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caughtbetweenpages 's review for:
Ripley's Game
by Patricia Highsmith
3.75/5
Thrillers may not normally be my thing, but there's just something about Ripley...
I'm not used to reviewing contemporary-esque stories, so I'm just going to break it into pieces as per usual:
CHARACTER:
I think that Johnathan is the most compelling of all the principal characters. He reminds me of Walter White from Breaking Bad, if Walter White weren't such an asshole. I wish that the focus had remained more heavily on him, but Tom Ripley was interesting as well, if a little bit of a cardboard cutout of a superficially charming sociopath. Besides the gender balance being decidedly male, I was pleased with the characters: moral grayness and plausible motivations, you beautiful temptresses, I will always fall for you.
Simone and Johnathan's relationship was so wonderful to read. It was complex and layered and made messy by circumstance, but underneath it all there was always love there.
Johnathan and Ripley were almost even more interesting to read. Ripley's fixation on Johnathan was jarring in contrast to his feeling-less appraisals of basically everyone else, and watching the two of them reach their own strange understandings was chilling.
SETTING + PLOT:
The setting was fair. I think it could have been stronger; I like my stories, when they're set in the real world, to FEEL as such, and this one felt as though it could have taken place almost anywhere fairly easily from an aesthetic standpoint. Sure the logistics of things like trains and language would be tricky to move, but I didn't feel as though the story were married to the location, if that makes sense. The plot itself was lovely; wonderfully paced, balancing action with suspense, and constantly raising the stakes for the characters.
STYLE:
The writing style is simplistic, with short, uncomplicated syntax and word choice, but I think it compliments the type of story well. It got a little repetitive sometimes, and I found myself needing to take breaks because of it.
Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised. I went in with low expectations and I came out with a story that, on the very surfacemost level is still a pretty exciting tale about mob bosses and murder, and a little further down is an exploration of people's priorities and how they can be exploited. I think I'll be reading the rest of the Ripley stories in the future.
Thrillers may not normally be my thing, but there's just something about Ripley...
I'm not used to reviewing contemporary-esque stories, so I'm just going to break it into pieces as per usual:
CHARACTER:
I think that Johnathan is the most compelling of all the principal characters. He reminds me of Walter White from Breaking Bad, if Walter White weren't such an asshole. I wish that the focus had remained more heavily on him, but Tom Ripley was interesting as well, if a little bit of a cardboard cutout of a superficially charming sociopath. Besides the gender balance being decidedly male, I was pleased with the characters: moral grayness and plausible motivations, you beautiful temptresses, I will always fall for you.
Simone and Johnathan's relationship was so wonderful to read. It was complex and layered and made messy by circumstance, but underneath it all there was always love there.
Johnathan and Ripley were almost even more interesting to read. Ripley's fixation on Johnathan was jarring in contrast to his feeling-less appraisals of basically everyone else, and watching the two of them reach their own strange understandings was chilling.
SETTING + PLOT:
The setting was fair. I think it could have been stronger; I like my stories, when they're set in the real world, to FEEL as such, and this one felt as though it could have taken place almost anywhere fairly easily from an aesthetic standpoint. Sure the logistics of things like trains and language would be tricky to move, but I didn't feel as though the story were married to the location, if that makes sense. The plot itself was lovely; wonderfully paced, balancing action with suspense, and constantly raising the stakes for the characters.
STYLE:
The writing style is simplistic, with short, uncomplicated syntax and word choice, but I think it compliments the type of story well. It got a little repetitive sometimes, and I found myself needing to take breaks because of it.
Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised. I went in with low expectations and I came out with a story that, on the very surfacemost level is still a pretty exciting tale about mob bosses and murder, and a little further down is an exploration of people's priorities and how they can be exploited. I think I'll be reading the rest of the Ripley stories in the future.