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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
kumcer yang NDAGING DAN PUAS BGT BACANYA! disuguhkan gabungan supernatural sm pembunuhan, ni buku keren bgt. wkwkww nggak slh aku tertarik sm judulnya waktu pilih pilih mau baca judul yg mana. menurutku banyak plotnya dan banyak karakter yg ngga terduga di masing - masing cerita. cerita yang paling kubenci judul Yang Terakhir, karna tokoh Raoul itu terlalu LOL😭😭😭. BENCIII BGT. tpi keseluruhan ini pengalaman membaca baru buatku, karna first time namatin bukunya Agatha. ternyata memang sekeren ini!!!😫🩶
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“The things we call supernatural are not necessarily supernatural at all. An electric flashlight would be supernatural to a savage. The supernatural is only the natural of which the laws are not yet understood.”
This is not a typical Agatha Christie book that is based on reasoning and logic to which we are accustomed. In contrast, these short stories lean more towards the supernatural. It’s a genre that I enjoy a lot in movies as well as in books. Whilst some of the stories end on a vague note, almost making me believe in the supernatural, others have a more logical and sensible conclusion. Every story has its own charm though.
It was interesting to see how matters of the mind can be perceived differently by different people. This book is also a reminder that humans with greed and cruelty in their hearts can be much scarier than the supernatural. One story that highlights this is ‘Wireless’ in which a man tricks his aunt into believing her dead husband speaks to her through the radio, urging her to join him in death. I thought this was such a cruel thing to do in order to inherit her wealth. Unfortunately for him, he ends up with nothing due to an unforeseen side effect this elaborate hoax has on his aunt’s testament. If only he had the patience and decency to wait for her natural death, which apparently was not too distant. What goes around comes back around indeed.
Another remarkably clever story is ‘The Witness for the Prosecution’. Even if there is no big plot twist, it was still an interesting story because it highlights the psychology of humans. The main character was right to hide her devotion to her husband and to try to make him seem guilty out of spite instead. Stories that come to light through indirect means have more credibility than those told directly by the source. Our main character plays right into this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Child death, War
This collection had some of my favourite Christie short stories as well as some I already can't hardly remember. If I can recall, there is a lot of overlap between this collection and The Last Seance as both collections focus on her more preternatural tales. Overall definitely worth it, if you're willing to wade through a couple snoozers.
Favourites in this collection: "Wireless", "The Lamp", "The Witness for the Prosecution", "The Mystery of the Blue Jar".
Favourites in this collection: "Wireless", "The Lamp", "The Witness for the Prosecution", "The Mystery of the Blue Jar".
This is a collection of what I think of as Christie's "creepy" stories: the ones about premonitions, supernatural powers, and things like that. When I first read these as a teenager they creeped me out incredibly, but now I'm not so into them.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Blood, Grief, Murder, Classism
Minor: Ableism
dark
mysterious
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:
No
Interesting collection of stories. Some are better than the others. Not the usual garden-variety whodunit plots...although I am a sucker for those!!!
Most of the stories are psychological thrillers and/or deal with the supernatural, one way or the other. I suppose after watching TV shows like the X-Files and Supernatural, the stories were pretty tame. However, for the time when they were written, I thought the plots were quite impressive in how dark they were.
One thing though that is starting to annoy me is how ethnocentric Ms. Christie was. This attitude of "the Brits are perfect and the foreigners are archaic and evil" seems to resonate particularly in this book!!! The "foreigners" always tend to be the "bad guys", which can get kind of old. It's surprising since Ms. Christie's most famous detective Hercule Poirot is foreign, which leads me to believe that she was not really anti-foreigners per se.
I have been reading Agatha Christie for years now and it has only started bothering me lately. Perhaps that is the influence of the times we are living in now!!!
Most of the stories are psychological thrillers and/or deal with the supernatural, one way or the other. I suppose after watching TV shows like the X-Files and Supernatural, the stories were pretty tame. However, for the time when they were written, I thought the plots were quite impressive in how dark they were.
One thing though that is starting to annoy me is how ethnocentric Ms. Christie was. This attitude of "the Brits are perfect and the foreigners are archaic and evil" seems to resonate particularly in this book!!! The "foreigners" always tend to be the "bad guys", which can get kind of old. It's surprising since Ms. Christie's most famous detective Hercule Poirot is foreign, which leads me to believe that she was not really anti-foreigners per se.
I have been reading Agatha Christie for years now and it has only started bothering me lately. Perhaps that is the influence of the times we are living in now!!!
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
3.5 stars actually! This collection of short stories focus on supernatural and spiritual-related tales. Most of these twelve works have a Agatha Christie twist especially at or near the end. Two of them are well worth almost anyone's time: "Witness for the Prosecution" and "The Call of Wings."
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:
No
Kumcer pertama yang gue baca dari beberapa kumcer yang dirilis oleh Dame Agatha Christie. Menurut gue, isinya sih rada nano - nano dan ga semuanya misteri. Malah beberapa cerpen itu kental sama aura supranatural. Gara - gara dulu gue baca The Pale Horse dan ngerasa kalau kleniknya agak menipu, gue jadi berharap beberapa klenik di kumcer ini juga aslinya tipuan. Tapi ternyata, beberapa emang beneran! Jadi untuk beberapa cerita, emang rasa horrornya lumayan kental.
Review singkat per cerpen:
Anjing Kematian : Entahlah, gue ga paham apakah iya itu susternya beneran dapat penglihatan atau delusional aja. Endingnya pun menurut gue kurang jelas
Tanda Bahaya : Pembunuhan tapi dilakukan oleh orang gila. Ada diskusi apakah kegilaan seseorang itu sifatnya turunan
Orang Keempat : Ini juga gue kayak skeptis gitu sih. Dame Agatha mencoba menulis kisah tentang orang berkepribadian ganda tapi ternyata ga seperti yang selama ini kita kira
Lampu : Mayan sereeeem. Endingnya gue kurang jelas sampai pas baca lagi, ternyata oh ternyata
Radio: Ini cuma bisa bilang ke pelakunya "syukurin loe!!" XD
Saksi Peristiwa : Menurut gue cerpen yang terbaik sih di kumcer ini. Misterinya cukup solid, ga kalah sama misteri yang ditulis di buku2 full novelnya dame Christie
Misteri Guci Biru : Cuma bisa bilang "ya ampun kasihannya" setelah baca endingnya
Kasus Aneh Sir Arthur Carmichael : Absurd. Tapi sesuai sama tema supranatural yang jadi benang merah kumcer ini
Panggilan Sayap - Sayap : Sama juga anehnya, hehehe. Lebih ke supranatural ketimbang misteri
Yang Terakhir : Ini paling horror sih. Lebih horror daripada cerpen Lampu
SOS : Rumah terpencil dan tulisan SOS. Entahlah, karena pendek ceritanya jadi kurang tereksplor dan endingnya pun menggantung
Kumcer yang pas kalau kamu pengen tahu apakah dame Agatha Christie juga bisa menulis cerpen yang sama menariknya dengan novelnya. Kalau kata gue sih, ga semuanya bagus ya dan banyakan terkesan nanggung. Plus, mungkin karena gue berharap cerpennya misteri semua, pas ada unsur supranatural gue udah kadung skeptis duluan berharap - harap jangan2 aspek supranatural alias kleniknya itu ngibul doang hahahaha
Review singkat per cerpen:
Anjing Kematian : Entahlah, gue ga paham apakah iya itu susternya beneran dapat penglihatan atau delusional aja. Endingnya pun menurut gue kurang jelas
Tanda Bahaya : Pembunuhan tapi dilakukan oleh orang gila. Ada diskusi apakah kegilaan seseorang itu sifatnya turunan
Orang Keempat : Ini juga gue kayak skeptis gitu sih. Dame Agatha mencoba menulis kisah tentang orang berkepribadian ganda tapi ternyata ga seperti yang selama ini kita kira
Lampu : Mayan sereeeem. Endingnya gue kurang jelas sampai pas baca lagi, ternyata oh ternyata
Radio: Ini cuma bisa bilang ke pelakunya "syukurin loe!!" XD
Saksi Peristiwa : Menurut gue cerpen yang terbaik sih di kumcer ini. Misterinya cukup solid, ga kalah sama misteri yang ditulis di buku2 full novelnya dame Christie
Misteri Guci Biru : Cuma bisa bilang "ya ampun kasihannya" setelah baca endingnya
Kasus Aneh Sir Arthur Carmichael : Absurd. Tapi sesuai sama tema supranatural yang jadi benang merah kumcer ini
Panggilan Sayap - Sayap : Sama juga anehnya, hehehe. Lebih ke supranatural ketimbang misteri
Yang Terakhir : Ini paling horror sih. Lebih horror daripada cerpen Lampu
SOS : Rumah terpencil dan tulisan SOS. Entahlah, karena pendek ceritanya jadi kurang tereksplor dan endingnya pun menggantung
Kumcer yang pas kalau kamu pengen tahu apakah dame Agatha Christie juga bisa menulis cerpen yang sama menariknya dengan novelnya. Kalau kata gue sih, ga semuanya bagus ya dan banyakan terkesan nanggung. Plus, mungkin karena gue berharap cerpennya misteri semua, pas ada unsur supranatural gue udah kadung skeptis duluan berharap - harap jangan2 aspek supranatural alias kleniknya itu ngibul doang hahahaha
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Murder
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Child death