Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

6 reviews

sandysmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I read this book, having watched this book on TV, and I no longer have access to watch the second series, aka the second book. Whilst I was familiar with the story and they didn't really change much I really enjoyed the spies of Slough House, spies that have royally messed up in one way or another and are sent to do boring jobs that no "real" spy has time for. They are nick named slow horses and are led by the very unpleasant Jackson Lamb. River Cartwright is the newest member of the Slough House team failing his final assessment. It's funny, certainly British humour that appeals to me, unlikeable and many characters that remain unpleasant but grow on you. I am really hopeful I have found a spy thriller series I can get my teeth into, and the second book is already on order from the library. Wonderful stuff

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, and Suicide

collegiate_assessor_kovalyov's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, Racism, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Medical content, Outing, Sexual harassment, and War

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I picked this up on a whim, and later learned that my mom really likes the series and was surprised that I hadn't heard of it before then. 

We open with River making a mistake that gets him sent to Slough House, with the Slow Horses. A time later, things start slowly happening, with a journalist being investigated. This section is very very slow, and the timeline is so convoluted as to be "wibbly wobbly", making it very hard to figure out what's happening in the present time or what happened in the past, or even, what's not happening, what didn't happen. 

The kidnapping and the actual plot involving who the kid is and why he was kidnapped is awful and many sections seemed unnecessary. 

I found the first half far too slow, and the second half was way too full of sections where a character would say that he knew things and then the next sentence would be "so he told them". 

The character's names were far too similar; I gave up around the middle of the book ever figuring out who was who and why I should care about them. The writing was decent and the thriller aspect was good, but the pacing was way off, and the "so he told them" lines started getting frustrating very early on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

dtrain3000's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

 I didn't find this book as funny as everyone in the reviews had told me it was going to be. It was actually quite dark. There were some elements that were comical but I was not laughing out loud at any point.

That being said, I enjoyed the premise of the book. A bunch of agents from MI5 go to a dead-end part of the agency and get themselves wrapped in a mission way over their heads. The characters are quite lovable and the reader wants them to win because of their underdog status.

What I didn't like was the large ensemble cast. It was confusing to keep everyone's backstory straight. The constant moving between storylines made it difficult to keep track of where the reader is in the overall plot.

I also found Herron's prose to be difficult to follow and verbose at times. I found myself at multiple points in the book thinking "why do I need to know this?" which is never something you want.

Overall, I still found the book really interesting. There were amazing twists and turns, lovable characters, and an interesting premise for future books. I would recommend anyone who is interested in spy novels to read because it's an modern take on the genre. But my only word of caution would be to take your time because you will likely get confused. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

smitinghedgehog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail