Reviews

The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei

_amaca's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

lizranan's review

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challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

beda dari second sister, the borrowed bisa dibilang kumpulan cerpen. satu bab satu cerita. tapi ada sekitar empat bab yang saling berkaitan jadi aku sarankan untuk nyatet nama-nama tokoh sejak awal šŸ˜‚

genrenya masih sama mystery crime, tapi yang bikin beda dari buku misteri biasanya adalah tokoh yang jadi pelaku. kebanyakan buku misteri itu pelakunya warga sipil yang bukan aparat. tapi di buku ini Chan Ho Kei menunjukkan kalau bobroknya kepolisian juga dialami di sana. slogannya sih melindungi masyarakat. tapi slogan itu berlaku dinomer sekian. nomer satu tetep melindungi jabatan masing-masing. bahkan untuk karakter utama yang sejak awal digambarkan sebagai polisi yang jenius dan nggak pernah gagal memecahkan kasus, ternyata juga punya kesalahan fatal di masa lalu.

kalau plot twist, aku rasa plot twist 6 cerita the borrowed ini lebih gila dari second sister. ditambah karakter utamanya polisi yang super jenius selalu punya teori-teori yang susah ditebak pembaca. aku sampe bingung yang jenius ini sebenernya si inspektor kwan atau chan ho kei? šŸ˜­ enam cerita dan nggak ada satupun plot twist yang sepele. bener-bener bikin kagum, speechless dan tiap akhir bab bertanya-tanya, kok bisa kepikiran ide kayak gini???? 

whatnovireads's review

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5.0

Superintenden Kwan Chun dok adalah polisi yang selalu mengedepankan kepentingan rakyat di atas segalanya. Ia bahkan berani sedikit berbelok dari aturan di kepolisian demi menerapkan keadilan di atas kejahatan yang sedang ditelitinya. Ia disebut si "mata surga" oleh rekan-rekan polisi sebab cara dan ketepatannya menemukan pelaku sangat luar biasa. Ia bisa mengenali pelaku hanya dari suara dan cara berjalannya. Muridnya yang menjadi juniornya di kepolisian mempelajari semua hal yang dilakukan Kwan Chun dok

Alur cerita di novel ini adalah alur mundur. Kemudian di bab 3 dan bab 4 pada kasus kakak beradik Shek Boon tim dan Shek Boon sing aku jadi berpikir sepertinya kalau dibaca dari bab paling belakang sehingga alurnya maju, boleh juga. Tapi saat aku tiba di halaman terakhir novel ini, aku mengurungkan niat. Bisa saja kalau mau dibaca dari belakang, tapi juaranya penulis dalam menyusun novel ini menjadi "biasa saja". Tetaplah baca dari awal bab, dan temukan bom yang akan meledak di kepalamu. Kau akan sangat terkejut, sobat

selm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

i finally managed to write the review after.. like 30ish minutes?? soalnya anaknya masih shock dan speechless tadi (the anak is me).

hmm jadi buku ini sebenarnya bukan wishlist teratas tapi kebetulan masuk disc 70% so why donā€™t we give it a try kan abis itu gw yang dikerjain sama bukunya.

selama baca, (mencoba) untuk tidak berekspektasi meskipun susah (dan selalu kegocek oleh plot twist) tapi hasil analisis deduksinya detektif kwan beneran cerdas dan cermat sekali (lomba kali??).

ada 6 kasus kan, semuanya tuh di Hongkong. nah ternyata itu juga alasan kenapa judulnya The Borrowed ya karena julukannya adalah itu. terus alurnya mundur dari 2013 sampai 1967 yang mana judulnya juga ada tuh 13.67 yang menandakan hal tersebut (sepele tapi i just found it pas mau taro lagi bukunya di rak, feel dumbfounded).

kasus-kasusnya gimana? kayak cerita detektif misteri aja kok. bedanya apa? bedanya adalah karena mundur dan kita baca urut dari halaman 1 dst itulah kadang ada ketemu tokoh YANG pernah dimention di kasus sebelumnya hehe jadi kayak mengulik masa lalu versi mecahin teka-teki.

bedanya lagi (yang juga jadi bagian yang menariknya) itu adalah sejarah /pasti/ selalu berulang. itu yang aku tangkep mau ditonjolin sama penulisnya (you will find what i mean kalo udah baca). selain itu, sepemahamanku setelah baca catatan pengarang (which is really RARE for me to read that part) adalah cerita detektif ini tuh bukan ranah detektif klasik yang cuma fokus di kasus, tapi ini masuk ke ranah sosial. nah, makanya kenapa ada 6 cerita yang berbeda-beda tahun itu menunjukkan tahun-tahun penting di Hongkong. penulis mau coba ngasih liat the bigger picture in this situation (dari POV kasus yang dipecahkan oleh kepolisian) yang mana erat kaitannya sama kehidupan sosial, era perkembangan, jadi tampaklah keliatan keadaan yang sesungguhnya dari realitas sosial.

i never read any kind of stories like that, so if you havenā€™t either (perhaps) you can give this book a try (because why not? šŸ˜)

meownikkk's review

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5.0

PLIS, BAGUS BANGET.

Ada 6 bagian cerita, tiap bagian nggak henti bikin aku amaze sama storyline-nya, sama karakter dan pemikirannya. Haduh. Apalagi cerita di bagian akhir, yang ternyata sambung menyambung menjadi satu dengan satu bagian lain :) bener, sih, klaim yang ada di blurb kalau buku ini menunjukkan sejarah pasti berulang.

Pemecahan kasusnya top banget!

dustycabbage's review

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4.0

A fun read, I would give the book a 3.8 star rating. Interesting chronological order, I often found myself skimming the beginning of every case but then fully getting into it later on in each section. I personally could not get into the flow of the overall book, but the opening story did grab my attention. My favorite cases probably were the Candy Ton and criminal brother cases, overall a general good recommendation for those who like Asian crime novels.

vvanillapopcorn's review

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

5.0

SERUU

katenetz's review

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

5.0

This book was so dang good. It was fun to re-visit lots of locations in Hong Kong and interesting to learn about important points in HK history, but the mysteries were just. so. good. The twists kept coming and didn't stop. After the first couple stories I thought I had the hang of Chan's mysteries (like Christie it's always the person you least suspect), but the final story left me completely freaking out. An absolutely genius mystery. 

carosweet's review

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

annhorchata's review

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5.0

TL;DR: Go read this book, now. Itā€™s a masterpiece of a crime novel.

When reading this book, i often found myself pausing midway through a sentence just to go on Google and search for the images of the Hong Kong locations mentioned in the story. This is a hard-boiled, straightforward crime novel that explored the dark side of Hong Kong throughout the most significant moments in its contemporary history. The Borrowed did not only paint a realistic picture of Hong Kong society and police force but also represented the complex and tumultous changes that affect each and every Hong Kong citizens. This was achieved extremely successfully through the angle of crime and politia to reflect how a basic necessity for every citizen - safety - was ensured.

In terms of characters, this is the first time I encountered a book where itā€™s not character development but more like character undevelopment. We started out with Inspector Lok being a seasoned, experienced police detective and in each of the six self-contained stories, we saw Inspector Lok making mistakes, learning from mistakes, picking up things that he hadnā€™t picked up before in his old cases. I felt most satisfied whenever in one of the past stories Lok would make a mistake and I would immediately be reminded of the actions that he took differently in his cases after that. Itā€™s an ā€œah hah!ā€ moment but Chan Ho-kei weaved them in the story so well you really donā€™t feel like they were just stories told backwards.

Detective Kwan Chun-dok isā€¦ interesting. If this book is an accurate depiction of what Hong Kong is like, then Detective Kwan is Hong Kong himself. Self-righteous, but he doesnā€™t shy from using uhh unconventional and lowkey illegal methods to bring the truth to light. His philosophy about his method can be applied to many things in life (not a direct quote): As long as it doesnā€™t harm anyone and itā€™s for an ultimate good, the ends justify the means. I love how even tho heā€™s indeed the Sherlock Holmes of Hong Kong, you really get to see how he became the respectable person he is throughout his career as a police.

In my next reread of this book I shall try reading the stories backwards to see if I can pick up anything new. My last 3 books have been 5 stars material tho this good book streak is amazing