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A review by emilynied
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I did really enjoy this book and it's my first Agatha Christie read! The queen of mystery! This was straight and to the point, given it was less than 300 pages, and I ate it up. It was super fast-paced and built up the suspense whilst covering a lot of ground despite the small page count.
I liked the use of the poem as a quick starter for this novel and I found myself flipping back and forth to see how which character would meet their demise to fit with the stanza. While I didn't care for any of the characters really given their old-fashioned selves (and quite frankly their selfishness and frankness), I think the exploration of human nature and what is good vs. evil was super interesting and the character interactions were also fascinating to explore up until the end. I also loved reading and picking up on classic mystery tropes that I see in much of the media I consume today. I think I'll enjoy reading Christie's other books more with Hercule Poirot more, only because it will give me a character to root for and rally for (like I said, I didn't really connect with any of the characters here).
I will say, Ms. Christie is a little anti-semitic... it was on like page six y'all, like right off the bat. I was reading a pretty old version and her books were written throughout the 1900s (this one in 1939) and I actually looked it up - some of her books have been edited to remove offensive references to Jews, which is good. It seems like based on autobiographical research, Christie herself came to realize what she wrote was wrong, so take that with a grain of salt I guess. It was pretty off-putting, especially at the start to read about a main character referring to another as "that Jew" or saying things like of course he would do that, he's a Jew, etc. So I do think the reader should be aware of that before reading or venturing into Christie's works.
I liked the use of the poem as a quick starter for this novel and I found myself flipping back and forth to see how which character would meet their demise to fit with the stanza. While I didn't care for any of the characters really given their old-fashioned selves (and quite frankly their selfishness and frankness), I think the exploration of human nature and what is good vs. evil was super interesting and the character interactions were also fascinating to explore up until the end. I also loved reading and picking up on classic mystery tropes that I see in much of the media I consume today. I think I'll enjoy reading Christie's other books more with Hercule Poirot more, only because it will give me a character to root for and rally for (like I said, I didn't really connect with any of the characters here).
I will say, Ms. Christie is a little anti-semitic... it was on like page six y'all, like right off the bat. I was reading a pretty old version and her books were written throughout the 1900s (this one in 1939) and I actually looked it up - some of her books have been edited to remove offensive references to Jews, which is good. It seems like based on autobiographical research, Christie herself came to realize what she wrote was wrong, so take that with a grain of salt I guess. It was pretty off-putting, especially at the start to read about a main character referring to another as "that Jew" or saying things like of course he would do that, he's a Jew, etc. So I do think the reader should be aware of that before reading or venturing into Christie's works.
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism