Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

49 reviews

ashlurtis's review

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

3.75

This is the first time I've ever willingly read a Sherlock Holmes book and I was both surprised and not at all surprised. I've seen the newer movies and know the "lore" of the character to a certain extent, but I was not at all ready for the blatant descriptions of drug use! Bizarre, to say the least! It can be fun to read from different times/eras, and it can also be a little uncomfortable. 

I did not understand some of the lingo which I think made the story a little shallower for me, but overall I don't think I missed too much. I chose this book because it was on the smaller side, but I felt like the mystery was solved really quickly and then the back story took up most of the end, which I didn't really care about since the book was so short. I didn't have time to get invested in any of the characters, so I didn't much care where the stolen treasure came from? 

Of course there is something to be said for canon and I will most likely read more of the Doyle books I have sitting on the shelf, but I'm not running to them.
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hello_lovely13's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.25

I liked the structure of this book better than the first one; there was a better balance between the criminal’s story vs the actual solving of the crime, following Sherlock and Watson (leaning heavily towards following the narrative of the latter). However, the sheer amount of racist content in this book really decreased my enjoyment.
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rafacolog's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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rainybreeze's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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mstejpal's review

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medium-paced

3.0

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filipacmiranda's review against another edition

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3.0

 The story narrated by Conan Doyle in The Sign of the Four proved to be more interesting than its predecessor. Reading A Study in Scarlet felt like the ending came too fast. In this case, it felt the exact opposite. In some situations, such as the suspect’s pursuit, having access only to Dr Watson’s perspective made it dull. 

The mystery was appealing, even if the criminal’s motivations weren’t clear to me. Additionally, the fact that the author used retrospectives to reveal details from the crime seemed better in the text this time. 

Lastly, even as background to all the adventures and mysteries that go on, the personal stories of Sherlock and Watson started to gain shape. On the one hand, we have access to Sherlock’s addictions and mental health problems. On the other, Watson’s future wife makes her first appearance in this novel. When it comes to this love story, all I can say is there’s something special about how less than 24 hours and a few glances were enough to fall in love…
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christygsp's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh. 
First was better and hopefully others will be too. 
Written in another time but racism was there. 
Mystery was only okay. 

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orchidlilly's review against another edition

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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.
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theresacharlotte's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

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m_elisabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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