58%
This obeyed the creative writing rules of conflict, pacing, engaging all senses and heaping misfortune on the protagonist, and was therefore an absorbing read. It was rather heavy handed on how bad life was for everyone - rich and poor - in 18th-century Paris, and, of course, especially for women. The characters were also a little vaguely drawn, being defined by one or two significant USPs, but it was an unusual take on an interesting period.
17.11.23
The story's main character wasn't so much the detective as the lovely small-town Australian setting which, intriguing as that was for a Brit like me, made it not very thrilling for a thriller and not very mysterious for a mystery. Although the plot unfolded agonisingly slowly, I did keep on reading, which was something, but came away with a sense of it being a deeply conservative tale of people unable, or unwilling, to make a life away from the town they were born in.
12.11.23
This was an engaging family saga, and the historical and cultural details gave it an extra layer of interest. It was a shame, then, that most of the characters seemed only to be there as cyphers, and that several elements of the plot were either unconvincing or just didn't make sense. And there was a weird sense of mythical history about events that only took place 50 years ago. So, as usual, more editing might have moved it towards the 'Masterful' promised on the cover but it remains a reasonable read.
This modern classic was spectacularly (spectre-cularly?) well written on a line level, a model for using different techniques to create atmosphere, which explains its presence on Eng Lit reading lists. But the pace and the story itself didn't match that poetry. It wasn't particularly scary and only slightly creepy. And it never was clear why the woman wanted to get her revenge on random people. She just did. I suppose ghosts don't need to explain themselves.
I normally avoid Heyer knock-offs, but this author had written an academic thesis on her so I decided she'd know how to approach it. The clincher was some reviewers' horror at the (actually rather sweet) lesbian subplot - what fun, I thought, and it was. It was no Heyer, of course - the characters lacked her vividness, and the immersion was spoilt by too much 'telling', too much modern-tinged dialogue, and several glaring errors that should have been picked up by an editor. But, yes, it was fun - and, yes, I have rated it higher than a few of Heyer's novels.
55%
This won a prize for being funny but I didn't find any jokes amongst the misery of living with death and the threat of death in '90s small-town Northern Ireland. There also wasn't much of a plot. Which was a shame, because the protagonist was exactly the same age as me but I couldn't identify with her at all. The many inaccuracies about the Oxbridge entrance process at that time were also annoying - it was a small thing but noticing the errors ruined the immersion and veracity of what was otherwise a vivid account of a particular culture at a particular time.
This was never going to be high literature or deeply poetic but it was a fun, funny and well written update of the supernatural murder mystery genre - the realistic volume of swearing and a non-binary character could upset die-hard (ha!) cosy mystery fans but it worked for me. It did wander a bit in the middle (as did the main character - it's always best to focus on one location in stories like this) but, overall, it was dead good (ha again!).
05.10.23
This was diverting enough but it could have done with another draft to make the relentlessly unsympathetic anti-hero(ine)'s motivations less muddled, to cut the dull details and weird cultural observations, to streamline the plot, to focus the humour and to sharpen the characters. (And another copy edit to get rid of the irritating comma splices; also distracting in Cat Lady - is this a thing now?) I think at the end you were supposed to shout 'The injustice!' but frankly she had it coming.
46%
'An absolute joy'? 'Laugh out loud'? 'Hilarious'? Only if you think an irritating narrator with unresolved trauma and possible neurodiversity dealing badly with more trauma is funny. I'm all for dark humour but this wasn't funny - or well paced or feminist or based on any sort of reality (owning a cat is not in itself quirky and weird). After a slow and laboured three-quarters, the ending was rushed, with the emphasis on all the wrong elements.
70%
The idea of a clone trying to solve their own murder isn't new but I really enjoyed this take on the theme. It's strikingly well written on both a sentence and chapter level, the characters are interesting, the worldbuilding is clever and the issues of identity, parenthood, death and the ethical use of technology are well explored. What spoilt it was the annoying ending that exposed various plot holes and didn't address its own implications. But the first 90% - fantastic!
61%
What makes this interesting - other than the details of how the urban American legal system works - is the character development arc. It could have been a standard procedural but the narrator goes from shrugging off the ethical issues of defending guilty people to confronting and eventually embracing the complexity of different cases. There was a lot of unnecessary visual detail, though - who cares what side of the sofa people are sitting on?
01.09.23
This book is much better than the weird cover image suggests. It's character led - without feeling unfocused - and so sharply observed that it's impossible not to flinch - or to laugh out loud at the awkward humour of dysfunctional families who just want to find some sort of mutual understanding.
(Fleeting and unnecessary mention of the pandemic. This annoys me more and more. It's fiction - there's simply no need!)
Objectively, this novel could have been better. The author admits in her acknowledgements that it wasn't planned out, and that much is clear - it ambles along with little conflict, pacing or plot and is about 100 pages too long. Such books are usually character driven but all the characters are blandly, uncomplicatedly nice except for the two pantomime villains. Modern concerns are awkwardly shoved in - everyone, with their early 19th-century sensibilities, immediately accepting and understanding neurodiversity, climate change, sexual freedom, and queer and trans characters. Yes, we get it, they're born in the 'wrong time'. But, somehow, for all these flaws, it was still an evocative and engaging read.
18.08.23
I started this a couple of times and didn't get too far but this time I focused on getting through it. I've previously found Cannon's prose too flowery and her plots too heavy handed and this was no exception. And I'm all for unreliable and even unsympathetic narrators but it was very difficult to root for this one. That said, the observational comedy was sharp and the awkward Britishness well captured.
14.08.23
There's a thin line between cleverly self-referential and plain irritating, but I think this mostly balanced on it successfully. It's an entertaining murder mystery that plays by the rules - all sorts of rules - and is a lesson in writing (and editing) itself too. The actual story was more confusing than exciting but the hook - a family of killers! - held it together, even though (spoiler!) that turned out to be somewhat misleading.
Points for cleverness and attention to detail. Time travel mysteries need careful planning and plotting, and this clearly had plenty of that - even if some other aspects were slightly off (who picks up their 18-year-old kids from school?). Also points for only mentioning the pandemic in passing.
More Heyer, more fun, more predictable romance with a less predictable mystery which, nevertheless, was resolved with panache by the engaging and resourceful characters.
51%
I've struggled with Moreno-Garcia's style before - it feels awkwardly translated even though it was originally written in English. This story was also awkward - "walk through rooms, hallucinate, argue, repeat" with a final few chapters that didn't make sense. Not at all creepy, anyway, and, the colonial point was lost as the baddies could have been any nationality, as long as they were outsiders.
Interesting concept and world building, with its pace hampered by being split into a trilogy, so that, in the end, it felt incomplete.
