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agirlsnightbookbash's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder
Moderate: Toxic friendship
ggcd1981's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Killers of a Certain Age de Deanna Raybourn me entreteve, pois, a história foi interessante. O livro é sobre quatro assassinas idosas, a protagonista Billie e suas companheiras Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice, se aposentando quando de repente a própria instituição, O “Museu”, que as mantinha envia um agente para mata-las no cruzeiro que marcaria o início de sua aposentadoria. A autora intercalou capítulos que mostravam as assassinas como jovem mulheres em 1979, iniciando seu treinamento e serviço com o museu e o projeto Sphinx, e capítulos no presente quando as quatro mulheres estão sendo perseguidas após sua aposentadoria. O museu é uma agência de assassinos que iniciou caçando nazistas e passou a caçar outros malfeitores que a justiça comum não alcança como, por exemplo, criminosos de guerra. Billie, Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice são Sphinxes, o primeiro grupo de assassinas mulheres do Museu. A narrativa segue Billie e suas companheiras tentando se manter vivas enquanto investigam as razões que levaram os diretores do museu a quererem suas mortes. Elas descobrem ao contatar Martin, um agente da inteligência do museu, que alguém submeteu um dossiê as acusando de corrupção, e que na verdade os diretores do museu estavam protegendo um membro verdadeiramente corrupto que estava encaminhando assassinatos por dinheiro para ser aprovados pela diretoria. As sphinxes então passam a assassinar os diretores do museu. O livro culmina com Billie sendo capturada intencionalmente, fazia parte do plano que as sphinxes arquitetaram, e é revelado ao leitor, que Vance, o último diretor descobriu o plano de Martin. Martin, segundo em comando do setor responsável por montar dossiês de vítimas a serem aprovadas para assassinato, estava montando dossiês por dinheiro e ao revelar as sphinxes informações sobre a diretoria ele planejava que as assassinas matassem a diretoria e ele, assim, assumisse a diretoria do Museu sozinho. Vance então decidiu levar Martin e Billie ao esconderijo das sphinxes e matar as assassinas e o traidor lá. Contudo as assassinas tinham um plano, após uma sequência de ação, Billie mata Vance e Helen, que até então no livro estava passando por uma crise em que congelava e não conseguia matar ninguém, atira na cabeça de Martin o matando enquanto este tentava usar Billie como refém para fugir. O livro termina com a reputação de Billie, Helen, Natalie e Mary Alice sendo restauradas no museu e os membros corruptos, pelo menos ao que se sabe, mortos. O livro fez um bom trabalho de diferenciar as quatro mulheres, elas realmente tinham personalidades e características únicas a cada uma: Billie que não sabia o que fazer da vida sem ser assassina e seu relacionamento amor e ódio com o sua antiga chama e único aliado real das sphinxes,Christopher Taverner; Helen, uma viúva depressiva com comportamentos beirando TOCs que perdeu a confiança como assassina; Natalie, uma mulher ainda com forte libido não adepta a monogamia; Mary Alice, casada e feliz, ansiosa por deixar a vida de assassina para traz e parar de mentir a sua esposa Akiko. A obra teve um passo rápido e boas cenas de ação. As revelações não foram realmente surpreendentes, mas isso não impediu o entretenimento. Acredito que ponto baixo foi que os personagens secundários foram um pouco superficiais, por exemplo Minka, amiga de Billie, Akiko, esposa de Mary Alice. Essas duas são aliadas das Sphinxes e as ajudam no plano final, mas pouco realmente sabemos sobre elas. O único personagem secundário mais aprofundado é Taverner a quem vemos nos flashbacks e descobrimos mais sobre sua vida pós-relacionamento com Billie. O livro é relevante por ter protagonistas idosas inteligentes e capazes que muitas vezes superam os preconceitos que seus antagonistas têm contra elas pela sua idade. Killers of a Certain Age não foi exatamente excelente, mas foi um bom entretenimento, interessante e relevante. Descobri que vai ser uma série e não sei se vou continuar, gostei do primeiro livro mas acho que ele funciona bem como standalone. Dou 4.5 estrelas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury
faduma's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
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? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
ameliasgigi68's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
laceym18's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
the_book_nook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, and Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Stalking, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War
zoeelora's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
cait's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment and Alcohol
Minor: Antisemitism and Lesbophobia
starrysteph's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A ladies quartet of 60 year old assassins, ready to retire but pulled back in to save their skins against the very organization that trained them? It was as fun as anticipated.
We follow Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie. They were hand-plucked as young women to train as elite assassins for a society called the Museum. After forty years of dedicated killing, they’re sent on a luxury cruise to celebrate their retirement. But once they arrive, they realize they’re being targeted by one of their own. That organization they’ve been loyal to for so many years? They’ve now got to take them down.
Raybourn offers a playful sense of humor here. There’s lots of banter and sass and well-developed relationships between the ladies with lots of quippy fun. And I’m not someone who typically enjoys pop culture/modern references - but they worked well within the text and were genuinely funny. There’s big action scenes, but also fun slices of life moments; and also plenty of planning and prep work.
The timeline shifts between present day, and their training & first assignments as young women. Overall, it was refreshing to read a book from the perspective of an older narrator. And there were fun plot points centered around the fact that their age renders them more or less invisible – though to be clear, they aged themselves up a bit for their disguises. 60 isn’t elderly. :)
But building off of their invisibility as older women, over a series of flashbacks we witness the men who sent them on missions time and time again underestimate and undervalue them. And the women? They’re the ones who save their skins when things go wrong. Now those men - who hold grudges against the quartet because they” stole their thunder” - are the ones running the Museum, while the women are sent on their merry way.
This is a book about RAGE. Revenge is sometimes placed over justice, from the women’s initial recruitment to the final takedown.
The setup seems to point us towards viewing the ladies as heroic. They attempt to justify their assassinations time & time again - like, “oh, we’re killing BAD guys, people that are definitely going to harm others and get away with it because of their wealth and power!”. Lots of talk about killing Nazis and so on.
But of course … killing is still killing, and vigilante justice never has clear boundaries. I felt a bit of craving to just let them be villainous - I enjoy a villain story centered around murderers (think: Dexter or Hannibal). There was some pressure from the storytelling to view them as like, feminist baddies. But the truth is that they are … well, murderers. And they’re putting full faith in the Museum to find the worst of the worst to take down. They go through planning sessions fairly often, and they mentioned quite a bit that the Museum does research & there are many steps to confirm a hit. But this is the same entity that so easily put out a hit on them based on totally fake information! This is the major conflict of the book, and so it puts a pretty big shadow over their earlier kills. How many could have been political moves rather than “justified”?
Anyway, we wrap up neatly but with some hope. There’s a hint at a continuing story, but this works as a standalone.
Overall, it was a quick, fun read. I think it would work even better on screen!
CW: murder, gun violence, death, gore, misogyny, violence, blood, colonization, homophobia, grief, pregnancy, sexual content, torture, kidnapping, war
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail