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A review by mnboyer
When I'm Dead by Hannah Morrissey
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Book of the Month: October 2023
I will never understand why Book of the Month decided to include a book that was the third in a series as one of their selections -- while you likely can read this as a standalone (as I did), it does seem like it would be better to have started getting to understand Black Harbor and its residents in the first book (I did not read the first two so again, maybe not!). But coming into the third book blind, I kind of felt like there were subtleties I wasn't picking up on. Let's ignore this though and just talk about When I'm Dead as its own book.
The writing was dull and I easily found myself wanting to wander over to other books in progress. That's not a great sign because a book like this (genre, cops, murder, teens, the cover!) should really be one that holds my interest. I just never really got sucked into the world or the story. In fact, the more that I start thinking about the world, nothing makes any sense and it becomes pretty unbelievable (even for fiction!).
Let's talk about some of these issues:
1) A male teacher is accused of grooming a senior in high school; they later marry, but the accusations are there and are known. And you want me to believe ANOTHER SCHOOL hired this man? I doubt it. Very much doubt it.
2) Taxidermy classes? At a high school? Where they also get to bring in the DEAD FAMILY PET?! I'm sorry. We can barely get schools to cover the basic courses, can barely get them to keep the fine arts going, but this school has a taxidermy course? That more than one person is taking? I'm all for hobbies. I even know a taxidermist! But the more I think about this one the more I just cannot believe it to save the novel's life here.
3) A cop's daughter goes missing. Terrible. Tragic. They leave him working the case (against any and all logical judgement). I mean, small town or not, everyone knows they're not going to leave this guy on the investigation. A better plot would have him doing all of the work without authorization and going against everyone but... this was just so blatantly never going to be allowed in the real world that I'm surprised an editor didn't mention it to the author.
4) Since when did medical examiners get to perform autopsies on people they knew? Most would say, similar to issue #3, this isn't happening in the real world a lot. But even if I get over this part... oh yeah, the dead body is part of a larger murder investigation where your missing/could be a killer even daughter is involved. They're not going to let her perform the autopsy on this teen! No way.
5) The redundancies are eye-rollingly bad. The autopsies are almost identical (if not entirely identical) which one could perhaps explain as: duh, same serial killer. But at the same time the writing is just so bland and droll that I don't even think that was what the author was thinking. Just, they described the autopsies similarly.
6) The writing is overdone -- and not in a good way. Using a thesaurus doesn't make a town or its vibe creepier. You don't have to use $5 words to give ambience when you can do the same with great description and $2 words. There are so many passages where the writing was bringing the pacing and the story down that, combined, the entire story lagged.
Lastly, and I hate to say this, (7) the story is pretty obvious, contrived, and seems less entertaining the further you read. I just doesn't grab you. They are very, very obviously pointing to one person as the potential killer. I mean, I certainly had an idea long before others did.
I think the only redeeming thing about this book is Libby, as a character. She's odd, a little creepy, and even though it wasn't her job to hold the story together, I liked her more than I did any of the 'main' characters!!
I will never understand why Book of the Month decided to include a book that was the third in a series as one of their selections -- while you likely can read this as a standalone (as I did), it does seem like it would be better to have started getting to understand Black Harbor and its residents in the first book (I did not read the first two so again, maybe not!). But coming into the third book blind, I kind of felt like there were subtleties I wasn't picking up on. Let's ignore this though and just talk about When I'm Dead as its own book.
The writing was dull and I easily found myself wanting to wander over to other books in progress. That's not a great sign because a book like this (genre, cops, murder, teens, the cover!) should really be one that holds my interest. I just never really got sucked into the world or the story. In fact, the more that I start thinking about the world, nothing makes any sense and it becomes pretty unbelievable (even for fiction!).
Let's talk about some of these issues:
1) A male teacher is accused of grooming a senior in high school; they later marry, but the accusations are there and are known. And you want me to believe ANOTHER SCHOOL hired this man? I doubt it. Very much doubt it.
2) Taxidermy classes? At a high school? Where they also get to bring in the DEAD FAMILY PET?! I'm sorry. We can barely get schools to cover the basic courses, can barely get them to keep the fine arts going, but this school has a taxidermy course? That more than one person is taking? I'm all for hobbies. I even know a taxidermist! But the more I think about this one the more I just cannot believe it to save the novel's life here.
3) A cop's daughter goes missing. Terrible. Tragic. They leave him working the case (against any and all logical judgement). I mean, small town or not, everyone knows they're not going to leave this guy on the investigation. A better plot would have him doing all of the work without authorization and going against everyone but... this was just so blatantly never going to be allowed in the real world that I'm surprised an editor didn't mention it to the author.
4) Since when did medical examiners get to perform autopsies on people they knew? Most would say, similar to issue #3, this isn't happening in the real world a lot. But even if I get over this part... oh yeah, the dead body is part of a larger murder investigation where your missing/could be a killer even daughter is involved. They're not going to let her perform the autopsy on this teen! No way.
5) The redundancies are eye-rollingly bad. The autopsies are almost identical (if not entirely identical) which one could perhaps explain as: duh, same serial killer. But at the same time the writing is just so bland and droll that I don't even think that was what the author was thinking. Just, they described the autopsies similarly.
6) The writing is overdone -- and not in a good way. Using a thesaurus doesn't make a town or its vibe creepier. You don't have to use $5 words to give ambience when you can do the same with great description and $2 words. There are so many passages where the writing was bringing the pacing and the story down that, combined, the entire story lagged.
Lastly, and I hate to say this, (7) the story is pretty obvious, contrived, and seems less entertaining the further you read. I just doesn't grab you. They are very, very obviously pointing to one person as the potential killer. I mean, I certainly had an idea long before others did.
I think the only redeeming thing about this book is Libby, as a character. She's odd, a little creepy, and even though it wasn't her job to hold the story together, I liked her more than I did any of the 'main' characters!!