Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by thanmayi
Murder Most Actual by Alexis Hall
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
This is an especially hard review to write because I absolutely love Alexis Hall, but I didn't quite enjoy this book as much as the rest of his work. It mostly had to do with the fact that it felt unnecessarily long while also somehow a lot of things were happening back to back to the point where I couldn't process the information before the next thing happened.
While the romance is supposed to be a subplot, it was probably the most annoying thing in the book. Liza was so bloody unbearable while Hanna is probably your dream partner. I didn't get why the main characters were together to the point where I was almost waiting for them to split by the end of the book. I get it marriage is hard, but it felt like their marriage had come to the point where while Hanna wanted to do anything to fix it, Liza was on a goose chase to figure out who the murderer was and barely made any effort while saying that she wanted to.
But the thing that bugged me was the fact that the entire book while written in third person POV, barely showed anyone else's point of view except Liza's which makes me wish that it had been written in first person POV instead like many other Hall books that I love.
I'm probably just nitpicking here but I don't think Hall did any research before creating a black MC because she seemed whitewashed and even smaller details like (braids are but into scarfs to protect them not because they hurt) makes it obvious.
Apart from all the negative, the book in itself isn't bad, I liked the setting of the murder and the entire mystery and thoroughly enjoyed reading about the side characters. It's an enjoyable read for when you want to read something which is just the right amount of light-hearted and dark.
While the romance is supposed to be a subplot, it was probably the most annoying thing in the book. Liza was so bloody unbearable while Hanna is probably your dream partner. I didn't get why the main characters were together to the point where I was almost waiting for them to split by the end of the book. I get it marriage is hard, but it felt like their marriage had come to the point where while Hanna wanted to do anything to fix it, Liza was on a goose chase to figure out who the murderer was and barely made any effort while saying that she wanted to.
But the thing that bugged me was the fact that the entire book while written in third person POV, barely showed anyone else's point of view except Liza's which makes me wish that it had been written in first person POV instead like many other Hall books that I love.
I'm probably just nitpicking here but I don't think Hall did any research before creating a black MC because she seemed whitewashed and even smaller details like (braids are but into scarfs to protect them not because they hurt) makes it obvious.
Apart from all the negative, the book in itself isn't bad, I liked the setting of the murder and the entire mystery and thoroughly enjoyed reading about the side characters. It's an enjoyable read for when you want to read something which is just the right amount of light-hearted and dark.