A review by jaymc
Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

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? Yes

2.0

I found this book and the deeply unlikable main character so annoying. It must have been doing something right as I read to the end, but generally I found it full of underdeveloped ideas and characters, lacking in the atmosphere the title and blurb promised, and not half as clever or funny as it thought it was. 

It either leant into the supposed 'meta' element of a crime novel about writing a crime novel too much, and smacked you about the head with very obvious and superficial ideas/references - or not enough, and the ridiculous things the main character was doing just came off as poorly thought out writing/plotting choices. 

I rolled my eyes so hard at the ending, which just seemed like a hasty way of wrapping things up because the crime part was done and they remembered there's supposed to be some sort of character development goes on in novels too. You know what, now I've written this out I'm mad again and I'm taking it down another star, I was too cowardly going in at 3.