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emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
While I did end up enjoying Apricot's Revenge after the first 150 pages of slog, it was overall on the cusp of what I'd consider readable.
I'm usually not a fan of crime novels; the only reason I picked this one up is for Storygraph's genre challenge (a crime novel in translation). I find that crime novels tend to be copaganda, whether intentional or not, and they tend to focus so much on little details that the overall content of the book suffers. This book is no exception.
As stated previously, the first half of the book was incredibly boring. The author gives me no reason to care that a real estate CEO has been murdered, and no reason to want the incompetent, jerkwad cops or nosy journalist to solve the crime, either. What follows is a long, drawn-out case with the idiot cops running around like chickens with their heads cut off. In real life, the murder would have been written off as a drowning immediately. There's too much description; too much background on characters that don't get brought up again; the cops and Nie going to this place and that, learning nothing pertinent to the case; awkward, unnatural dialogue that drags out for too long; etc. The cops are one-dimensional and not very likable: Cui is the hardass who wants to shut the case; Chief Wu exists to shut up Cui; Xiaochuan is the idiot newbie; and Yao Li is the token woman who's a "chocoholic" and has the hots for Nie.
I can't tell if these things, coupled with the clipped, lifeless writing style, is the result of poor writing, poor translation, or simply by virtue of its genre. Nearly every line of dialogue is followed by an explanation of the dialogue, which defeats the entire purpose. Regardless of the intention of the author, I do believe the translation job on this one was sloppy. I'm almost positive that I missed out on jokes and idioms that translated poorly, which tends to happen with translations. However, there were some moments that the word choice seemed bizarre; at one point there's a line about a bus stopping, and Nie wonders if the bus needs... water? I do not know enough Chinese to guess, but I feel like they definitely meant "gas." There were also some grammatical and formatting errors or inconsistencies that suggest an incomplete proofread.
All that said, the plot does pick up. It's still a lot of the same: our ragtag team hounding people for pages on pages without getting any information, but at least this time they were uncovering secrets. Ultimately, the books is about (only a minor spoiler)horrible, powerful men getting what's coming to them . That surprised me, especially that the thing that prompted it was (more major spoiler this time) the sexual abuse of women . And the author handled it with sensitivity and grace that I find hard to believe would come from a male author with this subject matter. Truly I think the ending was well-executed and brought the book to its natural conclusion.
Although... the English title of the book is a spoiler. You'll know why when you get to it.Zhong Tao's flashback that mentioned Apricot by name was a mistake.
I'm usually not a fan of crime novels; the only reason I picked this one up is for Storygraph's genre challenge (a crime novel in translation). I find that crime novels tend to be copaganda, whether intentional or not, and they tend to focus so much on little details that the overall content of the book suffers. This book is no exception.
As stated previously, the first half of the book was incredibly boring. The author gives me no reason to care that a real estate CEO has been murdered, and no reason to want the incompetent, jerkwad cops or nosy journalist to solve the crime, either. What follows is a long, drawn-out case with the idiot cops running around like chickens with their heads cut off. In real life, the murder would have been written off as a drowning immediately. There's too much description; too much background on characters that don't get brought up again; the cops and Nie going to this place and that, learning nothing pertinent to the case; awkward, unnatural dialogue that drags out for too long; etc. The cops are one-dimensional and not very likable: Cui is the hardass who wants to shut the case; Chief Wu exists to shut up Cui; Xiaochuan is the idiot newbie; and Yao Li is the token woman who's a "chocoholic" and has the hots for Nie.
I can't tell if these things, coupled with the clipped, lifeless writing style, is the result of poor writing, poor translation, or simply by virtue of its genre. Nearly every line of dialogue is followed by an explanation of the dialogue, which defeats the entire purpose. Regardless of the intention of the author, I do believe the translation job on this one was sloppy. I'm almost positive that I missed out on jokes and idioms that translated poorly, which tends to happen with translations. However, there were some moments that the word choice seemed bizarre; at one point there's a line about a bus stopping, and Nie wonders if the bus needs... water? I do not know enough Chinese to guess, but I feel like they definitely meant "gas." There were also some grammatical and formatting errors or inconsistencies that suggest an incomplete proofread.
All that said, the plot does pick up. It's still a lot of the same: our ragtag team hounding people for pages on pages without getting any information, but at least this time they were uncovering secrets. Ultimately, the books is about (only a minor spoiler)
Although... the English title of the book is a spoiler. You'll know why when you get to it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Murder
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Sexual harassment
Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Suicide attempt, War