charlottesometimes's reviews
3117 reviews

Waiting Spirits by Bruce Coville

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

2.75

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

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challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

Zoe Rising by Pam Conrad

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonald

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lighthearted slow-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

2.75

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie

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

2.75

The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker, Dick Lochte

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lighthearted 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? It's complicated

1.5

I believe Al Roker is some type of celebrity. 
Being British I have never heard of him. But reading this book has led me to assume the following about him:
  1. He is a black man of middle age, probably older by now.
  2. He works on some daytime talkshow or similar
  3. He has been in TV for a long time, and doesn’t know much about any other world.
  4. He is a real good bore.
  5. He is a reactionary, conservative, slightly right-of-centre type.
  6. He is misogynistic
  7. He is racist, particularly about Asian people.
  8. He is overly interested in the military, in the sense that he is the type to choose an airport book about some man-thing like an ex-special army guy on a revenge mission or some such.
  9. He is a bad writer.

This book is dull. The characters are unbelievable and uninteresting, and there are about 175 of them named on the first 20 pages, with nowhere near enough distinguish features between them. The plot is silly and boring. The clues to the mystery are weak and poorly seeded. And the author spends inordinate amounts of time telling me about the outfits of every single character (including the Looney Tunes alien for some reason. We already know what his outfit looks like, Al. He’s famous. More famous than you.) At one point he describes a Google search in extended detail. I don’t know why. It’s not like the book wasn’t plenty long enough.

Meanwhile our lead bumbles about putting incriminating things in his pockets, bantering dully with dullards, and blaming women for their physical abuse by men. 
He also mentions turducken, which I found very upsetting. Not that I have ever eaten or seen it, I just don’t like to be reminded that there is a food whose name prominently features the word ‘turd’. How did that ever get past marketing?

Anyway, various stupid things happen in a boring manner, and then the book ends. I can’t bring myself to say much about the plot other than that I guessed the killer almost immediately, and I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t even paying attention to be honest. And I actually prefer not to guess the killer in a mystery, and just sit back and see where the story goes. Unfortunately the solution to this murder mystery was so obvious that I solved it by accident. 😐


My Friends by Hisham Matar

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challenging dark reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wouden

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challenging emotional tense 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

3.75