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A review by book_busy
The Beetle by Richard Marsh
4.0
3.75/5
Surprisingly dynamic and kooky for its time. Although the overly exotic and stereotyped character of the Arab was dishearteningly clique and villainised, much like dracula, this bizarre character and its magic added a lot of excitement to the novel. Sydney Atherton was by far my favourite character as he was so annoying it became endearing. The beetle in itself was well-used but seemed to disappear completely for several chapters and I thought Lessingham's backstory could have potentially been revealed in a better-integrated way than a huge spool of dialogue. I enjoyed this but it felt at time like it dragged due to all the multiple perspectives sometimes rehashing the same details or the 'comedic' tone of the dialogue delaying plot progression slightly in favour of being wink wink amusing. Still, I much prefer it to Turn of the Screw of Castle of Otranto so that must mean something. The fact I didn't fly through it shows it wasn't amazing though.... it felt a bit aimless towards the end and the conclusion was far from what I'd call satisfying.
Surprisingly dynamic and kooky for its time. Although the overly exotic and stereotyped character of the Arab was dishearteningly clique and villainised, much like dracula, this bizarre character and its magic added a lot of excitement to the novel. Sydney Atherton was by far my favourite character as he was so annoying it became endearing. The beetle in itself was well-used but seemed to disappear completely for several chapters and I thought Lessingham's backstory could have potentially been revealed in a better-integrated way than a huge spool of dialogue. I enjoyed this but it felt at time like it dragged due to all the multiple perspectives sometimes rehashing the same details or the 'comedic' tone of the dialogue delaying plot progression slightly in favour of being wink wink amusing. Still, I much prefer it to Turn of the Screw of Castle of Otranto so that must mean something. The fact I didn't fly through it shows it wasn't amazing though.... it felt a bit aimless towards the end and the conclusion was far from what I'd call satisfying.