Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

31 reviews

laurenw's review against another edition

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3.5

The main character rather annoyed me with her superiority shtick - I think I might be tired of correcting everyone around you masquerading as intelligence. 
The book has a vibe that makes me feel I'd have enjoyed it more in my 20s.
The plot did keep me intrigued enough to finish at least
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rideauriverreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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redur's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A very good book that illustrates a very real problem: constant surveillance. It's interesting how that complete violation of privacy and consent gets so smoothed over with a fun-toned cozy mystery and leaves the moral quandary up to the reader.
It feels on purpose, like the way it hand waves the deep family trauma as well. The book touches on really dark material that people really suffer with but in a way that tries its best to ignore it, much like Claudia must do to just get through the day.
It's like a pop song that has a danceable melody with really dark and troubling lyrics.

Claudia is *not* a good person but seems to justify her use of total surveillance technology by using it for "good". She also goes on to
break and enter and steal "for good", justifying those crimes and violations of privacy and autonomy as well. I'm interested to see how far Claudia continues to slide down this slippery slope of vigilantism in future stories and whether the author will show these moral failings with anything other than ignoring it. And whether Claudia can reckon with what she is doing.
And then everything is happy in the end with all the means justified.

We certainly have real world examples of this, so it's certainly something to keep on your radar.

https://www.wired.com/story/how-pentagon-learned-targeted-ads-to-find-targets-and-vladimir-putin/
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emma_sky's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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hmetwade's review against another edition

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

2.75

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whewtaewoon's review against another edition

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4.0

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ktdakotareads's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

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moth_enthusiast's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of my favourite books of the year. I loved and identified with the family dynamic presented in the book. For the queer Nancy Drew lovers in your life.
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bookcasey's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • 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

4.0

A fun, cozy murder mystery with interesting characters. It’s always nice to see casual lesbian representation outside of a romance.

To address some common themes in other reviews:
1. Yes, there’s tech stuff. Trust me, the more you know about modern tech, the scarier it gets.
2. Is main character really insufferable or…
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arireadsitall's review against another edition

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funny mysterious relaxing slow-paced
  • 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

4.0

This book was part tech thriller, part family drama, with a dash of sash and wit. It honestly gave me Murder She Wrote vibes but make it 2022 with a lesbian protagonist and center it around dating apps.

Claudia works at Veracity, a secret online-dating detective agency. Her job is to verify that people are telling the truth to their clients in these dating apps. When a client turns up dead after asking Veracity to investigate a man she met, Claudia can’t let it go. And down the rabbit hole she goes…

This book was such a fun cat and mouse especially because Claudia was such a great character. She’s trying to find herself in this world while dealing with family expectations and because of that hides a lot of who she is (including her sexuality). She’s a character you’ll root for even with all the mess she gets into and I would read a whole series about her and her investigations.

Overall this was an enjoyable debut and I definitely recommend! It was the perfect read to read outside (pictured here) while avoiding going to work!!
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