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lzad's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Brilliant as an audiobook - Sean Barrett has the perfect world weary tone.
Both sharply funny and despairingly bleak. The unendearing characters have one thing in common, they're where they are because they have screwed up. Royally.
It's hard to care about anyone in the book (except one), but you can't help but be fascinated by all of them.
Definite edge of your seat finish.
Next one please!
Both sharply funny and despairingly bleak. The unendearing characters have one thing in common, they're where they are because they have screwed up. Royally.
It's hard to care about anyone in the book (except one), but you can't help but be fascinated by all of them.
Definite edge of your seat finish.
Next one please!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Racism and Religious bigotry
meganpbennett's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I picked this up on a whim, and later learned that my mom really likes the series and was surprised that I hadn't heard of it before then.
We open with River making a mistake that gets him sent to Slough House, with the Slow Horses. A time later, things start slowly happening, with a journalist being investigated. This section is very very slow, and the timeline is so convoluted as to be "wibbly wobbly", making it very hard to figure out what's happening in the present time or what happened in the past, or even, what's not happening, what didn't happen.
The kidnapping and the actual plot involving who the kid is and why he was kidnapped is awful and many sections seemed unnecessary.
I found the first half far too slow, and the second half was way too full of sections where a character would say that he knew things and then the next sentence would be "so he told them".
The character's names were far too similar; I gave up around the middle of the book ever figuring out who was who and why I should care about them. The writing was decent and the thriller aspect was good, but the pacing was way off, and the "so he told them" lines started getting frustrating very early on.
We open with River making a mistake that gets him sent to Slough House, with the Slow Horses. A time later, things start slowly happening, with a journalist being investigated. This section is very very slow, and the timeline is so convoluted as to be "wibbly wobbly", making it very hard to figure out what's happening in the present time or what happened in the past, or even, what's not happening, what didn't happen.
The kidnapping and the actual plot involving who the kid is and why he was kidnapped is awful and many sections seemed unnecessary.
I found the first half far too slow, and the second half was way too full of sections where a character would say that he knew things and then the next sentence would be "so he told them".
The character's names were far too similar; I gave up around the middle of the book ever figuring out who was who and why I should care about them. The writing was decent and the thriller aspect was good, but the pacing was way off, and the "so he told them" lines started getting frustrating very early on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Death, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Racism, Gore, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry
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