Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

24 reviews

lilacfoxes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Xenophobia

katietregs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but it took me a while to get into it. If I hadn’t been reading it for a book club, I might have even given up around page 100. 
The murder mystery aspect does have good payoff, and the characters are rich and lovable. I think it suffers from too many POV characters up front and not enough storyline events to justify the story’s overall complexity. 

I also think the suicide of Bernard felt unnecessary, and rushed. And the priest’s story was supposed to be sympathetic, but it made him seem like a weird creep to me. If the nun was going to run off with him… why did she hang herself? and why did Bogdan send the picture to Jason?

That said, it’s an impressive first novel from Osman with good mystery and great characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying and Eating disorder

sparklefarm's review

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

A nearly perfect book. So funny, and also incredibly tender and sweet. The characters are brilliant and I love them so much. However, do check the content warnings for more

suicide

than I expected. I wish that

Ron and Ibrahim had done a little reflecting on how their words might have affected Bernard.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Dementia, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Xenophobia

cooliuscaesar451's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

It starts off slowly but the characters suck you in ❤️ I found myself verklempt time and time again at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Pregnancy

lyricallit's review

challenging mysterious sad slow-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? No

3.0

Kind of an absurd body count by the end. And the fatphobia, my God. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Dementia and Grief

Minor: Xenophobia

hannahschaef's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Xenophobia

andloveistoolong's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, and Pregnancy

rieviolet's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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? No

3.0

The book is divided into very short chapters, so that the reading experience feels very fast and easy.
Each chapter switches between quite a lot of point of views (to be honest, maybe too many). This certainly helps to keep the narration interesting and varied but, at the same time, it does not allow to explore the characters in depth and it can become a bit confusing to keep track of everyone and every storyline.

I think that the book relies a bit too much on the characters' "quirky" traits and, even though this makes the narration funny enough, it can come across as somehow overdone. 

I'm not really sure about the mystery part of the story, it did make sense
(sort of) but at the same time it felt a bit convoluted, maybe too much twists and turns towards the very end of the story?

All in all, a nice and quick read but I don't think I'll continue with the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Trafficking, and Grief

Minor: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

prism_'s review against another edition

mysterious slow-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? N/A

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Xenophobia

imreads's review against another edition

mysterious 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? No

2.25

The story was rather slower, and it felt like it was distracted by the c plot from time to time.
 I enjoyed the main cast of characters, Ibrahim and Donna, being one of my favourites. 

My only main criticisms with the book is

too many red herrings and the story seems to drag on longer than necessary, and when the last twist happens, we are jolted to a obvious set up for the next story. Also, the xenophobia, misogyny (and one racist joke between Ibrahim and Ron) was uncomfortable and honestly revolting to get through. Let's just say I was glad Ian died, good riddance. The reoccurring casual xenophobia was disgusting. If the book wasn't at least entertaining, I would've lowered the rating or DNF this book.

 

However, I enjoyed the groups friendship and the unlikely friendships along the way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Misogyny, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism

There is numerous xenophobic statements by one character and misogynistic statements. I wouldn't recommend this book if you can't handle topics of s*icide, misogyny, xenophobia/racism and death.