Scan barcode
A review by mar
Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This book was kind of a mess. The premise and setting were so promising, but jeez, the execution's ROUGH.
Let's start with the good stuff: the way the race and class dynamics were handled was one of the few genuinely compelling parts of the book, and the romance was quite sweet and well-paced - a welcome respite from the frustrating wreck that was the main plot. As for everything else...
The supportive cast is flat and uninteresting, and the main character, Lena, feels like a passive participant in her own story - she seems to hardly make any decisions at all, the plot sort of just happens to her. Most of my issues, though, have to do with the murder mystery plot. So this is a murder mystery, right? It's marketed as a murder mystery. So, naturally, you'd expect the main character to maybe try to figure out the murder mystery at some point. Wrong! Lena at no point tries to solve the murder. She doesn't take initiative, doesn't do any sort of investigating, snooping, even thinking about it that hard. Despite being one of the main suspects. (The one time she does go sleuthing in someone else's cabin, literally nothing comes of it, and it ends up completely pointless.) Furthermore: there is a surprising lack of tension in the story, considering the murderer on the loose and all, and the book's slow pace certainly doesn't help with that. The weird interludes from the murderer's POV - essentially Villain Monologues™️ - feel unnecessary, taking away suspense instead of building it up. Seriously! There were multiple points in the book where i went "oh, that would've been an actually cool plot twist, if we WEREN'T LITERALLY TOLD ABOUT IT BY THE MURDERER IN ADVANCE. why?!" I'm honestly still SO baffled by this choice. It'd take some seriously good writing and editing to pull off intertwining the main narrative with long flashbacks and the antagonist POV interludes without making it disjointed, and this book just doesn't manage it. I hoped the reveal of the murderer would redeem the book a bit, but oof, nope. It's.... not great, either. I can't really get into it without spoilers, the antagonist motivations are flimsy, and it required more suspension of disbelief that I was willing to give. Overall, it leaves much to be desired, I think. 😔
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
Let's start with the good stuff: the way the race and class dynamics were handled was one of the few genuinely compelling parts of the book, and the romance was quite sweet and well-paced - a welcome respite from the frustrating wreck that was the main plot. As for everything else...
The supportive cast is flat and uninteresting, and the main character, Lena, feels like a passive participant in her own story - she seems to hardly make any decisions at all, the plot sort of just happens to her. Most of my issues, though, have to do with the murder mystery plot. So this is a murder mystery, right? It's marketed as a murder mystery. So, naturally, you'd expect the main character to maybe try to figure out the murder mystery at some point. Wrong! Lena at no point tries to solve the murder. She doesn't take initiative, doesn't do any sort of investigating, snooping, even thinking about it that hard. Despite being one of the main suspects. (The one time she does go sleuthing in someone else's cabin, literally nothing comes of it, and it ends up completely pointless.) Furthermore: there is a surprising lack of tension in the story, considering the murderer on the loose and all, and the book's slow pace certainly doesn't help with that. The weird interludes from the murderer's POV - essentially Villain Monologues™️ - feel unnecessary, taking away suspense instead of building it up. Seriously! There were multiple points in the book where i went "oh, that would've been an actually cool plot twist, if we WEREN'T LITERALLY TOLD ABOUT IT BY THE MURDERER IN ADVANCE. why?!" I'm honestly still SO baffled by this choice. It'd take some seriously good writing and editing to pull off intertwining the main narrative with long flashbacks and the antagonist POV interludes without making it disjointed, and this book just doesn't manage it. I hoped the reveal of the murderer would redeem the book a bit, but oof, nope. It's.... not great, either. I can't really get into it without spoilers, the antagonist motivations are flimsy, and it required more suspension of disbelief that I was willing to give. Overall, it leaves much to be desired, I think. 😔
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Infidelity, Racism, Death, Classism, and Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
Minor: Antisemitism