Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

26 reviews

leannanecdote's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tiffthelibrarian's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

taural41's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Cursing and Sexual content

anissawren's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Terminal illness, and Murder

Minor: Animal death and Homophobia

junowo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing 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

4.5

A very enjoyable mystery novel. I liked the use of the “book within a book” framework to create parallels and deepen meaning. Both Atticus and Susan are enjoyable characters to read, and I really loved trying to work things out myself.
I will say that the justification at the end for certain character’s actions fell a bit flat, but I was willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the climax!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, and Car accident

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

Full disclosure, I am not normally a fan of murder mystery, and I picked this one up as a book club read. I tend to like a bit of Midsomer Murders and have often quipped that most episodes of the show have an Autistic character somewhere in there, but this is the first time I have ever heard a little-Britain story that explicitly says that the weird loner is Autistic.

This story is meta as füc# .. the main character is an Editor who is reading the last work of a murder mystery writer. The author of the work she wishes to publish, dies with unfinished business but appears to have ended his own life.. or has he? Or is a murder mystery fan just taking off on flights of fancy and imagining herself a sleuth.

As a book reviewer.. this book is really strange to read. Every point that I recognise in story construction is explained by the main character as she tries to assess the work she is reading; it feels really weird to look at a story and think "ah it could be this person, but that wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion, and this person is an OBvious choice and so therefore will HAVE to be a red herring.. " only to then have those ideas explicitly expounded upon by the narrator of the story. How can your review a book that it reviewing itself?!

Events in the unpublished fiction, tend to echo events that are unfolding in the story of the Editor, and  it starts to get blurry in places and you wonder how much of what is going on is conspiracy, how much is causal, and how much is coincidental.

Amongst this stuff, conversations in the "real world" (of the book) feel like self-criticisms of the genre as a whole, and of the book itself. I can't help but feel THIS book is just trying to be clever, but it leaves me holding a handful of messy hints that the author of THIS book, feels like writing murder mysteries is a practice of making a product that sells well, rather than being good literature.

I did like the Disability narratives in the book. There is a person who is considered despicable for thinking of Down Syndrome as a disease, a person who has to deal with vision loss (and Audiobooks), and several characters with terminal illnesses.

It was kind of fun, but I was listening at 125% speed, which probably says a lot about the drawn out pace of the book and my desire to get it finished rather than actually enjoying the content. For that, I did have a couple of YUSS! moments where I had predicted things accurately or big reveals that felt fairly rewarding. Maybe if you like these sorts of books more you would get more out of it. It does feel quite like a Midsomer Murders story, with word puzzles in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing and Pedophilia

kitpotter's review

challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

It's an interesting and intricate plot. Just not 100% convinced with the motive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, and Suicide

thedistortionist's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Fire/Fire injury

corriejn's review against another edition

3.75

A whodunnit mystery within a whodunnit mystery-- the first half of the book is a murder mystery story set in small town England in the 1950s, and is presented as a manuscript an editor is reading. The second half reverts back to modern times and the editor-- with a new set of characters and storylines to get to know, which I found a bit jarring. I didn't enjoy the second half as well as the first, and found it dragged a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

angela005's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Suicide

Minor: Racism and Fire/Fire injury