Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

10 reviews

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.75

This has such great characters and vibes that it carries it through a lackluster mystery. I love Louise and her friends and journey, and the rich painting the author set. I do wish structurally the second half had gotten another editing pass. It started to feel like things were just happening without adding more to the mystery or raising the stakes.

I really don't think Celia had to die. Louise was already desperate to stop him and on to him, and didn't need extra motivation and her ouiji plan was so odd. I feel like we set up some mystery around Celia's boy and Josie's disappearances and her original kidnapping that we were going to play into but didn't. I think kidnapping one or both of the twins would have been better to up the stakes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Racism, Stalking, Murder, Violence, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny, Gun violence, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent

heather667's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Sexism, Trafficking, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Body horror, Death, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Torture and Rape

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, Cultural appropriation, and Adult/minor relationship

zoepagereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had high hopes for this going in, how could I not when it’s a historical fiction mystery set New York during the Harlem Renaissance? But unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. I did not fully under any of the characters and felt that all of them had only been written at the surface of their stories. I still don’t really understand the motive for murder and still think it should have been someone else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Minor: Body horror

gothnailcare's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-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

2.0

I so wanted to like this book. The characters were lovable and I admired the author's dedication to describing clothes and social spaces, but the book's pacing and the shifts in narrative style worked against the story, page after page. I am not the kind of mystery reader who makes demands of the author with regards to who knows what & when they're given the agency to figure it out. Is the reader given information to determine who the killer is before the detective? Or does the detective know something the reader doesn't? Whatever the answer, I am usually happy to be along for the ride and observing at any distance as long as the narrative plays these cards well, but I can't say I felt this book succeeded.

Additionally, there were a number of loose ends I assumed would be tied up at the end of the book, but explanations for these never materialized. I have to assume that some of this is done for the purpose of setting up the next book. But if I'm not sure whether a book is setting up a second novel or whether it's littered with red herrings, well...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Alcohol, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, and Hate crime

Minor: Classism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual harassment, Stalking, and War

venetiana's review

challenging mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

Great atmosphere and setup, loved the characters. Unfortunately very slow, and somewhat repetitive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Racism, Alcohol, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs and Hate crime

Minor: Religious bigotry, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual violence, and Stalking

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

I tried to eke it out because I hate DNF'ing things, but if it's still this difficult to trudge through very short chapters over halfway through it's probably just going to get worse. I hate to say anything that implies debut = poor quality, because that's just not true in so many cases (and subjective anyway), but unfortunately it does apply here, at least for me.

The writing is painfully dull -- very choppy and simplistic, walls of stilted dialogue with no differentiating character voices, all telling and no showing, so much repetition and so many epithets -- and the plot isn't interesting enough to make up for it. A sense of suspense is almost nonexistent; any foreshadowing is too frequent and heavyhanded to be effective. I do feel some level of intrigue, but mostly just to confirm my suspicions, and it's not enough to get me to power through to see. Subplots are present in abundance and go unresolved and unacknowledged for chapters at a time, with awkward pacing and scene/chapter transitions.

All that alone makes anything hard to invest in, but I also can't get a sense of really any of the characters: Everything about them is told and not shown, and none of them really stand out. There are a lot of side characters, and I had trouble remembering who some of them were. Even the setting falls flat -- without some slang and a few technology notes, it would be indistinguishable from the present day, which is really disappointing because 1920s Harlem has so much to work with... and it just is not there.

Dead Dead Girls has so much potential, but sadly it's not followed up on as it could be. Maybe I'll be able to return to it in a more patient mood, but for now it's a hard pass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Murder, Racism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Pedophilia

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Child abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Domestic abuse

Smoking, including underage. Descriptions of dead bodies. Broken arranged marriage between a 16- and 22-year-old, no actual romance (at least at this point); references to sexual dynamics between teenage girls and adult men. Attempted rape/sexual assault shown, others implied -- scene where police discuss assaulting a Black woman in custody.

amandas_bookshelf's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent

allisonwonderlandreads's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Dead Dead Girls is a 1920s historical mystery set on the streets of Harlem. Louise Lloyd earned local fame as a teenager when she freed herself from a kidnapper, rescuing her fellow prisoners in the process. A decade later, she does her best to sink into anonymity. She loves working in a cafe during the day, dancing the night away with her friends, and living in a boarding house where she can maximize time with her girlfriend, Rosa Maria. Louise's existence is thrown into disarray when she is conscripted by the police to help interview friends and family of victims in a recent spree of serial murders targeting Black girls in Harlem. Her role gets deeper and messier as Louise desperately tries to piece together the girls' lives and deaths. Although she gains a sense of purpose in trying to catch a murderer who is targeting girls much like her younger sisters or even herself, she regrets the loss of her carefree evenings as her sleuthing becomes all-consuming.

What I loved best about the story were the characters and the setting. The characters are intriguing and vivacious, Louise chief among them. Her found family is supportive and caring where her biological family has fraying bonds and animosities to contend with. She only retains a largely uncomplicated love for her younger twin sisters. Lou's romance is established, warm, and hopeful, even as the two women must consider how they can build a future together. The settings sparkle with clear detail and a sense of lived-in reality, from clubs to homes, cafes to crime scenes.

My only complaint has to do with the mystery pacing and explanation. I was fully invested for the first portion of the book, maybe even two-thirds of the story. The danger is always lurking, and Lou's twisty investigation turns up more questions than answers. In the latter part, there's a bit of waiting and then an abrupt final showdown. I don't feel like all the clues were rounded up or connected in a narrative to give things a sense of closure. False trails were left dangling rather than showing where they led if not to murder.

I am interested to see where the story goes next and find out how Louise's life adjusts in the aftermath of her second brush with celebrity. I would love to see how the characters continue to grow and peek into history yet again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

akaseofyou's review

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Good debut, looking forward to seeing Louise in more stories :)

Really would like to see more of a personality carved out for Rosa Maria. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Racism

jenkneebee's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexism, and Violence