Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

178 reviews

erisperitas's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

adaora_ble's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

bluesky5283's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

maryellen's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

jcbradford1990's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

cassie7e's review against another edition

4.75

emotional funny reflective sad 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

Emotionally taut and fraught with detached idealization. This book complicates literary sci fi* with a confused sense of identity, as our MC is mixed race and mixed in personal loyalties. I found our MC insufferable and romantically self-absorbed, meanwhile falling in love with every character she did as viewed through her experiences: Graham, Maggie, and Arthur. I grinned at Maggie's vernacular ("malodorous expression"), giggled at Graham's sedate charm, and sighed over Arthur's sweet and earnest disposition (and his reference to Wilfred Owen, so offhand). There's also a tragedy in how every character and plot still serves colonialism and narrowmindedness. I'm not sure any of our characters with agency were blameless or unvictimized, whether they had self serving or ostensibly more noble aims.

The prose is also studded with vivid and unique description that caught in my throat and made the characters and world feel embodied:
"put cold things in their mouths and the cold walked around their stomachs"
"put her thoughts out to dry [on the shrine]"
"holding me in his arms, the way poems hold clauses"

*This novel is literary first, sci fi second, and as such does not place emphasis on the scientific workings or implications but rather on the inner experiences of the main character facing the strange circumstances. I judge it accordingly.

Content Warnings

mbwoconnor's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Time travel and espionage, plus a Victorian gentleman living in present day London. Add romance and trying to figure out who are the bad guys. Plus several diverse characters

Content Warnings

allisonpicksbooks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Prompt 48 - a book that features a married couple who don't live together - March 25, 2025 - I love a good time travel tale and this one is no exception. The story is unique, told from the point of view of a "bridge", a person employed by the government to help time travellers adjust to our timeline. It has intrigue, romance and adventure. I feel like this book is going to stick with me for a long time.

Content Warnings

ky_q_xoxo's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This one really was a mixed bag for me. Started off so strong, lagged hard in the middle, but the ending almost made me cry.

Content Warnings

ettegoom's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A cute little spy/mystery romance.
I probably wouldn't have read it if I'd realised how much the second half focused on the romance.
I liked the concept behind the time machine and the ex-pats were lovely characters. The testing of the ex-pats was hilariously believable and i liked that there were several queer characters. The big reveal was... interesting, I'm not sure if i believed it though. I liked that the ending wasn't definitive, and left some hope that the main character wasn't just a patsy.
I was deeply disappointed by the photograph at the end. Gore looked NOTHING like what I'd imagined.

Content Warnings

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