awkward_swine's reviews
12 reviews

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I have no idea why I read this as a ten year old, this book is so sad yet heartwarming, it’s a wholesome tale that I’d recommend to anyone who loves a good warm story, perfect for reading in the winter.

Death on the Nile: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is how a mystery is done. *applause* all I’m going to say is to pay attention from the very beginning, there’s clues from the start and everywhere. The murderer was certainly unexpected and you’ll see why if you ever read it! This is my favorite book of hers in the Poirot series and had me hooked from the beginning. Amazing writing, characters, description, it made me feel like I was in Egypt.

The Clocks by Agatha Christie

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’m gonna be honest… I was disappointed at first because Poirot was barely in this book, but Agatha gave us a good character named Colin and his inexperience and friends make this book quite enjoyable and make up for Poirot’s absence for basically the entire book! They labeled this a Poirot mystery but it felt like Poirot was the supporting character which isn’t usually the case. But it’s a very good book.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What i loved about this book was that it was fast into the murder, and even though there’s literally a dozen suspects, it elaborates on all of them and gives them their own chapter! It’s an awesome book and deserves the praise it gets! Bravo, Agatha!

Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

You certainly won’t have your head in the clouds with this mystery lolz. It’s a great book and honestly her most underrated one I’ve read. The characters are as usual well-developed and it’s an enjoyable read and it has an unusual setting! An airplane!!

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This was book was near unreadable, for the first half of the book it talks about this card game, Bridge, which I have no idea how to play, so I literally had to look up videos on how to play to understand it. It takes forever to get into the mystery, I was low-key disappointed, but once it does get into the mystery it’s actually pretty good. I honestly think this book was an excuse to flex off Agatha Christie’s Bridge skills LOL.

Mystery on Hidden Lane by Clare Chase

emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a slow, “relaxing”, cozy Murder mystery. It’s not fast and it’s a great book to have with a warm beverage in the winter. Although it’s unrealistic that this girl is a obituary-writer and “detective” it’s a great mystery and very good for a modern one.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was amazing, it’s Agatha’s most sold book and I can see why! This book is very nuanced and the characters are very well-written, overall it’s easily a 100/10, she went above and beyond.

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

As an Agatha Christie stan, I can say I love it when she turns nursery rhymes into murder mysteries, while this isn’t one of her best, it’s certainly good! It’s a bit slow though, and the murder is a cold case so there’s no “current investigation.” If you mean what I mean.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It’s a medium-paced book, but I never really got to connect to it, I do think that if you’re a beginner in Murder mystery novels this is a great starter novel, but as someone who loves them, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Overall, I did appreciate Lucy Foly’s writing and hope to read another one of her books to give her another chance.