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A review by emupiter
Sprängaren by Liza Marklund
3.0
this book was everything that i thought it wasn't gonna be, but it was also everything that i thought it was gonna be?
The Bomber is the first book (if you follow the published order) in the Annika Bengtzon series. The Olympics is about to take place in Sweden but all of a sudden, the head of the Olympic Organizing Committee, Christina Furhage dies in a bombing. Annika Bengtzon, who is a journalist at Kvällspressen keeps interviewing people about Furhage's death and she realizes that there were a lot of people that wanted Furhage dead. But she's still determined to solve this murder mystery and she might be on to something, something that the police might not even have thought about.
I really thought this book was going to be boring, i can't say that it was a couldn't stop reading book exactly but i did enjoy some parts of it a lot. The thought of this book being more about love drama than the actual murder mystery scared me, but it was, according to me a perfect balance. And also, can we talk about the lgbt+ rep in this book??? I was a 100 % sure that there were only going to be straight characters in this book, but there's a lgbt+ character in this book and they're super cool and loud about their identiy (as loud as you can be if you're in a swedish book writen by a straight person). You think that sounds cool? Well what if i told you that there aren't just one lgbt+ character, but two< lgbt+ characters in this book? Yeah, the lgbt+ rep was a nice surprise and it made the book a lot more interesting, at least for me.
The writing style is pretty good, and Liza Marklund didn't use words that i didn't understand that often. It was easy to follow the story, probably because it was so extremly slow. Now, i know some people like it when it's not rushed, and i do too, but this book was just too slow. This book is about 415 pages, but it feels like everything that happens in this book happens during two if not one week. Marklund realy drag things out, and i'm not the biggest fan of it. It made me really excited to see the film though. It was almost like reading a script for a film or a tv show, if the script was written as a book (does that make any sense?). And the chapters........there are less than 10 chapters in this 415 page book. And the chapters aren't really chapters either so if i'm gonna be totally honest with you, there are nochapters in this book. I am a person who don't like to stop reading in the middle of everything, but with this book, i just had to do it. the "chapters" were so long, and because i didn't find every part of the story interesting and good, i just had to stop in the middle of a page. And it was not satisfying at all.
But i did enjoy the characters, for the most part. And i really liked the different dynamics. I will forever adore Annika's and Schyman's relationship. I want to know more about their relationship and how it was formed. Annika really seem to look up to Schyman a lot, and he's almost like a father or a big brother to her and i absolutely love that! I alos liked the drama that was going on between Annika and multiply coworkers. I felt frustraded sometimes, when someone did or said something stupid, just like Annika did.
It's also realistic to some extent. Annika feeling like she has to choose between her job and her family is something people all over the world feel. That there is at least one lgbt+ person in a situation like this is realistic. And althought i think the last scene was overall realistic, i felt like cringing at some parts cause i just felt like some things would never happen in a situation like that.
The book was an alright book and i did like it. I look forward to read the other books, and hopefully, there will be a 5 star read in this series.
I'm giving this book: ★★★
The Bomber is the first book (if you follow the published order) in the Annika Bengtzon series. The Olympics is about to take place in Sweden but all of a sudden, the head of the Olympic Organizing Committee, Christina Furhage dies in a bombing. Annika Bengtzon, who is a journalist at Kvällspressen keeps interviewing people about Furhage's death and she realizes that there were a lot of people that wanted Furhage dead. But she's still determined to solve this murder mystery and she might be on to something, something that the police might not even have thought about.
I really thought this book was going to be boring, i can't say that it was a couldn't stop reading book exactly but i did enjoy some parts of it a lot. The thought of this book being more about love drama than the actual murder mystery scared me, but it was, according to me a perfect balance. And also, can we talk about the lgbt+ rep in this book??? I was a 100 % sure that there were only going to be straight characters in this book, but there's a lgbt+ character in this book and they're super cool and loud about their identiy (as loud as you can be if you're in a swedish book writen by a straight person). You think that sounds cool? Well what if i told you that there aren't just one lgbt+ character, but two< lgbt+ characters in this book? Yeah, the lgbt+ rep was a nice surprise and it made the book a lot more interesting, at least for me.
The writing style is pretty good, and Liza Marklund didn't use words that i didn't understand that often. It was easy to follow the story, probably because it was so extremly slow. Now, i know some people like it when it's not rushed, and i do too, but this book was just too slow. This book is about 415 pages, but it feels like everything that happens in this book happens during two if not one week. Marklund realy drag things out, and i'm not the biggest fan of it. It made me really excited to see the film though. It was almost like reading a script for a film or a tv show, if the script was written as a book (does that make any sense?). And the chapters........there are less than 10 chapters in this 415 page book. And the chapters aren't really chapters either so if i'm gonna be totally honest with you, there are nochapters in this book. I am a person who don't like to stop reading in the middle of everything, but with this book, i just had to do it. the "chapters" were so long, and because i didn't find every part of the story interesting and good, i just had to stop in the middle of a page. And it was not satisfying at all.
But i did enjoy the characters, for the most part. And i really liked the different dynamics. I will forever adore Annika's and Schyman's relationship. I want to know more about their relationship and how it was formed. Annika really seem to look up to Schyman a lot, and he's almost like a father or a big brother to her and i absolutely love that! I alos liked the drama that was going on between Annika and multiply coworkers. I felt frustraded sometimes, when someone did or said something stupid, just like Annika did.
It's also realistic to some extent. Annika feeling like she has to choose between her job and her family is something people all over the world feel. That there is at least one lgbt+ person in a situation like this is realistic. And althought i think the last scene was overall realistic, i felt like cringing at some parts cause i just felt like some things would never happen in a situation like that.
The book was an alright book and i did like it. I look forward to read the other books, and hopefully, there will be a 5 star read in this series.
I'm giving this book: ★★★