Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - My Policeman

Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

55 reviews

bstar03's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Yes, Harry Styles made me read this. I will not be taking critiques at this time.

This book tells the story of Marion, Tom, & Patrick. Tom is a young police officer that Patrick and Marion are both in love with - she as his wife, and he, as his lover in a time where it was illegal to be gay in the UK. The tale unravels from Marion and Patrick's perspectives in dual timelines and as the reader you come to see that no one in this book is an innocent - they each have their pain and they each inflict pain on each other in different ways, and it's often extremely sad to read, but the humanity and messiness of these characters are what made this book so readable and engaging to me, so that was the main thing I liked about it. The writing, too, I thought was gorgeous.

Some issues I had - I don't mind an age gap in a relationship as long as it's ethical as well as legal. Tom and Patrick's age gap itself didn't bother me, but I often felt a little grossed out by the way Patrick was always referencing Tom's youth, his boyishness. It felt....eeeehhh, weird. Didn't love that.

Other than that, I just have this feeling that there was something missing for me during this book. I can't figure out what it was exactly, and if I figure it out, I'll gladly post an update, but whatever it was, it left me feeling that I couldn't give this above a 3 even though I did enjoy it for the most part.

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itsmemiana's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book was so much better than I was expecting. it's historical fiction which is something I don't usually lean into, but this surprised me so much that I might actually decide to read more historical fiction.

even tho the characters are very explicitly flawd, specially Marion and Tom (in my opinion), I still really enjoyed this.

I also absolutely love the way it's written. the writing is so beautiful.

this is set in Brighton, UK in the 50's and I loved the descriptions of this place. it made me really wanna visit it someday.

after reading this I'm even more excited to see the movie and to see Tom being played by Harry Styles.

Btw, since this is an LGBTQ+ story set in the 50's in the UK when it was illegal to be apart of the community, pls note that there is a lot of homophobia and other things that might trigger some people, so look up trigger warnings before reading.

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