Reviews with content warning for Racism - Shady Hollow

The cast of this book was cute in that they’re all anthropomorphized animals, and it was a cozy mystery.

However, there are some problematic and cringe aspects to it that made it so I couldn’t really give this a higher rating. This was published in 2015, so we’ll give it that it might not have aged well, but even then, I just didn’t like that the authors tried to subvert tropes or expectations with the characters and their animal equivalents in this book and in doing so, went a bit too far.

The mystery itself, though, was pretty well done and I liked most of the characters as “people.” I was just disappointed by the racial profiling and slut shaming involved.

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twistedflower2357's review against another edition

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funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

3.0

A good cozy! I found this to be a lovely, relaxing read and a pretty solid mystery overall. Be warned that the uncovering of clues is fairly slow-paced, with a greater focus on the motivations of the characters rather than the evidence and murder method. It’s definitely more of a “who-dunnit” than it is a “how-dunnit”.

The characters are all charming and have at least a small level of depth to them (though I wouldn’t go into it expecting major character development or otherwise deeply-written characters). However, there are a few side characters who I found myself rooting for or wanting to learn more about, but once something interesting was revealed about their characters, they were just… kind of dropped? Overall, I don’t terribly mind, since they were dropped for not being relevant to the mystery any longer, but it was still a bit disappointing. There are also some characters who rely on racial stereotypes, such as Lefty the raccoon and Sun Li the panda, where the animal apecies clearly correspond to different human races. These stereotypes are occasionally addressed with a little nuance, but most of the time are not. Some uncomfortable, off-handed jokes are made about racial profiling by police officers and stereotypes about the ingredients in Chinese food. It’s not very plot-relevant so I can’t say it’s a bad book just on that basis, but it’s definitely something to be aware of going in.

The focus is more on the well-developed atmosphere, a wonderful mix of cute small-town vibes with something sinister lurking beneath. One significant strength of this book is just how much Shady Hollow feels like a small town, not shying away from the good or the bad parts of that. Sure, it’s romantic and cozy, but there’s also the sense that the residents of Shady Hollow are largely close-minded and content to jump for the easiest solution to a complex murder, lending to a constant undercurrent of tension and giving Vera’s occupation as a news reporter some extra interest and relevance.

I don’t think this is a groundbreaking mystery on a technical level. The final reveal might not “wow” you if you’ve read more complex mystery stories, but I’ll reiterate that the strength of this book isn’t necessarily with the intricate mystery or characters, but the excellent atmosphere and whimsy. It’s written, paced, and executed well, making it a solid pick for anybody in need of a nice murder mystery to fall into for a few minutes before heading to bed. I would recommend it to a fan of cozies. But if you’re like me and you prefer sprawling and complicated mysteries, this book may not work for you.

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empearl1's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

A cute story on the whole, but

had some out of place feeling racism/xenophobia towards the side character panda

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.0

How did this author manage to make the book racist when it's about animals 😒

The author relies on some racist and sexist stereotypes and the characters that aren’t offensive are just boring. You’ve got the panda who runs a restaurant called “Bamboo Patch” and he used to be a doctor in his home country but now here he’s working a low-income job. He has special herbs from his homelands in a cabinet in his office (aka playing on eastern medicine). It all feels like low-hanging fruit, relying on surface level cultural information to recreate stereotypes.

Everything feels so predictable and neither the worldbuilding nor the writing made up for the lack of good characters. There's a bookshop and a coffee shop and I wanted these to be richly detailed, cosy, and memorable. They're so lack luster that they blend into the rest of the scenery which is also boring.

I only finished this to see how it ended (who was the murderer) and that was a disappointment reliant on stereotypes as well. It just flopped.

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anselm's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A good cosy mystery but except for the characters being animals, the story didn't necessarily stand out.

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