Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Black Coffee by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie

3 reviews

trekkifulshay's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation, Xenophobia, and Classism

thequeeraunt's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Not a bad Poirot novel, even if it wasn't authored by Christie herself and instead was adapted from a play she wrote. It reads more like Mystery of the Blue Train than some of the other, more Hastings-forward mysteries, so I enjoyed the pacing a bit better. Describing certain actions characters took out of sight of Poirot or Hastings seemed a little off-brand, but when you consider that the novel is adapted from a play, these would be the things the audience saw and therefore the reader gets a glimpse of them, too. It's just a little unusual.

Possibly because of the fact that it's a more recent adaptation, Black Coffee is a lot less egregious when it comes to the racism, sexism, etc. of the other novels. There's some fairly blatant xenophobia against Italians by the British characters, so there is that.

I wouldn't recommend it as a first Poirot novel, but it's probably worth reading if you're following an Agatha Christie-shaped rabbit hole.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia

exlibrissum's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Xenophobia and Suicidal thoughts