The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
dorsetreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Grief, Mental illness, and Misogyny
Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Addiction, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Blood
alexandra_a_a's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, Child abuse, and Addiction
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Ableism, Misogyny, and Abortion
microbemom's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Cursing, Mental illness, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Violence
dlperin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture
jhbandcats's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
~~~~~~~
I couldn’t figure out why it was taking me so long to make any progress in the electronic version and then I realized the paper version is 900+ pages long. I loved every page. I think Rowling is a great writer, creating an intriguing plot and complex characters, doing a surprising amount of research on detailed locations and with complicated astrology / Zodiac info. Her pacing is great - she always adds a bit of humor when the tension is getting to be close to unbearable.Â
I fear I’m not articulating just how much I loved this book. I have been a big fan of the Cormoran Strike series since I read the first one.
Graphic: Terminal illness, Vomit, Alcohol, Cancer, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Confinement, Murder, Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Misogyny, Rape, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Sexual assault, and Torture
sauvageloup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Pros:
- Rowling is an exceptional writer; the complicated but satisfying plot, the mixture of straightforward tone interspersed with moments of lyrical descriptions and reflection, the characterisation and development, the slowly eked out relationship development, the depth of every single side character, how each character's dialogue is made distinct and accents rendered realistically, the research that's clearly gone into it... just so much to admire in the actual writing and her skill.
- I like Robin and Strike and many of the other side characters. They feel real and Rowling puts across their emotions very well. There's a very real feeling of being as harried and pressured as Strike clearly is with everything piling up and then the release at the end.
- the plot was complex but wrapped up very neatly at the end. It was complicated by various characters' mixed motives but it didn't feel forced.
Cons:
- My only complaint about the writing was that it was *massively* confusing at the beginning. SO. MANY. NAMES. Got super confused. Also later on completely forgot who
- Rowling's views... Rowling as a person... that was just in my head the whole time I was reading.
- her views then come through in this book, more than the others I think. This is the first book to come out post Rowling revealing herself as a massive transphobe and I think there's a lot of elements of that that come through in this.
-
Anyway, the book was written excellently, but Rowling is a piece of shit. Unfortunately, I am also very jealous of her writing abilities and wish they'd been given to someone more worthy.
Graphic: Rape, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny
Minor: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
cmreadsbooks's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Rape, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Sexism
Moderate: Cancer, Grief, Kidnapping, and Miscarriage
Minor: Racism
samanthaxe's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I was also wondering whether Rowling would use this opportunity to make a statement about trans people, and she does.
So, trigger warnings for what you'd expect in a gritty thriller, with an emphasis on almost unrelenting violence against women, and I'd also add a trigger warning for Rowling's seemingly benign use of things like cross-dressing to make an insidious and harmful point about gender identity.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture
Moderate: Cursing, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
jgrace's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship
sefkhet's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I have read the whole thing, and I can say with confidence that it did not need to be 927 pages long. Indeed, I have tagged what otherwise would be a fairly fast-paced book as slow-paced because it did not need to be 927 pages long.
I will also say up front that the best character in the whole book is Wolfgang, the dog.
I've given it two stars because I like Strike and Robin, and because I think this has the fundamental building blocks of a story that would have been great in the hands of a different writer. I've liked Strike and Robin since The Cuckoo's Calling, which I read before anyone knew who Robert Galbraith was. I was pleased when Robin got shot of Matthew midway through Lethal White (not least because three and a half books is quite long enough for any woman to haul a plot device around as if it's a small grenade), and although Robin's character development in this book is fairly predictable, it isn't entirely bad.
On the other hand, the regression of a number of the other long-standing women characters in the book in support of Robin's character development is teeth-grindingly awful. So far as Strike is concerned, Robin's chief asset has always been that she is Not Like Other Women, and that is a casually misogynist viewpoint that I'll forgive Strike on the grounds that the main person he tends to be comparing her to is his ex-fiancee. In the previous books, I've had no difficulty reading it as Strike's viewpoint, mainly because the previous books have featured women in the supporting cast who have not been written as stereotypes or as foils for Robin. Ilsa, Vanessa, and Linda have sacrificed their personalities in this book and I don't even know why.
The narrative is filled with casual bigotry -- against women, against fat people, against women of colour, against people with regional accents. The narrative is in third-person omniscient, so take from that what you will. When the narrative in the later Harry Potter books was full of holes, we forgave it because it was written from the point of view of a canonically oblivious teenage boy. She doesn't have that excuse here.
The transphobic dogwhistle of an A-plot that was the subject of so much of the advance publicity is pointless, given that it's entirely about the dangers of cisgender men rather than trans women. (I suspect the author sees neither the irony nor the nuance.) It didn't need to be included, and the story itself would have lost nothing at all and would have needed to be changed not at all if it had never been mentioned.
And that's without getting into the factual errors, the continuity errors, and the pages upon pages of fully transcribed interviews full of ellipses and difficult-to-read phonetically-spelled regional accents that just aren't needed.Â
The really disappointing thing is that the resolution to the murder is actually well set up and satisfying and creepy, but by the time we got to it I'm not sure I cared anymore. Also,Â
I find myself wondering what the BBC might do with this, when they get there. There's a lot of scope for them to tell it better.
Graphic: Rape and Violence
Moderate: Transphobia, Sexism, Misogyny, and Fatphobia