Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Eyre Affair

Honestly, this was a wild and wack ride but I really enjoyed it. I liked the literary elements alongside the funky time/history parts. Keen to see what happens in the next book.

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julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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skudiklier's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-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

4.0

I'm not sure how I felt about this book! It took me a while to get into it and it definitely wasn't my favorite, but it's also a type of book I don't read very often. I thought it was funny and entertaining and I liked a lot of the characters. It really picked up in the second half for me and I read nearly all of that in one day. (A day I was on a plane and too tired to do anything but read, but still.)

The absurdity/satire was done well I think. One thing that felt a little off to me is that it just felt *so* written by a man, if that makes sense? Not in a bad way necessarily--it's not like it was sexist or anything. But the first-person narrator is a woman and I just...couldn't buy it. I'm not one for gender essentialism (I'm literally trans and genderfluid lmao) but I just kept feeling like the voice of the book was a straight man. But it wasn't a big deal or enough to take me out of the book too often.

Anyway! Overall I liked it, if not enthusiastically. If this is the kind of book you're into I'd recommend it, but for anyone like me who isn't sure if they're really interested, I'd say you don't need to try.

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kappafrog's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

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thereadinghammock's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

The story has good bones, the concept really intriguing, but I really feel like this book suffered from "No one told Fforde to trim down the storyline and spread some of the world building and side plots to other books." The world building is layered and intricate, but the motives and character building fell so one dimensional. The logic behind everyone's motives feels so.....flat? Like Hades is evil, for the sake of being evil? As a path to fame and notoriety? It feels so shallow. And I want more from Thursday. Like I feel like as a character, she's just there and things are happening to her?

Like 90% of the stuff with the Crimea felt unnecessary until Jack Shit (I'm sure it's spelled differently, but I only listened to the audio book) and the lasers. But I'm sure there could've been something else to add in to make that make sense. The love story? I love a good romance, but it felt so unnecessary. And the Dodos? Cute, but again, very unnecessary. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Thursday in cahoots with Mr. Rochester, but it took so long to get to the actual plot of this book that I was bored by the time we got there.

Overall, the story was written well, but suffered from too much plot for someone with my taste.

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