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A review by mo_mentan
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
4.0
maybe only *3.5?
i wasn't as much of a fan of this one as i was of the last. i felt the metafiction aspect was turned down quite a notch, even though the whole reason ernest is on this train is a literary festival and basically all the suspects are writers. the setting was interesting, but i would have loved it to be more flashed out.
i think i actually enjoyed many of the twists and turns, except for who the actual killer was. it didn't feel quite fair (despite of what ernest was telling us again and again), because i felt like harriet hadn't had many lines or "page time" at all. also, the motive seemed weak and unrealistic, and her showing up in ernests hotel room was unnecessary and just over the top.
i think talking about sexual abuse and gender discrimination in fiction is very important and the victims in this actually had quite some agency. but at the same time, ernest and the whole narrative convey this very _white_ kind of girlboss feminism as the solution (yeyyy i-already-forgot-her-name just got rich through blackmail and girlbossing, how great!). futhermore, although the police do look very dumb again, ernest doesn't question or reflect on their existance and broader position in society at all. the same is true for his view on justice (oh now harriet died, now she won't rot in prison).
i do like juliette (? sorry, i listened to the audiobook and have no clue how all of the name's are spelled, it took me several hours to understand that the guy from the train company was called aaron and not erin, like ernest's ex) and i would like her to become more central to the story. maybe do some detective work herself?
certainly gonna read the next one :)
i wasn't as much of a fan of this one as i was of the last. i felt the metafiction aspect was turned down quite a notch, even though the whole reason ernest is on this train is a literary festival and basically all the suspects are writers. the setting was interesting, but i would have loved it to be more flashed out.
i think i actually enjoyed many of the twists and turns, except for who the actual killer was. it didn't feel quite fair (despite of what ernest was telling us again and again), because i felt like harriet hadn't had many lines or "page time" at all. also, the motive seemed weak and unrealistic, and her showing up in ernests hotel room was unnecessary and just over the top.
i think talking about sexual abuse and gender discrimination in fiction is very important and the victims in this actually had quite some agency. but at the same time, ernest and the whole narrative convey this very _white_ kind of girlboss feminism as the solution (yeyyy i-already-forgot-her-name just got rich through blackmail and girlbossing, how great!). futhermore, although the police do look very dumb again, ernest doesn't question or reflect on their existance and broader position in society at all. the same is true for his view on justice (oh now harriet died, now she won't rot in prison).
i do like juliette (? sorry, i listened to the audiobook and have no clue how all of the name's are spelled, it took me several hours to understand that the guy from the train company was called aaron and not erin, like ernest's ex) and i would like her to become more central to the story. maybe do some detective work herself?
certainly gonna read the next one :)