as cheeky, but still self-aware. It's not breaking the fourt wall, but it's still very aware that this is a book.

For example, I loved the little moment where the narrator reminds us he’s telling the story in first person, so obviously he doesn’t die.

It didn’t take itself too seriously, and I appreciated that.

This doesn't spoil anything about the plot but maybe some people would see this as a spoiler. So I'll add the tag just to be safe but I think it's important info for LGBTQIA+ people & their allies.

What did made me pause, though is that Hawthorne is homophobic. The book does acknowledge it, he’s not let completely off the hook, but it’s not really confronted either. There's also zero growth on that front. That left me uneasy. I don’t need every book to solve everything, but I do want real engagement when characters hold harmful views, and this one stayed a bit too surface-level and was very aware of it. It didn't feel like the author felt that he needed to address these problematic views and it begs the question: are these the author's views or does he just wants to be a bit controversial (which is a problem in and out of itself.

I’d definitely read more by Horowitz—unless this becomes a pattern.

Content Warnings

linda48's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ilkjen's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A bit of a roller coaster, this one. I quite enjoyed the beginning. Then got disappointed when I thought I had figured out the secret. Which I was 100% wrong about, and the book even makes fun of the narrator for coming to that same conclusion. But after a few more twists I found I was a little underwhelmed with the big reveal. It makes sense, that’s not the problem. It just felt like “Oh. Ok then.” Instead of “Oh! Holy shit!”

I enjoyed the presentation of this. Anthony writing himself as the Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes. In the first person no less, including facts from
His real life to add a layer of believability. So regardless of the ending, I am looking forward to reading more installments in the series.

Content Warnings

rain02's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious 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: Yes

The plot and concept were interesting. I haven’t read any of his other works, so I didn’t particularly enjoy the meta aspect of it. I also got the sense that he is somewhat homophobic (but is in denial)

Content Warnings

keywii's review against another edition

3.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoy Horowitz writing a lot, that said, there always seems to be something that bothers me with his books. With the Susan Ryeland series I enjoyed the cases but didn't like the main characters. With this one I enjoyed the characters but didn't like the case, not that I had the faintest clue who the murderer was going to be, but I didn't find it very interesting. And so I guess I'll keep reading on his books, enjoying it while something or other will keep nagging me, until one day I might find the perfect one that has it both.

Content Warnings

caitlyn_bbivens's review

2.5

Content Warnings

sagea's review against another edition

3.0

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is the first in a year that I started AND finished. However, I think another murder mystery could have played the same role and likely been more satisfying.

Obviously this was sufficiently compelling for me to finish reading it in a day. The setup and a lot of the twists were intriguing. The final reveals, though, were lacking to me.

We also never got even a bit of explanation or proper deconstruction of the weird homophobic ravings of the main detective character, which is slightly alarming. Why shoehorn that in and have your self-insert character comment on it if nothing useful will be done with it?

Content Warnings