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annabananna_ 's review for:
The Grey Wolf
by Louise Penny
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Giving this two stars makes me sad and also a little mad. I am a huge Louise Penny fan, have read every Armand Gamache novel, and would give an arm and a leg to live in Three Pines. I looked forward to reading this, but it was just – well – really bad?! It feels sloppy and a bit like an airplane thriller (nothing wrong with that! Just usually not what these novels feel like).
And it doesn’t feel like a Louise Penny novel: there are big editing mistakes, some scenes occur twice in short succession, gaping plot holes, a lot of jumping around between different POVs, so much so that it gets hard keeping up. Storywise, it’s one of the ‘big conspiracy’ storylines that I never loved, but that usually drove the overarching plot forward. This time, everything feels just like a repeat. We are constantly told the stakes are high, but only because a character concludes ‘what would happen if’ that don’t make sense? It ends on a cliffhanger. The story doesn’t have the usual wit and smarts, and we spend very little time in the village of Three Pines.
I know the next book will continue with this storyline, and I will read it, but I won’t be as excited to start it as I was for the last 19 books.
I wish Louise Penny took Armand back to the much smaller, simpler, well-observed adventures that I fell in love with.
And it doesn’t feel like a Louise Penny novel: there are big editing mistakes, some scenes occur twice in short succession, gaping plot holes, a lot of jumping around between different POVs, so much so that it gets hard keeping up. Storywise, it’s one of the ‘big conspiracy’ storylines that I never loved, but that usually drove the overarching plot forward. This time, everything feels just like a repeat. We are constantly told the stakes are high, but only because a character concludes ‘what would happen if’ that don’t make sense? It ends on a cliffhanger. The story doesn’t have the usual wit and smarts, and we spend very little time in the village of Three Pines.
I know the next book will continue with this storyline, and I will read it, but I won’t be as excited to start it as I was for the last 19 books.
I wish Louise Penny took Armand back to the much smaller, simpler, well-observed adventures that I fell in love with.