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A review by turtle_puff95
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
I think having watched the TV show first both helped and hindered my reading experience. I'm usually one to read the book first and then pick out how the TV shows or movies for the plot wrong. I think on this case though, it helped because if I had just picked this up and started reading it, I'm not sure I would have finished it. The deaths were brutal, and to children no less. Not really a subject I read often. If I hadn't already known what was going to happen, I could have seen me dnfing this book.
Now I do think it slightly hindered my experience because I kept thinking of the show and wondering why they added certain things that was not in the book.The man with the silver teeth in the show is obviously a red herring meant to make us think he's the killer. Such a man wasn't in the book at all. Also, the last boy they managed to save in the show was Joseph, the boy Moore had befriended. In the book, he's killed and sent to Moore in a sack 😰
I still finished this rather quickly and the story kept me listening, but I think I listen to things faster the more macabre they are. It's my way of getting them over with faster.
Now I do think it slightly hindered my experience because I kept thinking of the show and wondering why they added certain things that was not in the book.
I still finished this rather quickly and the story kept me listening, but I think I listen to things faster the more macabre they are. It's my way of getting them over with faster.
Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Medical content, Stalking, Bullying, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Racial slurs