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1.5k reviews for:

Broken Homes

Ben Aaronovitch

4.06 AVERAGE


Back again to the world of Peter Grant! Before I get into my issues with the book I will say upfront that I really liked this story overall and I was glad I read it. I feel like it is a good continuation of the story and had some interesting story beats.

The basic story is thus:

A mutilated body is found and who better to investigate than our resident magician constable Peter Grant and the rest in The Folly, which this time includes Lesley. They (of course) suspect The Faceless Man is behind it and are quite reasonably apprehensive about running into him again after barely surviving their last encounter. Their main suspect is Robert Weil and so they go about - carefully - investigating him.

They also have a case about a town planner going under a tube train and another about a stolen grimoire.

And then there is the rumors about something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans, and inhabited by the truly desperate.

AND THEN there is the usual dealings with various water spirits and Zack, the half-human/Half-something from [b:Whispers Under Ground|9970042|Whispers Under Ground (Peter Grant, #3)|Ben Aaronovitch|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341006340s/9970042.jpg|14864236] the last book.

Are you starting to see what some of my problems might be?

The characters themselves are as well written as the last few books. Nightingale is his usual uptight, snobbish self (and a bit of a bad ass); Lesley is about the same, she still has her face masks on and in this one gets some love from Zack of all people; And Peter is still his snarky, joking self.

Nightingale just seems like your average nice Boos/grandpa, who might be a little set in his ways and stodgy. He likes things that are old fashioned and proceeds with caution in all things. He is also smart and realistic, using his brain above all else to solve the mysteries. He can also hold his own (and more) in magical fights. He has a few faults that are just now coming back to bite him. One is the fact that he assumed that magic was dying out in the world and so he never looked very hard to find any. That has resulted in a major influx of "dark" magicians who are maiming and killing all over London.

Peter is probably my favorite character, which is good because he is the main character. I like that he is always quick with a joke or wry observation in the face of some pretty stressful and terrifying stuff. I like that he has serious questions about magic and where all of this power comes from. He is intensely loyal and values his friends and allies. Even the ones who frighten him a bit, like the water spirits, he treats with care and attention. He values being fair no matter what and always looks for a compromise. He goes though a bit of a roller coaster in this book and I'm curious how the events of this book will affect him going forward.

Speaking of events.....Lesley. *sigh* I was spoiled about what was coming by a clueless friend, and while I am interested to see where it goes, it didn't really work for me. Spoiled from here:
Spoiler So, she betrayed our heroes to join up with The Faceless Man and his crew. I don't know, It just seems very bland to me. Also, kind of out of left field. The reasoning in the book is that she has been promised a new face, or at least to have her face repaired by The Faceless Man. I mean I get it, she got horribly scarred and mutilated by magic so anyone who offers to fix it up good as new will be seriously considered. I just have never read her as being so concerned about it. That seems really weird to say since she obviously hates it and anyone would want a fix. It just seems unearned and rings false to me for some reason. Also, she seemed to be *way* more intolerant towards the magical community in this book than in previous novels. Maybe The Faceless Man's influence?
Despite my misgivings, I am interested to see how her story plays out.

As I alluded to at the start, my major issue with this book is just the sheer number of plot threads. The plot just seemed to jump from plotline to plotline at random and I didn't feel they were all brought together well enough at the end. It was just suddenly the end of the book and "Whoops, we have to throw everything together and end it!" or at least that is what it felt like to me. This book felt really disjointed compared to the last three. That was my major problem.

Overall, I liked the book and yet had a few reservations about it. The characters were well characterized but the plot meandered and skipped around on too many lines for me to really enjoy it. I still look forward to starting the fifth book to see how things go!
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whosemuse's review

4.0

I don’t know why I’m not seeing my earlier review for this book. I just re-read it, apparently 5 years after the first read. I am making my way back through the entire series, but this is a pivotal volume. I remember the final twist from the last time through, along with the fallout in subsequent books, and I hoped I would pick up some clues in the re-read, but I have concluded there really are none. So, I will continue on.
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Best one yet.
I am really impressed by the production of these audiobooks. There is great continuity with Kobna Holbrook Smith's narration and voices.
I still get bogged down with the repetition of the magical terms and what they mean. If a reader has got to book 4 then they know what vestigia is etc. I hate it when authors pad stories out like this.
But apart from that I'm enjoying the character developments and look forward to the next book.

Fantastic - my favourite of the Peter Grant books thus far. And what a twist at the end!!! Now the challenge is waiting patiently until the next book is out!

I enjoy this series a lot. The ending of this book was a great stunner. It really gave me a jolt. But I enjoyed all the nuances of the different magics and magical beings living in London quietly (more or less) and the problems Peter and Nightingale (a magic practitioner surviving WWII and the supposed decline of magic) are dealing with. Peter is quite a special person with interesting quirks which occasionally get him into trouble - with everyone.

rouver's review

3.0

Officer Grant once again finds himself trying to unravel the tangled web of the black wizard, The Faceless Man. They find a woman with her face shot off, a housing department bureaucrat who suddenly & strangely commits suicide, and a man who has been cooked from the inside out. On the side, they recover a rare book on magic that had been stolen from the home of a renown German architect who had built what is now a giant concrete monstrosity of low-rent housing.

Aaronovitch's writing wasn't as fabulous as in his prior books...I don't think I would have gushed so much if this had been his first...but it's still good. There are a few portions that are slower-paced, but his writing is tight enough that they don't last long. We get to see a bit more of how powerful Nightingale is & Aaronovitch continues to build his world piece by piece, exposing more details about other magic users around the world. It feels like he's expecting to get a lot of mileage out of this world he's created. Some authors give you details & you can tell they're irrelevant. Aaronovitch is fleshing his world out, and it's fun to discover new details, as if exploring a garden path & turning a corner to find even more wonders ahead. I can't wait to see where he goes story-wise w/ some of the little details he's dropped.

My only complaint is that he uses terms & abbreviations that I have no clue about. I don't know if they're a police thing or a London thing, but every once in a while I have to just skim a word or two & assume my not understanding won't be a big deal. You also have to remember the secondary characters from previous books. He gives small reminders as to who they are, but I guess he expects us to have reasonably good memories. I really need to stop reading these as if they were brainless fluff & pay attention sometimes. :)

His surprise ending has me impatient for the next book. Ignore the comparisons to Harry Potter that they stamp all over the cover & start reading this series!

travelgirlut's review

3.0

I'm kind of rounding up for three stars on this one. I've really been enjoying this series, but it seems to get more and more jumbled as it goes along. New characters are introduced in each book, and they keep coming back in subsequent books. I sometimes find myself a little confused as to who's who, since characters from past books are not really introduced again. You're just expected to remember who they are. And if you haven't recently read the previous books, it can be a bit hard to keep track.

I also found myself surprised when I got to the end of this book, because I never felt like the story got going. There were all these bits and pieces that keep popping up to help them solve the ultimate mystery of the series interspersed between the main story for this book, and it all ends up a bit distracting. Then again, maybe I just read this book in all the wrong state of mind. I won't be giving up on the series, though, because I do enjoy in general how Aaronovitch writes.
adventurous funny 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: Yes

I've loved it, just as every other thing I've read by Aaronovitch so far! only thing I feel like complaining about is the fact that this paperback edition was riddled with typos that basic editing could have avoided. Apart from that, though, this series is great and it keeps getting better and better