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A review by nolemdaer
Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Considering how annoying almost all of the characters (including the narrator) are, this book is incredibly easy to read. I'm not sure if it was the simple, clear prose, but I got through this very quickly. I actually left feeling like I'd missed half the book, despite reading 300+ pages; it seemed like the mystery concluded right after it began. I don't know if it was all the fourth-wall-breaking slight of hand - which I did find bearable after I gave into it a bit more and when the narrator stopped playing around with referencing specific numbers and such - but it genuinely seemed like the murder occurred, we had two scenes, and then the MC was gathering everyone to reveal whodunit with only a modicum of investigation and absolutely no insight into his thought process besides sly winks to the audience. I guess this is a long way of saying the pacing felt weird. The climax similarly just kind of happened, and then there was apparently a little mini extra climax that was over in about a paragraph, so I won't count it.
The little meta in-jokes and what-have-you were, as I said in my first journal entry, definitely the author trying to be too cute, but they weren't too bad the further you got in. There's not much helping the MC being white guy supreme (there's a scene where he says something sexist and then a moment after gets to be all like "no, that's not me; I feel so wrong saying that," which is having your cake of being sexist and eating it too by claiming you're not actually sexist), but I was able to read a whole book with him front and center.
I honestly don't know why I picked this book up after solidly DNF-ing the first one; I think the train setting was just too tantalizing. I'm not especially inspired to pick up the next, but at the same time this experience was so relatively painless (besides irritation at the characters) that I can see myself knocking any sequels back without a problem. While all the backstories are juicy, I don't think the mystery is really that interesting in itself, but this is a good popcorn book if you just want to get through something.
The little meta in-jokes and what-have-you were, as I said in my first journal entry, definitely the author trying to be too cute, but they weren't too bad the further you got in. There's not much helping the MC being white guy supreme (there's a scene where he says something sexist and then a moment after gets to be all like "no, that's not me; I feel so wrong saying that," which is having your cake of being sexist and eating it too by claiming you're not actually sexist), but I was able to read a whole book with him front and center.
I honestly don't know why I picked this book up after solidly DNF-ing the first one; I think the train setting was just too tantalizing. I'm not especially inspired to pick up the next, but at the same time this experience was so relatively painless (besides irritation at the characters) that I can see myself knocking any sequels back without a problem. While all the backstories are juicy, I don't think the mystery is really that interesting in itself, but this is a good popcorn book if you just want to get through something.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Murder