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A review by piddlepiddle
A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen
3.0
I think I just wasn't the right audience for this. I don't particularly care about Venice, and this really felt like a love letter to the city. So I felt I had to slog through descriptions of places I just didn't care for. Other than that, this is definitely a litfic book that has aspects of a crime/thriller, not a crime/thriller book in my opinion.
I don't think there's any mystery to the plot so definitely go in knowing that, it's a crime/thriller not a mystery/thriller. I also think it wrapped up too quickly. I wanted more of the fall out of the crime, but that's just personal opinion.
The book did feel very compulsively readable. The writing wasn't flowery in it's descriptions nor was it flat, it was very easy to get sucked in and just keep reading.
I did enjoy the exploration of gay culture, especially the relationships between older gay men and younger gay men. I would have liked more of an exploration into Clay and Nick's relationship, it just felt kinda ???? as to why Nick would go to the lengths he did for Clay. We don't really see a build up of their fast whirlwind romance that led to Nick to agree to con someone for Clay and to help him out of his debts.
Overall, this just wasn't for me and your mileage may vary if you do go to pick this up!
I don't think there's any mystery to the plot so definitely go in knowing that, it's a crime/thriller not a mystery/thriller. I also think it wrapped up too quickly. I wanted more of the fall out of the crime, but that's just personal opinion.
The book did feel very compulsively readable. The writing wasn't flowery in it's descriptions nor was it flat, it was very easy to get sucked in and just keep reading.
I did enjoy the exploration of gay culture, especially the relationships between older gay men and younger gay men. I would have liked more of an exploration into Clay and Nick's relationship, it just felt kinda ???? as to why Nick would go to the lengths he did for Clay. We don't really see a build up of their fast whirlwind romance that led to Nick to agree to con someone for Clay and to help him out of his debts.
Overall, this just wasn't for me and your mileage may vary if you do go to pick this up!