A review by enchantingreads_rosyreviews
Wordhunter by Stella Sands

dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In all honesty, this book was not what I thought, and I'm not mad at it. I was at the store, saw this cover & was captivated by it. Assuming it had something to do with technology (b/c of the cover design), I read the back & learned it's a mystery. Then I flipped through it & saw these cool word tree diagrams, so I assumed those were the notes our FMC was deciphering as she worked with the police to solve a single case. Now that I've read the book, all of these assumptions are more or less wrong. However, I couldn't put the book down! It felt a little like a storyline we would see portrayed in a season of the True Detective TV series.

"Once away from buildings and strip malls, she hammered down—fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty—and passed miles of sawgrass, wetlands, abandoned farmland, billboards for Jesus, billboards for gator meat, billboards for free vasectomies. She passed single-wides flying the stars and bars, an occasional junkyard-slash-gas station, possibly even some dead bodies." ...

"Anyone whose middle name is part of his identity is either a serial killer or planning to become one. For sure, that included most of the men in Florida... Maybe she was suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome. If it wasn't the crawling bugs, fluttering bugs, swarming bugs, stink bugs, no-see-ums, and kamikazes, it was the in-your-face, ever-present assortment of hustlers, rednecks, pedophiles, and mass murderers—all of whom, she was certain, lived on her block—not to mention the strung-out dropouts high on meth or heroin. Not to mention the dealers. The pimps. The..."

This wasn’t a book I expected, but I was captivated from start to finish. The world Maggie, our FMC, lives in isn’t a glamorous one, far from it. But its seedy characters & disheveled structures add so much flavor to this story. Coupled with Maggie’s dry humor, IDGAF personality, & her wicked intellect, I was completely sucked into this story. Plus, her relationship with Detective Jackson & the other townies made me laugh at their quirky banter.

(I mean, this is how she handles unruly diner patrons:)
"By now, several other regulars had filed in. In no time, they were acting in their customary Neanderthal manner... Maggie stood in the middle of the diner and spoke so everyone could hear her: 'The louder you hoot, the smaller your dick. It's a fact.' No one said a word. Maggie could always count on her potty mouth, perfected over years of living on Royal Palm Court, to garner respect."

This book focuses on Maggie’s life: going to grad school for linguistics, working at a diner, riding her motorcycle around town & working with the local police to help solve cases. Stella gives us a unique, rich, multi-layered storyline, but never leaves us confused about what’s happening & leaves us with an open ending for future books.

"She made herself stop and forced herself to repeat what was on the mug she drank from everyday: Keep calm by focusing on compartmentalizing. Yup, compartmentalization has its advantages. Ask any serial killer."

This was my first time reading a mystery, which is typically a genre I don't take a lot of interest in (I'm not a Dateline girlie). But there's something about Stella's writing & characters that drew me in, making it challenging to put down the book & be a responsible adult. I genuinely didn't know where the book was going & was surprised many times, which kept it interesting. 
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