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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
this was kind of entertaining but the pacing is off and the characterization is pretty boring and surface level.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'd seen the series on BBC years ago. Then a colleague told me it was actually originally a book series. I was so excited to find that out! The book was as good as the TV series. Fast paced, lots of action, equally represented points of view between the hero and villain, a villain I want to root for but can't because she has no conscience and there's nothing redeeming about her despite her sad origins, and a hero I want to like but can't because she's got a conscience and is still awful.
Pretty good cat-and-mouse. Hard for me to imagine the characters as other than Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. That's both a drawback and an aid to me. I want to imagine these characters in my own knitting, but Oh and Comer were so good on the screen that I can only see these characters through their performances.
Pretty good cat-and-mouse. Hard for me to imagine the characters as other than Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. That's both a drawback and an aid to me. I want to imagine these characters in my own knitting, but Oh and Comer were so good on the screen that I can only see these characters through their performances.
I enjoyed the pacing and the length of this book. The characters are enticing enough. I find the book too expositional, and at times it's like the author thinks we won't remember details from previous chapters. However, it was a quick and thrilling read, and I would be happy to read the rest of the series.
It's well written, but I am really done with this books of spies and murders and making the perfect assassin. It's not even an original plot. Meh.
It's so masculine; even if the main character is a woman, it makes me bored to death.
It's so masculine; even if the main character is a woman, it makes me bored to death.
Contrary to popular belief, this precedes Phoebe Waller-Bridge's TV masterpiece, Killing Eve?! I thought she wrote that show from scratch. In both the show and the book, I love Villanelle, don't really get what the point of anything is.
I probably would have rated this higher if I wasn't disappointed that this is completely different vibes from Killing Eve.
As a huge fan of the show I now realize how well the creators of Killing Eve adapted it. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of things that the book brings to the table that the show doesn't. We get a bit more Villanelle lore (though her backstory seems to be pretty different) and some of the mystique of a spy novel that is put on the back burner in the show (code-cracking, more of Villanelle's daily tasks as an assassin etc).
Honestly though, I think the main trouble is the fact that this is a novel about two women being obsessed with each other and it's written by a man. A lot of Villanelle's sexuality and even Eve's feelings around her marriage to Niko feel like they are disingenuous or laced with a bit of misogyny.
The characters are also less dynamic and harder to relate to. Book Villanelle is cold and bored the same as screen villanelle without the levity and depth of emotion that make her messy and relatable. She doesn't have that color and charisma that is portrayed in the show. Just the brutality with an occasional vulnerable moment that hasn't really led anywhere quite yet.
It is a short book, so i'm tempted to see if the plot and character dynamics get more interesting in the rest of the series. But I'm not sure if I would recommend this one to the average Killing Eve fan because It's just a very different thing entirely.
It's just unfortunately one of those moments where I can say I liked the screen adaptation better than the book.
As a huge fan of the show I now realize how well the creators of Killing Eve adapted it. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of things that the book brings to the table that the show doesn't. We get a bit more Villanelle lore (though her backstory seems to be pretty different) and some of the mystique of a spy novel that is put on the back burner in the show (code-cracking, more of Villanelle's daily tasks as an assassin etc).
Honestly though, I think the main trouble is the fact that this is a novel about two women being obsessed with each other and it's written by a man. A lot of Villanelle's sexuality and even Eve's feelings around her marriage to Niko feel like they are disingenuous or laced with a bit of misogyny.
The characters are also less dynamic and harder to relate to. Book Villanelle is cold and bored the same as screen villanelle without the levity and depth of emotion that make her messy and relatable. She doesn't have that color and charisma that is portrayed in the show. Just the brutality with an occasional vulnerable moment that hasn't really led anywhere quite yet.
It is a short book, so i'm tempted to see if the plot and character dynamics get more interesting in the rest of the series. But I'm not sure if I would recommend this one to the average Killing Eve fan because It's just a very different thing entirely.
It's just unfortunately one of those moments where I can say I liked the screen adaptation better than the book.
I was thrilled to begin this series after watching the tv show, but was disappointed by how little interaction there was between the two main characters. Part of the beauty of the story is the tension between them and I didn’t get that yet. Maybe in the next book!