itsjennie 's review for:

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

2.5

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I had to really force myself to finish this one. The main character was completely unlikeable from page one. The mystery was a slog- it really felt like the main character was just running around in circles doing nothing but feeling self righteous and telling literally everyone to pet her service dog for the first 80% of the book. All the reveals just happened one after another right at the end, with some coming way out of left field while not really adding anything to the story, like

the kid being actually an abducted child from an unrelated cold case a decade prior

.

I definitely would have DNF'd this at 40% if I wasn't trying to read all the Hugo nominees this year.