Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

17 reviews

rieviolet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The book is divided into very short chapters, so that the reading experience feels very fast and easy.
Each chapter switches between quite a lot of point of views (to be honest, maybe too many). This certainly helps to keep the narration interesting and varied but, at the same time, it does not allow to explore the characters in depth and it can become a bit confusing to keep track of everyone and every storyline.

I think that the book relies a bit too much on the characters' "quirky" traits and, even though this makes the narration funny enough, it can come across as somehow overdone. 

I'm not really sure about the mystery part of the story, it did make sense
(sort of) but at the same time it felt a bit convoluted, maybe too much twists and turns towards the very end of the story?

All in all, a nice and quick read but I don't think I'll continue with the series. 

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prism_'s review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.25


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imreads's review against another edition

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

2.25

The story was rather slower, and it felt like it was distracted by the c plot from time to time.
 I enjoyed the main cast of characters, Ibrahim and Donna, being one of my favourites. 

My only main criticisms with the book is
too many red herrings and the story seems to drag on longer than necessary, and when the last twist happens, we are jolted to a obvious set up for the next story. Also, the xenophobia, misogyny (and one racist joke between Ibrahim and Ron) was uncomfortable and honestly revolting to get through. Let's just say I was glad Ian died, good riddance. The reoccurring casual xenophobia was disgusting. If the book wasn't at least entertaining, I would've lowered the rating or DNF this book.
 

However, I enjoyed the groups friendship and the unlikely friendships along the way.


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therobinjoyce's review against another edition

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

1.25

 Again, I felt like one of the last people on bookstagram to read this book and after all the hype I’d heard about it, I was expecting amazing things from The Thursday Murder Club. Unfortunately, I think the hype for this novel was very unprecedented and encouraged mainly by the fame of Richard Osman.

The book was initially hard to get into with the ever-shifting POVs and slow pacing but after a while, I could see a pattern emerging and it was a little simpler to follow each different narrator. But even then, the story was very long-winded and dragged on far too long.

Each chapter was rather short, which suited me well, but it would take roughly 10 pages of narration to finally read one sentence of information that was pertinent to the plot.

The characters were an unlikely and unusual bunch and could have been written so well but, alas, they all felt rather vanilla and boring to me and I could not connect with any of them. Donna was the only one I didn’t mind reading about but she had far too little “screen time” to keep me interested in the book.

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lkbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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happylilfaerie's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious

4.5

Absolutely loved everything about this book. The characters were so lovable. I especially loved Bogdan, he's an absolute cinnamon roll and deserves the world.

The parts that dealt with death and grief tugged on your heartstrings, and were perfectly balanced with the lighthearted and comedic bits. The plot was great and there were so many twists, it kept me engaged as I came up with theories and was constantly happily surprised with the reveals and the way the plot progressed.

The worldbuilding was wonderful, Osman painted such a vivid picture of the retirement village and the lives of the residents there, it felt so cozy and lovely.

I have been so frustrated with many (both classic and modern) mystery books that are constantly recommended (coughAgathaChristiecough...) that are filled with racism, sexism and all kinds of bigotry that makes the story un-ejoyable. I DNF'd 3 books in a row before hesitantly starting this one, thinking I should give up on this genre all together - in my opinion it did the bare minimum (no being bigoted is apparently very difficult) but I suppose compared to its colleagues it deserves a small applause. 

The interview with the author at the end of the audio version of the book had the refer to himself as "left wing", he talked about class struggles and how that impacted his writing, that made me like the book a lot more as it meant parts and themes that I liked were a conscious effort and not a coincidence. I like the way he handled it all whilst still ensuring the book stays a fun light read.

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grtwrrn's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0


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