Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Sign of Four: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

21 reviews

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.0

I read The Sign of the Four many years ago, and enjoyed it. Read it again as part of the Letters from Watson, where in 2023 we read all the short stories in internal chronological order, and in 2024, the four novels. Very interesting, this one. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

frankieclc's review against another edition

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, and Racism

decodethebooks's review against another edition

dark

2.0

commits both the sins of being hugely racist and just really confusing.
locked room mystery was fun. turning that into a treasure hunt is not so fun.
and once again the massive amounts of racism and descriptions of colonisation was a real turn off… shocking I know.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Murder, and Colonisation

theatrenerd_'s review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I preferred this to A Study in Scarlet, although it followed a similar structure. Loved this and the appearance of the Mary Morstan plotline! 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, and Sexism

Minor: Ableism and Murder

ran_sophia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The book's writing is of excellent quality and precision.  Reading it was a nice time for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Confinement and War

pedanther's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Murder, War, and Classism

Minor: Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

softiejace's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Addiction and Cannibalism

ggcd1981's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

The Sign of Four é o segundo livro na série de Sherlock Holmes e, na minha opinião, foi melhor do que o primeiro. Nessa obra a atmosfera de Londres Vitoriana estava ainda mais intensa e mesmo quando em partes do livro a narrativa mudou de localização para a Índia enquanto um dos personagens contava partes da história foi muito mais atmosférico e misterioso do que o enorme flashback nos Estados Unidos de A Study in Scarlet. A narrativa, acredito, foi mais bem construída também pois Holmes e Watson figuram na maior parte da história e não foram necessárias extensas porções do livro com personagens secundários e longe dos protagonistas, como foi o caso do primeiro livro. Em The Sign of Four foi introduzido a personagem Mary, interesse romântico de Watson. Ela é honesta, firme, de caráter e coragem, mas não foi particularmente marcante. O mistério foi mais intrigante também em relação ao primeiro livro, apesar do tema vingança ter se repetido, esse foi desenvolvido de forma mais interessante.

O cenário montado nessa segunda obra foi bem mais estimulante, especialmente com cenas marcantes como a cena de um dos personagens no seu leito de morte vendo na janela o rosto terrível do homem que temia.

Mesmo já sabendo um pouco do que se tratava a resolução do mistério (em se tratando de Sherlock Holmes é quase impossível não ter nenhum spoiler) ainda assim desfrutei da leitura. O ponto negativo do livro foi o racismo e o body shaming direcionado ao personagem que pertencia a um dos povos pigmeus. Isso é não justificável, mas esperado de um livro escrito em 1890. Tendo isso em vista minha nota da obra é baseada na atmosfera, personagens e o mistério desenvolvido. Assim dou 4.5 estrelas.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Racism, Slavery, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Stalking

Minor: Misogyny and Violence

slothburglar's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This is a fun mystery with clues to put together. The chemistry between Watson and Holmes is really enjoyable.

Like the last book, there is a long departure from the narrative that is a sort of flashback that for me ruins the pacing. So it lost a lot of appeal for me there.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Minor: Death

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Ok, wow, mixed bag on this one. On one hand, the mystery its self is very fun; locked room, treasure, a mysterious calling card, its all cool. On the other hand, good God is this one racist. Most of the ACD Sherlock stories I've read keep that good ole' English racism to a minimum, but The Sign of Four seems to have dialed it up to ten to make up for that. I don't think you can go two pages here without reading multiple paragraphs of Watson or some other character just using the rudest, most vile descriptions possible for Indian people. I can't say I didn't expect it, because I know just how horribly the English viewed Indian people at the time, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to read. I'm not kidding, though, the racism in this one is really really bad, especially because we don't get the usual Holmes thing of having the story at least somewhat go 'um, actually, the people society hates are actually just people and it is in fact the rich bastards who suck'. Just yikes.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and War

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail