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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Tan French continues to hit home runs with her mysteries. The main suspects are teenaged girls in a Dublin private school. The girls are believable and Ms. French portrays each one in such a way that culprit could be anyone of them. I alternately wanted to shake them for their naivete and weep at their lost innocence. When the culprit is revealed, the revelation is believable and she is sympathetic, more sympathetic than I expected her to be. The detectives working the case were likable and developed a quick rapport with each other that was not saccharine. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Tana French keeps me reading until the very end.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loved the first two books in this series - this one, not so much. It is set in a high class boarding school where a boy from a neighboring school was found murdered. The characters (mostly teenaged girls) were just too emo for my taste. I found myself annoyed and ready to be done with the whole thing. There was also a strange side of supernatural that really didn't make sense and never went anywhere. Overall, disappointing after a strong start.
Loved it completely. In fact, the only thing I don't love about it is that I've caught up to Ms. French and now I have to wait for her to write another one before I can read it.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
SPOILERS
complessivamente un bel libro, un page turner che sa risucchiare il lettore, personaggi interessanti e ottima rappresentazione di alcune dinamiche adolescenziali.
la scrittura della French è ricca e decorata, il che enfatizza alla perfezione il tema portante del libro, cioè l’intensità delle emozioni e delle esperienze che si provano da giovani.
Ciò che mi è piaciuto un po’ meno è la caratterizzazione delle ragazze: tutte delle ragazzine privilegiate, ossessionate dalle gerarchie e della lealtà, ma il cui mondo interiore non è stato davvero esplorato dalla French. Le loro preoccupazioni, i loro pensieri e ragionamenti apparivano molto superficiali e le decisioni da loro prese risultavano essere terribilmente stupide ( SPOILER: come la scelta di julia di fare sesso con chris) o troppo poco realistiche.
il mondo delle ragazze adolescenti è ben più ricco di ciò che si da a vedere in questo libro, e persino la forte amicizia tra le quattro protagoniste, che doveva essere il nucleo della storia, non sembrava mai tangibili e reale. Che la loro amicizia fosse forte, che si volessero così tanto bene e che il loro legame fosse così indissolubile lo si scopre poiché è il narratore esterno a dirlo, non perché viene mostrato nelle scene tra là ragazze.
La comunicazione tra loro è quasi assente e l’affetto che provano ci viene detto ma quasi mai mostrato, se non con i gesti finali di tutte loro per proteggersi a vicenda.
L’ambientazione sarebbe potuta essere molto più suggestiva, se solo l’autrice avesse sfruttato a pieno tutte le potenzialità di una boarding school, invece moltissime scene erano ambientate in un campetto vicino al supermercato o nella radura.
I due detective non solo male, però purtroppo entrambi cadevano spesso in retoriche misogine. La Conway mi è piaciuta tanto mentre Stephen era un po’ sciapido.
La magia???? Il giuramento sotto la luna??? Il rituale finale??? va bene che fossero usati come metafore per rappresentare l’amicizia forte tra le ragazze e loro unicità ma mi è sembrata un’esagerazione, anche perché come ho già detto la rappresentazione dell’amicizia delle ragazze era già un po’ scarsa.
Do 4 stelle perché nonostante tutto, ogni singolo personaggio riusciva a svelare e tenere segreto qualcosa di se proprio il tanto giusto, abbastanza da incuriosirmi da morire.
Tra l’altro sono affezionata tantissimo a Selena e provo stima verso Holly.
Rebecca è stata messa da parte e approfondita quasi nulla per tutto il libro per poi svelarsi la chiave di tutto solo alla fine, dopo alcuni palesi indizi lasciati dagli altri personaggi inconsapevolmente (Holly che dice che Rebecca uscirebbe di testa se sapesse che una di loro non sta bene…)
Julia era la più piatta, tutta battute e arroganza ma zero profondità emotiva sino alle ultime 100 pagine.
La caratterizzazione di Chris era quella forse riuscita meglio, la più tridimensionale.
complessivamente un bel libro, un page turner che sa risucchiare il lettore, personaggi interessanti e ottima rappresentazione di alcune dinamiche adolescenziali.
la scrittura della French è ricca e decorata, il che enfatizza alla perfezione il tema portante del libro, cioè l’intensità delle emozioni e delle esperienze che si provano da giovani.
Ciò che mi è piaciuto un po’ meno è la caratterizzazione delle ragazze: tutte delle ragazzine privilegiate, ossessionate dalle gerarchie e della lealtà, ma il cui mondo interiore non è stato davvero esplorato dalla French. Le loro preoccupazioni, i loro pensieri e ragionamenti apparivano molto superficiali e le decisioni da loro prese risultavano essere terribilmente stupide ( SPOILER: come la scelta di julia di fare sesso con chris) o troppo poco realistiche.
il mondo delle ragazze adolescenti è ben più ricco di ciò che si da a vedere in questo libro, e persino la forte amicizia tra le quattro protagoniste, che doveva essere il nucleo della storia, non sembrava mai tangibili e reale. Che la loro amicizia fosse forte, che si volessero così tanto bene e che il loro legame fosse così indissolubile lo si scopre poiché è il narratore esterno a dirlo, non perché viene mostrato nelle scene tra là ragazze.
La comunicazione tra loro è quasi assente e l’affetto che provano ci viene detto ma quasi mai mostrato, se non con i gesti finali di tutte loro per proteggersi a vicenda.
L’ambientazione sarebbe potuta essere molto più suggestiva, se solo l’autrice avesse sfruttato a pieno tutte le potenzialità di una boarding school, invece moltissime scene erano ambientate in un campetto vicino al supermercato o nella radura.
I due detective non solo male, però purtroppo entrambi cadevano spesso in retoriche misogine. La Conway mi è piaciuta tanto mentre Stephen era un po’ sciapido.
La magia???? Il giuramento sotto la luna??? Il rituale finale??? va bene che fossero usati come metafore per rappresentare l’amicizia forte tra le ragazze e loro unicità ma mi è sembrata un’esagerazione, anche perché come ho già detto la rappresentazione dell’amicizia delle ragazze era già un po’ scarsa.
Do 4 stelle perché nonostante tutto, ogni singolo personaggio riusciva a svelare e tenere segreto qualcosa di se proprio il tanto giusto, abbastanza da incuriosirmi da morire.
Tra l’altro sono affezionata tantissimo a Selena e provo stima verso Holly.
Rebecca è stata messa da parte e approfondita quasi nulla per tutto il libro per poi svelarsi la chiave di tutto solo alla fine, dopo alcuni palesi indizi lasciati dagli altri personaggi inconsapevolmente (Holly che dice che Rebecca uscirebbe di testa se sapesse che una di loro non sta bene…)
Julia era la più piatta, tutta battute e arroganza ma zero profondità emotiva sino alle ultime 100 pagine.
La caratterizzazione di Chris era quella forse riuscita meglio, la più tridimensionale.
Loved the first 100 pages. Loved the final 80 pages. The middle was all over the place and I thought she'd jumped the shark there for a while. This was a messy, sloppy novel that really could have used more edits, but the heart is there, and Tana French is a DAMN good writer even if she overdoes it sometimes.
Better than Faithful Place but in my opinion not as good as the other three. The Likeness remains way above and beyond my favorite of the whole series. The best part of this book is how much French gets what it's like in the crazy teenage years, when you're halfway to an adult but not quite yet and in a group it's easy to get just a little crazy. The friendship here is done so well-- so tight and strong, like nothing's going to ever come between them-- and then equally the way it starts to slowly fall apart.
On the cons: Moran is a nothing character, basically no personality. In all the others, I feel like the book has been about the psychology of the detective as much as the psychology of the victim and suspects. Each crime is specifically tailored to draw out some aspect of the detective's character so that we can get in their head. That didn't seem to really happen with Moran. He was very flat and didn't seem to put much of himself into this case. And honestly neither did Conway-- I can see myself liking her more when we get to see from her perspective, but as it is she just mostly felt mean and didn't do much to catch the killer here. I think this was exacerbated by the fact that we only spend half of the book in Moran's head, and the other half is an omniscient narrator telling us about the girls in the past. This breaks from how French has told the story before, and I think while it does help us get to know the girls (with 8 of them it's a pretty unusually large cast, so you do need a little something more there) but at the expense of less of our detectives. I also thought the ways the girls talk was annoying and seemed dated. I can't remember ever genuinely saying something was "totes amazeballs". I'm not sure anyone ever really talked like this.
Also, French often works in some aspect of the supernatural/unexplainable, but it was even more blatant here than before. I don't mind that, per se... I think the magic is sort of supposed to be like a metaphor for those years when you still kind of believe that you can do anything, like how the girls talk about all going to the same college and majoring in the same subject so they can take the same classes? When I was in middle school, my best friend and I were obsessed with those people who like renovated their whole house with catwalks and mini staircases and stuff for their 20 cats or something like that. And we were going to buy a house together and a ton of cats and do that and for at least a bit I feel like I genuinely believed that we were going to make it happen. And then you look back and you can't quite remember what it was like to feel like that? Just like Holly thinks they're going to look back on the magic and think they'd imagined the whole thing. It's just that the magic is such an active part of the book the whole way through that it's a little hard to suspend your disbelief about it.
The atmosphere is still great, and the non-detective characters are done really well. I personally thought the killer was pretty obvious early on, but that doesn't diminish your enjoyment of the book. It's really easy to get sucked into the world, and really hard to put it down. Not French's best work, but still stellar and 100% worth the read.
On the cons: Moran is a nothing character, basically no personality. In all the others, I feel like the book has been about the psychology of the detective as much as the psychology of the victim and suspects. Each crime is specifically tailored to draw out some aspect of the detective's character so that we can get in their head. That didn't seem to really happen with Moran. He was very flat and didn't seem to put much of himself into this case. And honestly neither did Conway-- I can see myself liking her more when we get to see from her perspective, but as it is she just mostly felt mean and didn't do much to catch the killer here. I think this was exacerbated by the fact that we only spend half of the book in Moran's head, and the other half is an omniscient narrator telling us about the girls in the past. This breaks from how French has told the story before, and I think while it does help us get to know the girls (with 8 of them it's a pretty unusually large cast, so you do need a little something more there) but at the expense of less of our detectives. I also thought the ways the girls talk was annoying and seemed dated. I can't remember ever genuinely saying something was "totes amazeballs". I'm not sure anyone ever really talked like this.
Also, French often works in some aspect of the supernatural/unexplainable, but it was even more blatant here than before. I don't mind that, per se... I think the magic is sort of supposed to be like a metaphor for those years when you still kind of believe that you can do anything, like how the girls talk about all going to the same college and majoring in the same subject so they can take the same classes? When I was in middle school, my best friend and I were obsessed with those people who like renovated their whole house with catwalks and mini staircases and stuff for their 20 cats or something like that. And we were going to buy a house together and a ton of cats and do that and for at least a bit I feel like I genuinely believed that we were going to make it happen. And then you look back and you can't quite remember what it was like to feel like that? Just like Holly thinks they're going to look back on the magic and think they'd imagined the whole thing. It's just that the magic is such an active part of the book the whole way through that it's a little hard to suspend your disbelief about it.
The atmosphere is still great, and the non-detective characters are done really well. I personally thought the killer was pretty obvious early on, but that doesn't diminish your enjoyment of the book. It's really easy to get sucked into the world, and really hard to put it down. Not French's best work, but still stellar and 100% worth the read.
i didn’t like this one as much as some of her earlier novels. it was written in a different format from her others and i found that to be a nice change.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes