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A review by lasairfiona
9tail Fox by John Courtenay Grimwood
1.0
I want so much to like this book. The idea of a dead man waking up in another body to try and solve his own murder intrigues me but it took some serious masochism to finish the book. It could go the mythical route (a 9 tailed celestial fox shows the chinese mythos) or even an almost sci fi route (surgery?) to keep my interest. Unfortunately, this book goes nowhere. The main character, Zha, has the makings of a well rounded little sh*t whose flaws outweigh his plusses who just might try to make it right but the author can't keep the character in mind. Zha is all over the place. He starts out as a misunderstood cop who has an empathy with the street people and ends up nowhere. The flaws, including womanizing and a forgetfulness when it comes to family, seem like additions instead of the integral pieces they should have been. The author must have intended for these flaws to make Zha a great character but Zha wanders through the book, seemingly lost and leaves the reader even more confused than Zha seems to be.
That doesn't even address the difficulty I had reading the story. It reads like the editor likes to read things by highlighting lines and accidently deleted a ton of the material in the process. In addition, the author seemed to have a clear beginning and a clear end with no clue what to do in the middle. The chapters occasionally switch to another character but it doesn't happen often enough for it to make sense (why am I reading about Russia during WWII when the character had barely been mentioned?). Some chapters have to be labeled flashback. There is _no_ flow in this book.
Could someone rewrite this? The character Zha deserves a deft hand. Zha could stand out in a story that was only okay and even more so in a murder mystery with 9 tailed foxes.
That doesn't even address the difficulty I had reading the story. It reads like the editor likes to read things by highlighting lines and accidently deleted a ton of the material in the process. In addition, the author seemed to have a clear beginning and a clear end with no clue what to do in the middle. The chapters occasionally switch to another character but it doesn't happen often enough for it to make sense (why am I reading about Russia during WWII when the character had barely been mentioned?). Some chapters have to be labeled flashback. There is _no_ flow in this book.
Could someone rewrite this? The character Zha deserves a deft hand. Zha could stand out in a story that was only okay and even more so in a murder mystery with 9 tailed foxes.