Reviews

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle by Neil Blackmore

Only show reviews with written explanations

artemisavalon's review against another edition

4.0

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle is a story about love and its toxicity.
Whether that's love from a family member or your one true love (if that even exists).

We follow Benjamin and his brother Edgar through their grand tour on the continent.
Once we get to know of the mysterious and indeed intoxicating Mr Lavelle one starts to question (through all his questions) whether it's indeed him that's toxic or the society we live in?

Great story with a beautiful yet depressing story about love, acceptance and change.

emma_desiree_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Honestly kind of terrible. At least it read wuickly but the characters made no sense and were terrible. Lavelle only got redeemed in death and then Benjamin is left in desolation.

Edgar kills himself because apparently he is on a downward spiral even though this never actually gets discussed until he’s dead.

Just badly-written and poorly-developed.

prettycloud's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

absolutely devastating <3 compelling, real, immediate, painful. finally some well done historical homophobia. this one will stay with me for a while, like lavelle himself. be extremely mindful of the cws.

read this if you liked looking for alaska or other works where the narrator's intelligence cannot save them and the manic pixie dream girl trope is pushed to traumatic extremes. this book also gave me strangers on a train vibes, not in mood or plot or setting, just in the strange attraction between the two men. also reminiscent of fingersmith in the betrayal and exploration of interpersonal and structural violence. it's also strangely like every good noir story: it's got an homme fatal, the corruption at the heart of society, a narrator who can't stop reminding you that it only goes down from here, and brief glimpses of what might have been.

starlude's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

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

3.0

left it at current page 213 i cannot handle it anymore. i dont think it is a boring book because it isnt, it does have a interesting plot but i cannot care enough for the characters, i dont like any of them and the pacing is really slow. plus i know the author says in the 1st page that there is history things that arent accurate to the time period but i couldn't let it pass sorry ig. hope i can re read in a future, not near tho