Reviews - Breve história de sete assassinatos

1.46k reviews for:

Breve história de sete assassinatos

Dark, violent, and sometimes funny. A Brief History of Seven Killings starts and finishes strong, but drags slightly in the middle. The heavy use of patois takes a bit of getting used to as well. However, these are minor gripes against an otherwise gripping novel.

davidaguilarrodriguez's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 46%

Repetitive, boring, maybe crime stuff isn’t for me since everyone was so repugnant

quackalacka's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark

kamasue's review against another edition

4.0

This book took a while to get into -- possibly because the audio version is extremely complex [I guess it has to be, with this many characters], but also because of thick Jamaican accents. Which are very well done, but it takes a little while to get an ear for them. I definitely backtracked a few times. Anyway, once you get past the first 100 pages or so, it's very much worth it. Can totally see why it won the Booker Prize.

jasperverfaillie's review against another edition

4.0

Beetje alsof The Wire zich niet in Baltimore maar in Jamaica zou afspelen. James laat zo veel personages aan het woord (vaak in Jamaicaans dialect) dat het wel eventjes duurt voor je door de bomen het bos ziet. Maar eens je gewend bent aan de taal, de sfeer en het geweld ontplooit zich een misdaad epos dat geen mededogen kent.
Lees het wel in het Engels want ik vraag me echt af hoe je in godsnaam termen als bombocloth, pussycloth of r'asscloth naar het Nederlands vertaalt.

michelleissmiling's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this. It benefits, I think, from reading in large chunks as it is long and complex and has alternating narrative voices. It’s not perfect, but it is certainly ambitious. Although no book as ever made me want to visit somewhere less!