44 reviews for:

Viper's Dream

Jake Lamar

3.7 AVERAGE

ampero's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

phoebeak's review

4.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

idreamofallthebooks's review

4.5

challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

amd2bear's review against another edition

3.75

dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

japxican's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

willa_reads_books's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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sad and emotional but well written. kind of sudden ending but it also makes sense

hjorav12's review

5.0

dark emotional informative 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: Yes

todayitsthis's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tylerdad's review against another edition

5.0

dark informative tense medium-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

booksbybindu's review against another edition

4.0

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‘Viper’s Dream’ is a hard-boiled tale set in Harlem from the 1930s to 1961 and follows the life of one Clude Morton. I loved this book as it fully immersed me into a culture and place and I don't really know too much about. It shows us how history can be twisted, places evolve and how people either cause this evolution or are evolved along with it. Society is as fluid and unpredictable as jazz is and although this book focuses on one man, it's really about how individual strings come together, intertwine and make great music.

It opens in 1961 with Clyde ‘The Viper’ Morton sitting in the legendary Cathouse. He has just committed the murder of the love of his life, Yolanda. He has been given three hours before he is going to be arrested and he is using it to contemplate his life and relationships.

This book is a love letter to Harlem and to jazz. It oozes off the page and I picked the perfect place to be reading this book, New York itself. Harlem and The Bronx have always fascinated me and of course I have a thing for jazz. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear any this time around but I definitely lucked out by reading this book. Spoitify didn't know what hit it as I hopped from artist to artist!

This is a gritty book and evokes the feelings and temperament of the hard-boiled detective books ala Chandler. It was dark and moody. You could picture every scene vividly as the rich descriptions made it feel like you were slipping into a different reality.

Let me know if you pick this one up!