A review by skurtyka89
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

An unfinished novel is intriguing on its own, but having the subject matter be a murder/disappearance makes for a very mysterious thing. Unfortunately, the majority of the story is taken up with boring, long, un-needed descriptions. When getting to the sparse meat of the mystery, I was interested and engaged; but those moments wet few and far between (obviously Dickens was going to write a lot more to the story and probably edit it down a lot too, if he hadn’t died; so while I do understand why it was still so wordy, it made it hard to read. I had to keep reminding myself that this story is like a rough draft). The characters have a little depth. The pretend trial that more modern authors created at the end of the book (after Dickens’ death) was the most interesting part of the book, as it proposes possible alternate endings. It was good to read, just to say I’ve read it and to be “in” with one of literature’s most enduring mysteries. I am genuinely so so curious as to what the actual mystery was going to be. 
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