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A review by ellyghost
The Turnglass by Gareth Rubin
2.0
This is a unique format for a book I have to say! One does not typically find a tête-bêche book at the bookstores these days and the fact that I never saw nor read one before made me pick it up out of curiousity. (also the fact that I do like me a really good crime mystery)
I had high expectations for this book, expecting the two stories to be two parts of a puzzle that could solve some deep dark secret of the murders in the book. Unfortunately I don't feel like it quite delivered that to me. In fact, I feel very let down by it.
I started by reading the blue side (for those who haven't read this, it's the arc that plays in the 1880s, England) and I have to say I did like it! Based on this part alone this would have been a 3.5 stars read for me. I finished it feeling like there was many loose ends and things left unanswered but I decided it might be something that could be revealed in the other half of this book.
I wouldn't say that was not the case, I indeed got my answer on why the blue side was like that but it felt kind of? Meaningless? It's a fun concept sure, the book is basically a tête-bêche within a tête-bêche but... the relevance of having it be in this format kind of eludes me? However that was not the reason why I didn't like the red side that much...
I will try to keep it short. The red side was kind of a disappointment to me. Ken's story was boring, many things that happened felt rushed and unexplored and I had a really hard time to care about the characters at all.
And if I'm being very honest the only person I cared about was Florence in the blue book.
The last nail in the coffin for me was the predictability of what happened regarding the murder of Oliver. And while being able to predict a mystery ahead of time isn't something bad and can be exciting in its own way...it was simply not the fun sort of predictability. I don't really know what to make of the villain here too. He is clearly a bad person, he shares Nazi ideals, and he talks like a disney villain.
I also can't get over how vividly we get a description of how badly the cops are treating Ken (ACAB!) vs the very shallow descriptions of Ken and Olivers friendship to the point of me wondering how deep that friendship really goes and why is Ken even doing this. Why was his (short??) acting career even mentioned? Other than advancing the plot? Ken had no personality for me, you barely know where he actually comes from and what HIS intentions are other than "oh this is my only friend here and I absolutely have to risk my neck for the guy I met like 5 times to prove that he would never commit suicide". I guess he is someone who wants to get into the show biz? Get popular quickly? Only to throw it out and forget about everything so he can stick his nose where it in fact does not belong? People telling Ken that he is "a mysterious guy" made me wonder where they even got that impression from.
All in all, the concept is cool the idea very interesting. It started with a big promise and fizzled out into a disappointing goop.
I had high expectations for this book, expecting the two stories to be two parts of a puzzle that could solve some deep dark secret of the murders in the book. Unfortunately I don't feel like it quite delivered that to me. In fact, I feel very let down by it.
I started by reading the blue side (for those who haven't read this, it's the arc that plays in the 1880s, England) and I have to say I did like it! Based on this part alone this would have been a 3.5 stars read for me. I finished it feeling like there was many loose ends and things left unanswered but I decided it might be something that could be revealed in the other half of this book.
I wouldn't say that was not the case, I indeed got my answer on why the blue side was like that but it felt kind of? Meaningless? It's a fun concept sure, the book is basically a tête-bêche within a tête-bêche but... the relevance of having it be in this format kind of eludes me? However that was not the reason why I didn't like the red side that much...
I will try to keep it short. The red side was kind of a disappointment to me. Ken's story was boring, many things that happened felt rushed and unexplored and I had a really hard time to care about the characters at all.
And if I'm being very honest the only person I cared about was Florence in the blue book.
The last nail in the coffin for me was the predictability of what happened regarding the murder of Oliver. And while being able to predict a mystery ahead of time isn't something bad and can be exciting in its own way...it was simply not the fun sort of predictability. I don't really know what to make of the villain here too. He is clearly a bad person, he shares Nazi ideals, and he talks like a disney villain.
I also can't get over how vividly we get a description of how badly the cops are treating Ken (ACAB!) vs the very shallow descriptions of Ken and Olivers friendship to the point of me wondering how deep that friendship really goes and why is Ken even doing this. Why was his (short??) acting career even mentioned? Other than advancing the plot? Ken had no personality for me, you barely know where he actually comes from and what HIS intentions are other than "oh this is my only friend here and I absolutely have to risk my neck for the guy I met like 5 times to prove that he would never commit suicide". I guess he is someone who wants to get into the show biz? Get popular quickly? Only to throw it out and forget about everything so he can stick his nose where it in fact does not belong? People telling Ken that he is "a mysterious guy" made me wonder where they even got that impression from.
All in all, the concept is cool the idea very interesting. It started with a big promise and fizzled out into a disappointing goop.