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meiyee's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death
tunatanga's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The end spoiled the book for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Rape and Animal death
jbraith's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Violence, and Death
breezer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Excrement
Minor: Genocide
motherelectricity's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Okay, he's done it again? It's really good!
The thing here is, many books get labeled as both: thriller and mystery as if they're fully interchangeable regardless of the book content. This is not a thriller in my mind but a dark, atmospheric murder mystery.
The characters feel very real, it's easy to warm up to them and relationships between them are written very nicely and I cared about them so much (cough especially between two specific characters cough)!
What I didn't like was the info dump in the end. I think his first book suffered from the same problem? I might be wrong here, it's been a while since I've read it. I feel like there are many little details that could've been sprinkled throughout the story itself instead of just throwing them into the final reveal as well. I think this way it'd have more of a gradual build up, that I felt was missing.
There are some things that usually make me doubt my desire to pick up a book (historical fiction that goes waaay back to the past & boat stuff), but! I had zero negative feelings about these while reading this book. And it actually does take you on an adventure!
(i HAVE to say, Arent is a weird ass name lol)
The thing here is, many books get labeled as both: thriller and mystery as if they're fully interchangeable regardless of the book content. This is not a thriller in my mind but a dark, atmospheric murder mystery.
The characters feel very real, it's easy to warm up to them and relationships between them are written very nicely and I cared about them so much (cough especially between two specific characters cough)!
What I didn't like was the info dump in the end. I think his first book suffered from the same problem? I might be wrong here, it's been a while since I've read it. I feel like there are many little details that could've been sprinkled throughout the story itself instead of just throwing them into the final reveal as well. I think this way it'd have more of a gradual build up, that I felt was missing.
There are some things that usually make me doubt my desire to pick up a book (historical fiction that goes waaay back to the past & boat stuff), but! I had zero negative feelings about these while reading this book. And it actually does take you on an adventure!
(i HAVE to say, Arent is a weird ass name lol)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, and Animal death
lilifane's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement
Minor: Animal death
erinjulia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Excrement, and Violence
Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Torture
jersy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
After adoring Turton's previous book I was expecting this to be a favourite of the year. While I liked the mystery at the core of the book, which was really intriguing and provided an unexpected ending, there were some things about this book that just didn't entirely work for me.
The biggest influence on this only earning 3 stars were the characters. Some of them were interesting and I would have liked to spend more time reading about Creesjie and Lia, for example, but what we got from everyone wasn't enough to make them unique or compelling. Arent was fine as a main character, but Sara is your typical too modern woman in historical fiction, which is not only cliché and jarring but I wish there was just more to her.
Speaking of historical, this book does not attempt to be an accurate representation of it's time period, but I think it uses it's set pieces well to tell a fun story. However, it does feel like a lot of other historical adventurous mysteries and was a lot more conventional than Turton's previous book. This will probably make it more accessible to a lot of readers, but for me this meant a lot less original ideas and memorable details.
Something I really enjoyed, on the other hand, was the writing style. It's succinct and has a lot of charm, creating a tone that fit the characters well. There was some repetition, caused by many characters working on the case, having to share new information with everyone, but aside from that there wasn't anything distracting.
This isn't a book I rate 3 stars because it's disappointing, but because it just isn't that special in the ways that matter to me. It's really fun, though, so if you don't expect it to be as mindblowing as The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and just want a mystery novel with an interesting setting, go ahead and pick it up.
The biggest influence on this only earning 3 stars were the characters. Some of them were interesting and I would have liked to spend more time reading about Creesjie and Lia, for example, but what we got from everyone wasn't enough to make them unique or compelling. Arent was fine as a main character, but Sara is your typical too modern woman in historical fiction, which is not only cliché and jarring but I wish there was just more to her.
Speaking of historical, this book does not attempt to be an accurate representation of it's time period, but I think it uses it's set pieces well to tell a fun story. However, it does feel like a lot of other historical adventurous mysteries and was a lot more conventional than Turton's previous book. This will probably make it more accessible to a lot of readers, but for me this meant a lot less original ideas and memorable details.
Something I really enjoyed, on the other hand, was the writing style. It's succinct and has a lot of charm, creating a tone that fit the characters well. There was some repetition, caused by many characters working on the case, having to share new information with everyone, but aside from that there wasn't anything distracting.
This isn't a book I rate 3 stars because it's disappointing, but because it just isn't that special in the ways that matter to me. It's really fun, though, so if you don't expect it to be as mindblowing as The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and just want a mystery novel with an interesting setting, go ahead and pick it up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
kathryn_changedbychrist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Death
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, and Vomit
Minor: Sexual assault
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