Beckilicious

"The One Where The Main Character in a Police Procedural is Accused of Murder and Turns Out To Have Zero Friends"

Revisado: 03-30-25

So I enjoyed the first three books very much. This one however I finally am kind of giving up on because it's sort of highlighted and underscored a problem that's been peeking through in the first three books.

The basic premise of this book is that the author self insert character, MC Anthony Horowitz, is accused of murder. That's not a spoiler. You will find that within the first chapter.

But that's not really a problem. What is a problem is the way that things unfold thereafter and how you start to get a look at the people around the MC.

Over the course of the first three books in the series I began to notice that the MC seemed like he had a very arm's-length relationship from absolutely everyone in his life. There were people that he liked, people that he disliked, people that he labeled as friends or family members. But really nobody that he treated like a friend or a family member. The closest we get to anything like a friendly interaction is a photograph of him and his son being referenced in book 3.

But this man, the MC Anthony Horowitz, seems to have such bizarrely distant connections with people that when he is accused of murder and arrested on suspicion of murder.... HE DOESN'T MENTION IT TO HIS WIFE. And that somehow actually typifies his interactions with people.

Parts of the plot in this book finally start to become difficult to believe/get immersed in because everybody around the MC is acting a little bit like an alien.

There's the actor who decides to rant at him about cultural appropriation in the middle of the night in a park that should've been locked.... the young actor and actress who both divulge extremely painful realities about their personal childhood in front of this author, apparently for the first time, but after having worked directly with him for months on a play, and somehow also never haven't gotten to know him well enough that he was aware of anything about their basic family details.

Even his interaction with his dog is bizarre. He refers to it as "the dog" and only later mentions that the dogs name is "lucky". And then goes back to calling "the dog". Who talks about their dog like that?

And the reason I bring up the dog in particular is because we might say that some of this is just British culture and them being famously emotionally aloof. But every book I've ever read written by a British author that included anything at all about a pet dog expressed positive sentiment and a sense of warmth and companionship towards the animal. This character does not.

And this has been a theme that is flowing through all of these books. MC Anthony horror which is a deeply lonely and disconnected man to the point that it starts to make the interactions difficult to believe Difficult to solve as a reader because nobody is reacting normally around him.

If the Anthony Horowitz character in these books isn't any anyway an actual self insert for the author… This man has a weird connection to other people. And I think he may need to go outside and make some friends.

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Heartstrings and Brain Fully Engaged

Revisado: 10-29-23

So honestly I have not fully finished the book but so far this is turning out to be a genuinely enthralling story with just enough hard science and grounding in reality to be truly thrilling and slightly terrifying.

But while I have enjoyed every moment of the story I also have to really recommend this book for its emotional content.

But chapter 4 I was in tears. Not because the story resonates very strongly with some of the things going on in the world today and hit some strong notes of fear for the future. Not because the characters and characterization were profoundly human and relatable, which they are. Instead I was in tears because There was a profound but understated description of how in a time of crisis the United States, Russia, and China all came together to form a crew with a mission to save the world.

And I realized how desperately, deeply I wish that that was something that could really happen. the story inspires a desire for both international cooperation and national pride. And I feel like that is a really difficult line to walk. Well done to Andy Weir on that.

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This book is like a loaf of bread

Revisado: 06-07-22

This book is like a loaf of bread. A simple, humble, absolutely excellent loaf of bread.

This author apparently decided that The best way to write a good vampire story was to keep it simple, keep it straightforward, and not try any fancy tricks or plot twists. And instead focus on making the words and descriptions as carefully honed and clear as possible.

The language use of this book is beautiful. You can tell that the author has a remarkably straightforward and streamlined mind. There doesn’t seem to be a single word of extraneous or unnecessary text anywhere in this book. Every single word serves a purpose. Every single sentence drives the plot forward.

What I liked most about it is that it comes across as emotionally honest. The author is good at creating settings and rhythms that will pull you into the general mood of a situation or scene without getting you so deeply involved that you walk away feeling emotionally hung over.

This book is not likely to make you laugh out loud, but it will make you chuckle. It’s not going to make you cry. But it will pull at your heart strings.

Finally I would like to complement this book on its technical skill. This is almost a textbook example of how to write a really good novel. There is a clear introduction, Set up, beginning of conflict, climax, resolution, wrapup. The author follows very consistent patterns of set up, emphasize, pay off. He leaves room for the possibility of a sequel without actually implying that there will be one.

In short: you could graph this novel out on a high school creative writing class. It’s not trying to be anything crazy. It’s just being really, really, really good at what it is.

The author consistently follows “show, don’t tell“ pays us, the readers, the complement of assuming that we have both enough intelligence and attention span to catch all the details and paint a vivid mental picture.

The story is solid. Reasonably predictable but all the better for it, in my opinion.

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Deeply Fascinating Characters

Revisado: 12-14-19

Although I have not come to expect this from Star Wars books in the past I have to say I really appreciated the authors development of the characters. I have been a fan of Thrawn as he appears in the Star Wars cycle and really enjoyed this look into his origin story and character growth.

In this story, Thrawn is brilliant, governor price is an absolute political savage, and Eli is charming and genuinely relatable.

I also really enjoyed getting to read a story that was very, very Star Wars but did not center around force using characters. (if you are looking for tales of Jedi exploits, this is not the right book.)

A few notes for audible customers specifically: although the performance of the narrator is quite good the audio engineering in this book is a little bit jarring. They have a heavy use of both music and sound effects. For some people this may be a dealbreaker.

One critical note toward the author: there is a sort of disembodied narrator voice that pops in and out of certain scenes. It may or may not be the voice of Thrawn’s internal thoughts. What it is, however, is confusing and irritating in certain spots. There are certain places where the author seems to jump back-and-forth between that particular narrating voice and several other internal monologues or narrators for no distinguishable reason. I found that really annoying.

However the book itself was very enjoyable and I think Star Wars fans will like it very much.

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Sex Negative, Bad BBC Style Imitation

Revisado: 06-06-19

Perspective: I am writing this review as someone who is a longtime fan of BBC radio dramas. And also as a sex-positive, sex-worker supporting woman.

The overall story is not bad. It’s got some classic Victorian ghost story elements, a good dose of tension, and was interesting enough to keep me listening to the end. That actually is paying quite a compliment considering it’s other problems.

First I would like to mention that this work is decidedly sex negative and definitely sex worker negative. It portrays sex as an unholy and irresistible force that drives men to do wicked and horrible things. And it portrays sex workers as participating in some sort of dark magic or social energy that is a necessary response to the abuses of men driven wild by desire for sex.

I have a lot of problems with this entire perspective. But even if you do not consider yourself either sex positive or sex work positive, this is still A store you may feel on comfortable with because it portrays all but one male character as barely controlled sex maniacs.

My other problem with this drama is that it is essentially a really bad imitation of BBC style. With BBC radio dramas you typically have extremely well written narration that is clearly marked as such through audio cues. And you have exposition that is seamlessly written into the dialogue and performed As part of the story.

This drama does not do that. The Exposition is clumsy. The dialogue feels ridiculously forced. At various points I found myself rolling my eyes asking “when in the history of ever has anyone spoken to another human being that way?“.

This is going to offend feminists. It’s going to offend human beings who believe that men are something other than sex crazed animals. And it’s going to offend people who know how radio dramas are supposed to be put together.

All of that being said: if you’re prepared to put up with the annoyances and bad social attitudes... it’s a decent enough Way to waste a few hours.

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Good, but not quite the same

Revisado: 08-07-17

I literally on every single Amelia Peabody novel on Audible.

I love them very much and this was a excellent performance by Barbara Rosenblatt and overall I would give it five stars.

However, the storytelling, logic, and style are not quite consistent. This book had to be completed by Joan Hess after the original authors demise. I think overall a good job was done but the plot does not quite live up to previous novels.

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decent performance, awful writing

Revisado: 08-02-16

I really don't know what to say about this book. My biggest compliment would be that the narrator does a decent job. Aside from the fact that I don't like the way she delivers words that are supposed to be screamed or exclaimed , I have nothing to complain about her.

but the book itself is abominable. the story is badly organized with events happening one on top of the other seemingly at random. This is supposed to be a murder mystery but it is sold not buy the collection of clues or the careful plotting of logical points but by the main character having a sudden bizarre Epiphany that is never explained.

if this were the 7th or 8th book in a series I might be able to forgive the massive amount of things that are not clearly specified. But for a first book it leaves a whole lot of Vital Information out.

I just really didn't enjoy it. The vampires don't even seem like vampires. They seem more like slightly malicious fairies with a penchant for dressing up and playing mind tricks.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

As Good As But Darker Than Gone Girl

Revisado: 06-29-16

TRIGGER WARNINGS: rape, domestic violence, underage sex.

There's a principle of Japanese flower arranging that says "to make the best arrangement, choose 1/3 as many flowers as you think you need, then choose the best 1/3 of those and use only that much."

This book does that with works and desciptions. It is both excellently written and expertly translated. It tends to sound dry at first until you realize the carefully economic use of words gives you an unusually vivid mental image of what's going on.

The plot is extremely complex with many diverse characters, lots lots of symbolism, and plot developments that are both clever and surprising but also so logical with no continuity leaps.

On the technical level: this is a world class novel.

That, however, is where my praise stops.

The characters, with only two or three possible exceptions, are horrible people. They are complex and well developed but this somehow makes their darkness more understated and thus more potent.

The host of high functioning mental illness represented is staggering and accurate and that makes it scary as hell.

In the end you hate all of them. None of them are truly innocent. None of them deserve a happy ending and the book casts doubt on the whole idea that happy endings even exist.

I left this book feeling like I had just watched a beautifully choreographed natural disaster.

Reviews compare this to Gone Girl and it is worthy of the praise. But it is even more emotionally savage and substantially darker.

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esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

Original but too Convoluted to Enjoy

Revisado: 06-20-16

I double checked to make sure this wasn't abridged because it had so many random jumps. The book flies from item to item in the story with little or no explanation of WHY those things are the way they are.

You cannot think along with the author or the characters because you are not given the basic premises of any of the mythology or its workings.

The whole book feels like everyone knows lots of things you don't and isn't bothering to read you in.

For example: Why is salt water important? Why is the "eye" important and how does blood or seminal fluid change its ability to work? Why is there a dead toddler dressed as a puppet soldier? Why does sleeping with a vampire give creative people better ideas, and how do these ideas come? How is the Catholic church involved just enough to be casually mentioned but somehow save vampire victims more effectively than anything else?

Sounds like a great book jacket until you realize NONE of this will be answered.

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Fans of Amenia Peabody Will Love Veronica Speedwel

Revisado: 04-13-16

I am a longtime fan of Elizabeth Peters Amelia Peabody series. I found Veronica Speedwell character to be of similar temperament with much better character development. The story is original but suitably melodramatic to make it worth being called fiction. The characters are fairly well written and the dialogue is good. I definitely recommend this for anybody who wants a sincere, good-hearted, and ever so slightly naughty Escape into this historical time frame.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona