Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Linn ja linn

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Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Linn ja linn by China Miéville

7 reviews

rebecca_harley's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book has a really interesting premise, two cities occupying the same physical space "grosstopically" and how criminal jurisdiction is handled in these places. I've never read anything like it before and while it was confusing at first the worldbuilding was excellent.

The main drawback I would say is that none of the characters were particularly interesting or likeable, except the victim, in my opinion.

I also felt the ending was a little anti-climactic if I'm being honest.

As a bonus I liked the formatting. Each new chapter starts at the top of the next page, no wasted space!

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ixris's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Mieville's police procedural has a spare, dry voice and a small love affair with the letter Z that made my early progress very slow. The twisting bureaucracy can lead only one place, and while the ending is satisfying, I found it ultimately very pat. An extremely imaginative pair of cityscapes, though, and definitely worth what felt like a slog in the beginning.

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sarah984's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought the setting was fascinating, and the way the thought processes of the characters navigating the city are handled was really well done. However the actual mystery wasn't that interesting or surprising, and I felt like the story kind of fell apart once more information about

Breach

was revealed.

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hauban's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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sapphicbookdragon's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.75

This is a somewhat-good book which I deeply disliked. It's about power and control over people in a very bizarre Orwellian way: just call "Breach" a "Big Brother [Is] Watching You." (I started rooting for the unificationists and "breaching" foreigners and locals.) It's well-written, but the main themes are depressing. Without spoiling the ending with specifics, I will say the ending is unsatisfying and frustrating (to me, personally). There's little to no character development, and the protagonist stays in his box. Seeing and "unseeing" are large-scale brainwashing upon the population(s) and any visitors (who must complete "trainings" before being allowed entry to either city-state). I couldn't believe the level of acceptance and adherence to their rules or understand why it all matters, other than to control and isolate people - and, possibly, to get away with murder.

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious

4.0

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I’ve had a daunting tome of a novel by China Miéville sitting on my literal to-be-read shelf for a number of years. The City & the City is not that book, though I read an ebook edition so can’t really comment on its thickness, intimidating or otherwise. Going in, I knew almost nothing about The City & The City or China Miéville, but another bookclub member had praised the introduction for helping elucidate what on earth is actually going on.

China Miéville’s fantasy concept is certainly unique. While there’s little to no actual magic involved to stop it, Beszél and Ul Qoma don’t feel like places that could exist in the real world. At the same time, The City & the City is a relatively straight-forward police procedural, with familiar detective characters and quibbles over jurisdiction.

Even after the introduction making things explicit right off the bat, The City & the City is a dense read. There’s no skipping merrily along, eating up entire chapters at one gulp. There’s a lot going on, multiple characters and factions to follow, strange rules and customs which have no equivalent in the real world. As a murder mystery, it never really feels like the reader is being invited to attempt to solve the crime. Indeed, it would be difficult for anyone not a native of Beszél or Ul Qoma to do so.

The satisfaction of the ending, then, doesn’t come from the revelation of the murderer. Instead, watching Taylor Borlú walk into a whole new life is bittersweet, but hopeful. China Miéville conveys the sense that this world will continue to live and breathe and grow, even after the reader has closed the book.

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