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coffee_cake's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Gorgeous writing, distinct characters, well laid mystery, strong narration.
marmoset737's review against another edition
2.0
Not as good as I had hoped it would be - I thought it kind of rambled a lot in the middle and the ending was ultimately a disappointment. Good writer though....
reindeerbandit's review against another edition
1.0
This could have been shortened by at LEAST 40%. No one needs random musings on faith, chess, or temptation in the middle of a murder mystery. The author mentioned that the protagonist has never been able to stand up to strong women REPEATEDLY, to the point of eye-rolling because WE GET IT. Finally, the author kept saying "member of the darker nation" and "of the pale nation" in lieu of just saying white and black and it was weird and annoying. I thought about keeping track of how many times he used this phrasing specifically, but I lost count in one of the endless diatribes about something wholly irrelevant to the plot.
kah296's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
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? Yes
3.0
There was SO MUCH going on and I think probably all of it was important to the book as a whole but it at times I had a hard time keeping up while still feeling like the book was dragging a bit. It was really interesting to read a book from the early-2000s, which seems not that long ago but so many of the cultural touchpoints referenced in the book have become so heightened.
olivesnook's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
shireen72's review against another edition
1.0
disappointing. hackneyed writing. needed an editor badly.
ali_km's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
margonicolson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
cde10's review against another edition
2.0
For me, this was the book that would never end. I wanted to read it, because I haven’t seen the legal thriller through the narration of Black lawyers and upper class Black families. Unfortunately, for me, it took 200 pages (of >600) to become interested it what was going on. Then once I thought it was over, it had another 100 pages of fluff. It also had that early 2000s male narrator, who is “forward thinking”, but somehow still can only think of his female would be assassin as someone who’d want to have sex with him if she wasn’t on a hired job and every time he mentions his lesbian co-worker and friend, reminds us they aren’t together romantically. I felt like every minute that the story spent circling around the main character’s wife and her affairs it become so boring I was hoping the story would just end. It felt overwritten and used many of the same phrases over and over again. If I read “chewing on cotton” one more time… I know I’m in the minority here, but I probably wouldn’t read another book by this author.