Scan barcode
A review by qu33nofbookz
The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder by Sarah J. Harris
1.0
This should really be titled the primary color of Bee Larkham's Murder because despite the thousands of colors and shades out there the author sticks to mainly a limited shade of the primary colors the most prevalent being blue. I did not enjoy this book.
This story is told in the POV of Jasper, a thirteen-year-old autistic boy who also suffers from prosopagnosia (face-blindness), to combat this so we know who the boy is speaking to or looking at or knowing anybody/thing the author also gave him synaesthesia (seeing sounds as colors). This might sound intriguing but it's actually very frustrating. I applaud the author for trying to give a very unique and not often used perspective (an autistic person) but she went too far and it's just annoying and frustrating here. The autism means that Jasper can get super focused on one thing while ignoring or not understanding others. This also leads to a lot of repetitive sentences and information (you could cut about 60-70 pages because of repeated stuff. In this case it's parakeets, which unless you like parakeets becomes very old very fast. Since we only see the world through his eyes and he doesn't like anyone, we the reader don't connect or find the other characters likable either. Also it's appalling that no one in this boy's life seems fit to help him or know how to interact with him given all his issues. They all ignore that he needs a little extra care and help. They all also ignore the glaringly obvious manipulation of him by an asshole, pedophile neighbor. The author also seems to write like having/knowing about a pedophile neighbor who is having a sexual relationship with a minor is nothing to be concerned about.
As the story starts we know that Bee Larkham is murdered. As the story unfolds via Jasper's increasingly frustrating POV and unreliable narrative we learn what lead up to her murder. The who is given right off the bat but the why takes a bit longer and it wasn't pleasant. But again as time goes on we learn more and then finally the author gives background on why Bee did what she did/became the way she was (an ass who hates everyone, manipulates people to get what she wants, cares about no one but herself and thinks nothing of having sex with minors) and it felt like it was a bit of an excuse/cop out to mask her bad behavior.
This story is told in the POV of Jasper, a thirteen-year-old autistic boy who also suffers from prosopagnosia (face-blindness), to combat this so we know who the boy is speaking to or looking at or knowing anybody/thing the author also gave him synaesthesia (seeing sounds as colors). This might sound intriguing but it's actually very frustrating. I applaud the author for trying to give a very unique and not often used perspective (an autistic person) but she went too far and it's just annoying and frustrating here. The autism means that Jasper can get super focused on one thing while ignoring or not understanding others. This also leads to a lot of repetitive sentences and information (you could cut about 60-70 pages because of repeated stuff. In this case it's parakeets, which unless you like parakeets becomes very old very fast. Since we only see the world through his eyes and he doesn't like anyone, we the reader don't connect or find the other characters likable either. Also it's appalling that no one in this boy's life seems fit to help him or know how to interact with him given all his issues. They all ignore that he needs a little extra care and help. They all also ignore the glaringly obvious manipulation of him by an asshole, pedophile neighbor. The author also seems to write like having/knowing about a pedophile neighbor who is having a sexual relationship with a minor is nothing to be concerned about.
As the story starts we know that Bee Larkham is murdered. As the story unfolds via Jasper's increasingly frustrating POV and unreliable narrative we learn what lead up to her murder. The who is given right off the bat but the why takes a bit longer and it wasn't pleasant. But again as time goes on we learn more and then finally the author gives background on why Bee did what she did/became the way she was (an ass who hates everyone, manipulates people to get what she wants, cares about no one but herself and thinks nothing of having sex with minors) and it felt like it was a bit of an excuse/cop out to mask her bad behavior.