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A review by bandysbooks
Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I love a good mystery, especially one with a quirky or unique main character, so I was immediately drawn in by the description of Deadly Animals. This book was sold as a mystery focused on a twelve year old girl named Ava whose obsessive interest in the decomposition rates of animals leads her to discover the body of a classmate. Though she's scared her macabre secret will be revealed, Ava can't help but get involved with the case.
Ava is an interesting character and I was engaged with her story. I actually enjoyed her so much that I was sad that she wasn't really a focus of the story. She's more of a regularly appearing side character.
Sadly, this story ended up feeling more like a slow moving police procedural. The POVs switch back and forth to adult characters and those chapters are slow and meandering. It almost felt like the author was so determined to make the adult and child POVs read differently that she overwrote the adult chapters. They were so much longer and slower.
All in all, this was a book that I really wanted to love, but just didn't quite do it for me. I don't think it's a bad book, but more just a forgettable one; I think this is more suited to someone who likes a standard police procedural.
Ava is an interesting character and I was engaged with her story. I actually enjoyed her so much that I was sad that she wasn't really a focus of the story. She's more of a regularly appearing side character.
Sadly, this story ended up feeling more like a slow moving police procedural. The POVs switch back and forth to adult characters and those chapters are slow and meandering. It almost felt like the author was so determined to make the adult and child POVs read differently that she overwrote the adult chapters. They were so much longer and slower.
All in all, this was a book that I really wanted to love, but just didn't quite do it for me. I don't think it's a bad book, but more just a forgettable one; I think this is more suited to someone who likes a standard police procedural.