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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A bit disjointed at times, and feels a bit chauvinistic, but it was a compelling read, and I am a fan of noir.
An interesting take on the story of Elizabeth Short (aka the Black Dahlia). Ellroy is a good storyteller, but the story sometimes gets too convoluted for it's own good.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Been a while since it took me this long to finish something, though obviously the fault of leaving my first library copy on a bus (sorry LAPL I will find it I swear).
That did not help with keeping track of the mystery; I had to make peace with simply nodding along by the end. I’d say this beats out The Big Sleep in its sheer number of moving parts to keep track of.
I was surprised by how florid Ellroy’s prose was here, given his Spartan reputation, though I’ve since learned that’s a shift he supposedly made in the 90’s. Either way his voice is very compelling and readable even if I wouldn’t quite call it hard-boiled. He gets bogged down at the beginning flexing his knowledge of period-accurate police department machinations, but when he gets going it’s punchy and propulsive.
He is also curiously amoral. The other crime writers I’ve read - and their protagonists - have underpinned their cynicism with a conscience. In order to be disillusioned you have to have had illusions in the first place. Bucky Bleichert, on the other hand, is driven primarily by selfish impulses and occasional animalistic revulsion. I also can’t in good faith claim that Ellroy is my first encounter with perverted shit; both The Big Sleep and The Last Good Kiss have plot threads about snuff films, same as this one. But Ellroy revels in it; decay, BDSM, incest, necrophilia. Then again, what else does the Black Dahlia case call for? It only fits ti draw readers in with the perversity that made the case famous to begin with.
As readable as it is, though, the arc didn’t quite land for me. Bucky’s journey from bum status to professionalism to depravity relies on two things: his relationships with Lee and Kay, and his growing obsession with the case. His friendship with Lee was vivid and compelling, and my favorite part of the book. The relationship with Kay less so; their growing attraction felt told more than shown, particularly when stress tested by the weight it bears in the ending. And the obsession… didn’t quite click? I SAW him growing increasingly devoured, but I wasn’t always sold on the transformation - which made his ambiguous redemption fall flat.
That did not help with keeping track of the mystery; I had to make peace with simply nodding along by the end. I’d say this beats out The Big Sleep in its sheer number of moving parts to keep track of.
I was surprised by how florid Ellroy’s prose was here, given his Spartan reputation, though I’ve since learned that’s a shift he supposedly made in the 90’s. Either way his voice is very compelling and readable even if I wouldn’t quite call it hard-boiled. He gets bogged down at the beginning flexing his knowledge of period-accurate police department machinations, but when he gets going it’s punchy and propulsive.
He is also curiously amoral. The other crime writers I’ve read - and their protagonists - have underpinned their cynicism with a conscience. In order to be disillusioned you have to have had illusions in the first place. Bucky Bleichert, on the other hand, is driven primarily by selfish impulses and occasional animalistic revulsion. I also can’t in good faith claim that Ellroy is my first encounter with perverted shit; both The Big Sleep and The Last Good Kiss have plot threads about snuff films, same as this one. But Ellroy revels in it; decay, BDSM, incest, necrophilia. Then again, what else does the Black Dahlia case call for? It only fits ti draw readers in with the perversity that made the case famous to begin with.
As readable as it is, though, the arc didn’t quite land for me. Bucky’s journey from bum status to professionalism to depravity relies on two things: his relationships with Lee and Kay, and his growing obsession with the case. His friendship with Lee was vivid and compelling, and my favorite part of the book. The relationship with Kay less so; their growing attraction felt told more than shown, particularly when stress tested by the weight it bears in the ending. And the obsession… didn’t quite click? I SAW him growing increasingly devoured, but I wasn’t always sold on the transformation - which made his ambiguous redemption fall flat.
Strong character development:
Yes
I learned from reading this book that while I enjoy the hardboiled noir style in the form of two-hour movie experiences, I get tired of it in 15-hour book experiences. And while this book has a lot of twists, there are perhaps too many and some of them don't feel thoroughly earned. There was also too much "summarizing what happens" vs. "describing what happens" for my tastes. Many people will love this but it wasn't for me.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I only read the Prologue. This type of intense historical fiction is not usually my type of read, and reading the Prologue furthered the notion that while I respect that this is clearly a strong concept (putting a story to all the unknown in the Black Dahlia case), it is not for me. The Prologue was a very intense start writing wise and didn’t exactly draw me in enough to make me interested enough to keep reading. I saw some reviews on here that say this book takes a long time to bet to the actual death, and again I respect the author’s creativity, but I am only reading a Black Dahlia book to read about her death and not the lengthy preambles of the fake investigator characters.
All that said about historical fiction, I would someday like to read Stephen King’s book on the Kennedy assassination.
All that said about historical fiction, I would someday like to read Stephen King’s book on the Kennedy assassination.
Fundamentally too romantically inclined to pull it's own cruelty off. The ending forces hope where it should be dead, and that makes the rest of the book feel less cruel than stupid. A fighter that flinches
I realize this is a classic, dealing with a historical time, but I found it was all over the place and didn’t come together organically. The ending seemed forced. I did like the author’s notes about his own life.