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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
4*s for being a romping read with excellent clues and plotting. Enjoyed. Not sure the excessive metaphors and similes were intentionally as funny as I found them, but they made me chuckle with festive spirit.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is so bad on so many levels. The main character has no personality at all, except for being an orphan since her adolescence - trait that is dealt by the author in a tedious and nauseating way, being brought up with overly dramatic passages that are meant to be deep and sorrowful in almost every page. Of course, every other character has even less personality that her. The antagonist's identity is given away within a handful of pages after being introduced, as if they had multiple flashing signs pointing toward their head. The fun of solving the riddles is denied by the author, who makes the main character resolve them thanks to information that the reader does not have. Almost every single phrase in the book is written in either poor, pompous, or unsettling and embarassing language. To top it off, the italian edition is full of orthographic errors, even in the characters' names. The very last chapter is not terrible, but the book is so flawed that it fails to be even remotely enjoyable.
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest
I was excited about the different genre Christmas story. I love a good holiday cheerful read but also love thriller/mystery’s so I was pumped when I reviewed this ARC from NG.
However this book feel so flat for me. The characters were super one dimensional and none of them had any great character development outside of that. The writing was awful I really dislike a lot of repetition in books and can look past it sometimes if the story line holds but my gosh after the 10th time I think we get it.
I felt like it was pretty predictable and just didn’t deliver what I had hoped it would when I read the book description.
However this book feel so flat for me. The characters were super one dimensional and none of them had any great character development outside of that. The writing was awful I really dislike a lot of repetition in books and can look past it sometimes if the story line holds but my gosh after the 10th time I think we get it.
I felt like it was pretty predictable and just didn’t deliver what I had hoped it would when I read the book description.
Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. The mystery kept me guessing till late on which was quite fun and I liked some of the characters (and hated others with equal measure) as they felt well thought through and fleshed out individuals. However, I felt like the beginning of the book was overly long and a lot of it didn’t add much substance to the overall plot of the book and the romance at the end felt like it was shoved in and was unnecessary aside from saying look there’ll be a happy ending. I was also left with some questions at the end which was surprising given the fact I’d been listening to it for 10 and a half hours. The audiobook was overall well narrated with a good array of voices and accents for characters, but she mispronounced Bowie which did personally grate on me a little.
Favourite Quote:
"Fear and excitement are twins; they live on opposite sides of the same door. It's up to you which room you live in."
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. The mystery kept me guessing till late on which was quite fun and I liked some of the characters (and hated others with equal measure) as they felt well thought through and fleshed out individuals. However, I felt like the beginning of the book was overly long and a lot of it didn’t add much substance to the overall plot of the book and the romance at the end felt like it was shoved in and was unnecessary aside from saying look there’ll be a happy ending. I was also left with some questions at the end which was surprising given the fact I’d been listening to it for 10 and a half hours. The audiobook was overall well narrated with a good array of voices and accents for characters, but she mispronounced Bowie which did personally grate on me a little.
Favourite Quote:
"Fear and excitement are twins; they live on opposite sides of the same door. It's up to you which room you live in."
I really didn't care for this one. It was all too melodramatic. All the characters were so one dimensional and flat with a story that I just couldn't get into. The whodunnit wasn't intriguing, and I found myself skimming until it "got good". It never did.
Oh I really enjoyed this! Absolute Cluedo vibes.
The only things that let it down for me was the total lack of emotion to family members dying. Every person just ate, went to bed, and carried on solving riddles when their murdered family members bodies kept piling up.
I didn’t take this book too seriously or realistically and thought it was the perfect Christmas thriller and a really good read!
The only things that let it down for me was the total lack of emotion to family members dying. Every person just ate, went to bed, and carried on solving riddles when their murdered family members bodies kept piling up.
I didn’t take this book too seriously or realistically and thought it was the perfect Christmas thriller and a really good read!
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bueeeeeno, tenía una prometedora lectura al ser un libro narrado durante navidad y de misterio. Al principio me emocioné un poco al ver que tenía acertijos, pero realmente son dos retos. El primero es fácil de completar sacrificando un poco de ritmo en la lectura. El segundo ni lo intenté. JAJAJA
La historia está entretenida, quizá no se me hizo la más original, y en lo personal le atiné a la mitad del misterio. Aún así, la protagonista hizo que disfrutara la lectura y estar al pendiente de que nada malo le pase.
Lo que sí amé son los personajes LGBT, y el final hicieron que me emocionara y se volviera más placentero terminarlo.
La historia está entretenida, quizá no se me hizo la más original, y en lo personal le atiné a la mitad del misterio. Aún así, la protagonista hizo que disfrutara la lectura y estar al pendiente de que nada malo le pase.
Lo que sí amé son los personajes LGBT, y el final hicieron que me emocionara y se volviera más placentero terminarlo.
I did enjoy this book, this is the first book I have seen to have a game within the book, to look for the anagrams whilst reading which I did try to do but was a little distracting from the story. I’m not sure if the anagrams were the reason for the author’s strange choice of words and metaphors, or whether that’s just her usual writing style.
Overall this book was ok but I probably wouldn’t recommend or rush to read another of the author’s books.
Spoiler
Reflecting on the book, the clues were impossible for the reader to comprehend as the answer was always linked to a backstory that we were unaware of, every time there was a new clue, the family just looked to Lily to give the answer. It is clear to me that the author is clearly very intelligent to have written all of the clues but it is a shame that we were just witnessing the story unfold rather than being able to predict anything. I did not figure out who the killer was until the end, maybe I missed something because apparently it was blindly obvious to others. The incest between the cousins was not ok in my opinion, it was just downright wrong.Overall this book was ok but I probably wouldn’t recommend or rush to read another of the author’s books.