Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

181 reviews

toriwatson's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was really excited for this novel’s premise/concept, but it honestly didn’t execute it in a satisfying way for me personally. It had lots of interesting things it was trying to do, but in the end seemed muddled. I didn’t really click with the MC, but I loved the historical expat characters- they redeemed the book for me in many ways. The author seemed to try to justify the MC at the end but it came a little too late for me, especially after the government spy plot stuff. The sci-fi aspects were very hit and miss, interesting but also didn’t make a lot of sense- maybe I just didn’t get it/understand all of it. I honestly wished I liked this book more, I love time travel stories so I am kinda disappointed.

Content Warnings

mayawildgoose's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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: Complicated

Wild ride. I’m still a little confused but I loved it.

Content Warnings

clovetra's review against another edition

4.0

funny lighthearted mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

crazy i’m saying this about a book im giving a 4-star review but. i’m really surprised i didn’t like this more. i am super surprised it wasn’t a knockout for me. i think this won book of 2024 at my local bookstore. so tbf i had insanely high expectations. and most were delivered on!

i’ve gotta say the highlight(s) of this book are the expats. holy shit gore. i love gore. not only is he funny, but he is rugged and, get this, funny. he earns double funny because i love him. he is my pookie. so what he’s like 300 years older than me????? and margaret. oh my god pookie pie. someone bring this baddie to 2025 PLEASE

LET ME LEZ OUT WITH HER!!!!!

. the other expats were alright i guess… arthur had a small role but was still baby girl, and other than those three i didn’t care about any other expat. sue me. sorry i love gore and margaret too much to allow any other room in my heart.

the writing style of this book is fucking delectable. magnificent. beautiful. i truly cannot describe just how good this book is written linguistic-wise unless you’ve picked up this book. i don’t know what enamoured me but god damn did i love it!!!!

now on to what i didn’t really live laugh love…. the plot. now i don’t know what i was expecting after reading the blurb of this, but it certainly wasn’t what i read. ok sure yes i knew at some point MC and gore would be dating the blurb literally tells you that. but idk i expected more scifi!!!! this is tagged first and foremost scifi and there’s barely any. most of the focus is on the romance.

which is ok like i said gore can get it. but mannnn don’t mislead me!!! i was hoping for some more interesting things related to the time travelling! and ok yes i get the in-text reason is that MC isn’t a scientist and doesn’t understand the technical aspects but like!!!! your mc doesn’t have to get it!!!! you just have to have other characters be annoying about the physics and then have mc be lost in the convo or something like that. i mean at the very least the concepts related to their time travelling e.g. can they appear on CCTV, what happens if they catch a sickness from the modern world. like those parts were great!!!! the story just needed more of them. and not only more moments, but a better pacing with the actual plot. up until 60% of this book it fully felt like i was just reading a slice-of-live novel with hints of Something going on. and then all the action is crammed into the last 15% of the book and im annoyed because it seemed interesting!!! but it wasn’t given enough time to develop, so instead i had explanations of what was going on in the background whilst the mc was being a horndog thrown at me and then wow ok its over. like what were we doing the rest of the time????? not only was the plot non-existent, but the pacing of when The Plot was actually introduced was so random. i can imagine if someone is not able to simp over gore or project onto the mc they would hate this because nothing happens except “gore finds out about something that has happened after the 1850s and so he has to be given an explanation on it” but like. repeated 70 times. it’s cute ill admit, but without anything other than the romance or the comedy tying me to the story, i was left slightly disappointed. slightly.

because look, i had a good time. i had fun. i was invested. kind of. really i was only invested in the romance if im honest. but i think this concept has such potential!!!!! i just think the scifi aspect of this book was a letdown & the pacing of the main plot felt erratic.

in other news i wanted to let you all know even though gore is depicted as a young guy i could not stop picturing him as charles from the walking dead s1 game. was very jarring to my stubborn brain every time his Not Grey Hair was described.

that is all.

Content Warnings

xkwright's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional reflective 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: Complicated

Loved this one. I want to reread it knowing what I know about the ending and see how that experience is different!

Content Warnings

sxndaze's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

"And in the heat of your obsession," he said, "did it occur to you to remember that I am a person too?"

i have a strange relationship with this book, if you can even call it a relationship. i like the premise and the writing. it’s fascinating and the treatment for the most part is quite lovely. the novelty of seeing characters who are plucked out of time and living in the present world and doing mundane things is my cup of tea. but the connection to the high stakes plot feels disjointed and at times, out of place.

the romance makes sense, but its execution is clunky. the turn it takes is something i like, but again, im not sure about it in the grand scheme of it all. the individual parts of this book are good, but put together and im not sure they mesh very well. at some point, i felt like i was slogging through it even though by all accounts, i should have been enjoying it. i felt a sense of distaste at times too, and im left feeling confused and overall dissatisfied.

Content Warnings

alisonvh's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny mysterious tense 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: Complicated

This book was fine. I doubt it’s anything that will stick with me for long, but it was a fun read. At times the pacing seemed to drag a little, but I did enjoy watching the MC slowly realize the Ministry might not have the best intentions.

Content Warnings

meghanm404's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

thebookwormclub's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

withlivjones's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I’m jealous of anyone who hasn’t read this book because that means they get to read it for the first time. The way the author writes is so beautiful, and this book contains multitudes - about love and grief and generational trauma and being mixed race and wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. I got a little too attached to the characters for my own good - I thought Graham, Maggie, and Arthur were such a lovely found family. There were some twists that were predictable but others I definitely didn’t see coming, and honestly the pacing was all over the place - nothing much happened for about 75% of the book but then suddenly everything happened in the last 25% and it was a lot to process. But my overall reading experience was very positive and I’m sure this book will be an early favourite of this year.

Content Warnings

evanmince's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

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