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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
I was trapped somewhere with no other reading material, which is the only reason I got more than a chapter into this. The worst detecting I've ever read, a totally boring mystery, and annoying main characters. Holmes and Watson transported into modern day Australia could be interesting, but this was painful to read. Even if it hadn't been a truly terrible adaptation, it still would've been at best a forgettable YA paint by the numbers "mystery."
This teenage detective novel uses references to Sherlock Holmes lore as a fun, irreverent way to establish her genre. Rachel Watts and James Mycroft live two doors down from each other ever since Rachel's family left their bankrupt farm.
I like the way we were thrown in this friendship four months in and not treated to how they got to be friends. They just are, and we accept that. Mycroft is a genius with a damaged psyche and Rachel's practical nature is the best thing for him.
When one of Mycroft's friends is murdered, the pair stumble into solving the crime (although not so much with the stumble, more the determination of a boy who has already seen too much death, and who needs to make order from chaos).
This is tense, exciting and quite humorous. The romance doesn't overwhelm the mystery, but it's there, for which I am grateful. These two truly care for each other. It's grand.
Highly recommended.
I like the way we were thrown in this friendship four months in and not treated to how they got to be friends. They just are, and we accept that. Mycroft is a genius with a damaged psyche and Rachel's practical nature is the best thing for him.
When one of Mycroft's friends is murdered, the pair stumble into solving the crime (although not so much with the stumble, more the determination of a boy who has already seen too much death, and who needs to make order from chaos).
This is tense, exciting and quite humorous. The romance doesn't overwhelm the mystery, but it's there, for which I am grateful. These two truly care for each other. It's grand.
Highly recommended.
Ahh this book was so fun, and the second half totally yanked me out of my summer reading slump!
I know there are about a million too many teen Sherlock Holmes books, but I promise you, this one is THE BEST (I'm looking at you "A Study in Charlotte") Ellie Marney does a lot of things right in this book, and created a really compelling mystery that is hard to put down. But I think the characterization is where Marney truly succeeds. Unlike most adaptors before and after her, Marney doesn't make Mycroft (the Sherlock character) a total jerk. Of course he has issues, but none of them outweigh the fact that he is enthusiastic, charming, and a kind person. These solid character traits make him someone who both Rachel (the delightfully sensible Watson character) and the reader can sympathize with.
I know there are about a million too many teen Sherlock Holmes books, but I promise you, this one is THE BEST (I'm looking at you "A Study in Charlotte") Ellie Marney does a lot of things right in this book, and created a really compelling mystery that is hard to put down. But I think the characterization is where Marney truly succeeds. Unlike most adaptors before and after her, Marney doesn't make Mycroft (the Sherlock character) a total jerk. Of course he has issues, but none of them outweigh the fact that he is enthusiastic, charming, and a kind person. These solid character traits make him someone who both Rachel (the delightfully sensible Watson character) and the reader can sympathize with.
Well apparently I am the black sheep when it comes to this book. I bought it after seeing all the positive reviews. It didn't really sound like my kind of book, but I was intrigued by the Sherlock part of it, and my library didn't have it, so I decided to buy it and give it a try. Most of the time I'm pleasantly surprised when I try something out of my comfort zone, but Every Breath was not the case.
I was very confused when I first started reading because the story starts off with Watts patching up Mycroft because he got into a fight at school (well, that's what I assumed because it's not very clear, even going back and reading it, I'm still not sure). It didn't make much sense, to be honest, and it took me a while to even figure out what was going on, because if this did happen at school, why isn't he at the nurses office? Why is Watts the one cleaning him up? Why isn't Watts in class? I'm so confused, what does this even have to do with the story? Where's the murdered guy?!
Even before that opening scene, there's a prologue that has Watts talking about her as a kid, then Mycroft as a kid, then them meeting because of 'fate', but yet we are never told how they met and how they became so close after only 4 months of Watts living in the city. The whole prologue and first chapter could be cut out, and it wouldn't effect the story at all. I don't understand why this book wasn't opened with them finding the dead body. That would have instantly made me interested in the story.
But I wasn't interested in the story. I was mostly bored. The only time I was actually invested in the story was when Watts and Mycroft found the murdered homeless guy and when it was finally revealed who the murderer was. Every thing else was boring to me. Even when they were going around investigating, I just didn't care, and I don't really know why.
Maybe it was the writing, I felt like there was a lot of description that I didn't care about. I really don't need to know what color the walls are painted or what plants are in the room. This book is very Australian, which was to be expected because the author is Australian and it's set in Australia, but I think I kind of had a disconnect because of it.
There is a little more meat to the story. Mycroft has quite the background and is known as the trouble maker. He makes a lot stupid decisions because of issues in his past. I actually really liked Mycroft, even though he was the stereotypical 'bad boy' who smoked all the time and did stupid stuff. I still liked him, mostly because of his humor. Watts also has her issues, but mostly because she's not adjusting to the city life and all the tension that moving to the city has caused within her family.
So there was a lot more happening than just Watts and Mycroft running around the city trying to solve this murder. Yet, I still didn't like it, and didn't really care. I will say I did enjoy the romance, although I felt like that kind of went from 0 to 100 quickly in the last 100 pages or so. I wasn't reading the book furiously and hoping Watts and Mycroft would just kiss already. There wasn't much build up to it.
I feel like I'm being hard on the book, but all I can really say is I enjoyed the murder mystery and Mycroft. Mycroft is pretty much the reason I gave the book 2 stars instead of 1. Watts may have been the narrator of the story, but Mycroft was the star of this book.
I wouldn't go out and recommend this book to a friend, but it seems like a lot of other people would. I would say if you enjoy murder mysteries with a bad boy who has some issues to work through, then maybe give this a try.
I was very confused when I first started reading because the story starts off with Watts patching up Mycroft because he got into a fight at school (well, that's what I assumed because it's not very clear, even going back and reading it, I'm still not sure). It didn't make much sense, to be honest, and it took me a while to even figure out what was going on, because if this did happen at school, why isn't he at the nurses office? Why is Watts the one cleaning him up? Why isn't Watts in class? I'm so confused, what does this even have to do with the story? Where's the murdered guy?!
Even before that opening scene, there's a prologue that has Watts talking about her as a kid, then Mycroft as a kid, then them meeting because of 'fate', but yet we are never told how they met and how they became so close after only 4 months of Watts living in the city. The whole prologue and first chapter could be cut out, and it wouldn't effect the story at all. I don't understand why this book wasn't opened with them finding the dead body. That would have instantly made me interested in the story.
But I wasn't interested in the story. I was mostly bored. The only time I was actually invested in the story was when Watts and Mycroft found the murdered homeless guy and when it was finally revealed who the murderer was. Every thing else was boring to me. Even when they were going around investigating, I just didn't care, and I don't really know why.
Maybe it was the writing, I felt like there was a lot of description that I didn't care about. I really don't need to know what color the walls are painted or what plants are in the room. This book is very Australian, which was to be expected because the author is Australian and it's set in Australia, but I think I kind of had a disconnect because of it.
There is a little more meat to the story. Mycroft has quite the background and is known as the trouble maker. He makes a lot stupid decisions because of issues in his past. I actually really liked Mycroft, even though he was the stereotypical 'bad boy' who smoked all the time and did stupid stuff. I still liked him, mostly because of his humor. Watts also has her issues, but mostly because she's not adjusting to the city life and all the tension that moving to the city has caused within her family.
So there was a lot more happening than just Watts and Mycroft running around the city trying to solve this murder. Yet, I still didn't like it, and didn't really care. I will say I did enjoy the romance, although I felt like that kind of went from 0 to 100 quickly in the last 100 pages or so. I wasn't reading the book furiously and hoping Watts and Mycroft would just kiss already. There wasn't much build up to it.
I feel like I'm being hard on the book, but all I can really say is I enjoyed the murder mystery and Mycroft. Mycroft is pretty much the reason I gave the book 2 stars instead of 1. Watts may have been the narrator of the story, but Mycroft was the star of this book.
I wouldn't go out and recommend this book to a friend, but it seems like a lot of other people would. I would say if you enjoy murder mysteries with a bad boy who has some issues to work through, then maybe give this a try.
C'était très bien, par contre j'ai deviné l'identité du coupable au moment où il est apparu dans l'histoire. Ça ne change pas le fait que j'ai pris beaucoup de plaisir en lisant ce roman. J'aime beaucoup Rachel, c'est un personnage sympathique et agréable à suivre, mais j'ai un faible pour Mycroft. ♥ Gus et Mai étaient sympas aussi, j'aimerais beaucoup avoir plus d'infos à leur propos. :)
I ended up enjoying this, but because of how long it took me to get into it and the mystery itself, I could only give it three stars.
What I loved:
-WATTSCROFT - These two are HOT HOT HOT and one of my favorite parts of the book. You can see the chemistry practically smoldering off of the page, and I spent most of the time waiting for them to kiss (despite being a tad squicked out because of Mycroft's smokers breath).
-MELBOURNE! - Kirsti told me to read this and said it got Melbourne exactly right, so I got into the atmosphere pretty quickly. It's very descriptive and immersive and I felt like I was there.
- DIVERSITY - Watts and Mycroft's friends were ethnically diverse (Mai was Vietnamese and Gus was Sudanese), which I LOVED because YAY! Diversity in books! Also, poverty and homelessness is handled well and I appreciated that. Homeless Dave was never treated like less than a person by Watts and Mycroft or the police. I see a lot of discrimination against the homeless in the US and it breaks my heart.
What I wasn't into:
- The pacing - It took me until roughly 61% of the book to get into it at all, and even when I did, it wasn't like "OMG I HAVE to know what happens". I usually have to be sucked into a book immediately to love it.
- The mystery itself - The problem with reading a bunch of murder thrillers, watching Criminal Minds, and studying behavior analysis is that I'm very good at solving crimes and I'm also a bit jaded. I usually solve the crime in a book early in (like I did with this one), but usually the process still interests me. Not so with this one. I read more for Wattscroft than of any interest in the mystery.
Overall, I did enjoy this and ship Wattscroft like crazy, but it wasn't my favorite. It makes me feel horrible, though, cause so many of my friends adored it.
Black sheep, party of one.
What I loved:
-WATTSCROFT - These two are HOT HOT HOT and one of my favorite parts of the book. You can see the chemistry practically smoldering off of the page, and I spent most of the time waiting for them to kiss (despite being a tad squicked out because of Mycroft's smokers breath).
-MELBOURNE! - Kirsti told me to read this and said it got Melbourne exactly right, so I got into the atmosphere pretty quickly. It's very descriptive and immersive and I felt like I was there.
- DIVERSITY - Watts and Mycroft's friends were ethnically diverse (Mai was Vietnamese and Gus was Sudanese), which I LOVED because YAY! Diversity in books! Also, poverty and homelessness is handled well and I appreciated that. Homeless Dave was never treated like less than a person by Watts and Mycroft or the police. I see a lot of discrimination against the homeless in the US and it breaks my heart.
What I wasn't into:
- The pacing - It took me until roughly 61% of the book to get into it at all, and even when I did, it wasn't like "OMG I HAVE to know what happens". I usually have to be sucked into a book immediately to love it.
- The mystery itself - The problem with reading a bunch of murder thrillers, watching Criminal Minds, and studying behavior analysis is that I'm very good at solving crimes and I'm also a bit jaded. I usually solve the crime in a book early in (like I did with this one), but usually the process still interests me. Not so with this one. I read more for Wattscroft than of any interest in the mystery.
Overall, I did enjoy this and ship Wattscroft like crazy, but it wasn't my favorite. It makes me feel horrible, though, cause so many of my friends adored it.
Black sheep, party of one.
While I'm normally not interested in reading pastiches where the characters aren't actually named Holmes and Watson, I decided to go ahead and try this one after reading "A Study in Charlotte" and doing a search for similar stories. I'm glad I did, because it's very enjoyable. I got a kick out of reading this book. While a touch melodramatic at times, I thought it did a nice job of exploring how teenagers would go about investigating a crime (ie, with a lot of trial and error) while also giving many nods to the original Holmes and Watson. While I still wasn't enamoured of the romance in this story, I felt it was handled well, on the whole- although I could have lived without the five page long description of a kiss.
What truly makes this book, for me, though, is the use of its secondary characters. Too often are Holmes and Watson characters entirely isolated from the world around them. But Mycroft and Watts have friends, and families, and make connections out in the world, all of which have an impact on them. Especially pleasing to me was the fact that not everyone around them was WHITE. Usually pastiches are a sea of whiteness, but there was some nice representation of POC in here that's rare. I hope the rest of the series manages to keep this up.
I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series, to see where the author takes it.
What truly makes this book, for me, though, is the use of its secondary characters. Too often are Holmes and Watson characters entirely isolated from the world around them. But Mycroft and Watts have friends, and families, and make connections out in the world, all of which have an impact on them. Especially pleasing to me was the fact that not everyone around them was WHITE. Usually pastiches are a sea of whiteness, but there was some nice representation of POC in here that's rare. I hope the rest of the series manages to keep this up.
I am very much looking forward to the rest of the series, to see where the author takes it.
"What if Sherlock Holmes was the boy next door?" (from cover)
Set in Melbourne, Australia. Rachel Watts and her family are forced to move from the country to the city. Rachel becomes friends with her eccentric, smart neighbor named James Mycroft. (Mycroft & Watts! Get it?) Anyway, when they find a homeless man that they had befriended had been murdered, they set out to solve the crime.
Great characters, serviceable mystery. Fun read!
Set in Melbourne, Australia. Rachel Watts and her family are forced to move from the country to the city. Rachel becomes friends with her eccentric, smart neighbor named James Mycroft. (Mycroft & Watts! Get it?) Anyway, when they find a homeless man that they had befriended had been murdered, they set out to solve the crime.
Great characters, serviceable mystery. Fun read!
adventurous
emotional
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Incest