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A review by atomic_tourist
Survivor's Guilt by Robyn Gigl
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Survivor's Guilt was off to a stronger start than Gigl's previous novel, By Way of Sorrow. I could really start to see how Gigl found her footing writing the characters, dialogue, and getting the pacing right. It was gratifying!
Like By Way of Sorrow, I have an overall favorable impression of Survivor's Guilt. It's compellingly readable and gets the balance right between being plot-driven and character-driven. The solution to the mystery was a tad obvious, but that didn't detract much from my experience as a reader; to me, in Gigl's books, the mystery of 'who did what and why' is secondary to the bigger question of 'what will happen in trial?'.
That said, I did have some other issues with this book. They are as follows:
- There's a Lisbeth-Salander-esque character in Survivor's Guilt. In fact, she is so reminiscent of Salander that I'd be surprised if Gigl didn't model her after the original. I have mixed feelings about this, because reading Survivor's Guilt felt (a bit - Gigl is not at Stieg Larsson's level) like reading the Millennium Trilogy, in the best way. The stakes were high, the characters were interesting, and the book was hard to put down. But ultimately, I was disappointed because it feels like Gigl just plagiarized from Larsson, and I know she can do better than that. This is a pretty big caveat for me.
- The one other thing that seriously impeded my enjoyment of the book is all of the copaganda. I am a mystery fanatic, so by necessity, I have made my peace with a certain level of police propaganda in my literary diet. I'm not happy about it, but I've accepted it, and I don't believe it matters too much since I can see through the BS and trust most other readers can, too. However, Gigl takes it a bit too far here... What was hardest for me to accept is that the Salander-esque character was in Fallujah and is described as 'serving her country.' But in general, there are just too many good cops in this book and also in its predecessor.
The Erin McCabe books are making history because there truly are not many other OwnVoices novels on trans women getting published. So it's disappointing that Gigl chooses to portray a false reality where trans & queer safety is contingent on the police when a simple Google search reveals that this is incorrect, both historically (Stonewall being an obvious example) and still to this day (I think this Vox article is a decent intro to the topic).
Like By Way of Sorrow, I have an overall favorable impression of Survivor's Guilt. It's compellingly readable and gets the balance right between being plot-driven and character-driven. The solution to the mystery was a tad obvious, but that didn't detract much from my experience as a reader; to me, in Gigl's books, the mystery of 'who did what and why' is secondary to the bigger question of 'what will happen in trial?'.
That said, I did have some other issues with this book. They are as follows:
- There's a Lisbeth-Salander-esque character in Survivor's Guilt. In fact, she is so reminiscent of Salander that I'd be surprised if Gigl didn't model her after the original. I have mixed feelings about this, because reading Survivor's Guilt felt (a bit - Gigl is not at Stieg Larsson's level) like reading the Millennium Trilogy, in the best way. The stakes were high, the characters were interesting, and the book was hard to put down. But ultimately, I was disappointed because it feels like Gigl just plagiarized from Larsson, and I know she can do better than that. This is a pretty big caveat for me.
- The one other thing that seriously impeded my enjoyment of the book is all of the copaganda. I am a mystery fanatic, so by necessity, I have made my peace with a certain level of police propaganda in my literary diet. I'm not happy about it, but I've accepted it, and I don't believe it matters too much since I can see through the BS and trust most other readers can, too. However, Gigl takes it a bit too far here... What was hardest for me to accept is that the Salander-esque character was in Fallujah and is described as 'serving her country.' But in general, there are just too many good cops in this book and also in its predecessor.
The Erin McCabe books are making history because there truly are not many other OwnVoices novels on trans women getting published. So it's disappointing that Gigl chooses to portray a false reality where trans & queer safety is contingent on the police when a simple Google search reveals that this is incorrect, both historically (Stonewall being an obvious example) and still to this day (I think this Vox article is a decent intro to the topic).