Reviews tagging 'Murder'

By Way Of Sorrow by Robyn Gigl

11 reviews

finnthehuman217's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

I don’t think I liked the messaging about a successful White Trans Woman using a black trans woman’s trauma of killing somebody in self defense as “motivation” for her to continue working. Like the book is very much a story of a woman who is basically stealth and is outed by her involvement in a case involving a trans prostitute who I mentioned above. I liked the idea behind it but the way Erin is very “your resilience inspired me to continue working” is super white savior-y. But the other thing I will say is that Erin doesn’t seem to have a close group of trans girlfriends and so she doesn’t have the connection to the community besides in Sharise. It was disappointing because I was looking forward to reading it. The story was very good but it seemed like because of the year it takes place, (2006) the culture was not up on the community and so it feels trapped in that moment where trans women are either already established in their career or they’re prostitutes. It’s very disheartening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

yoyoitsflo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was such a great book! It was a legal thriller that felt engaging and relevant with all the character experiences that are part of the novel. This isn’t common, and I can’t wait to follow Erin more in the future books! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Deadnaming and Toxic relationship

The above content warnings are in the context of a murder case that leads to a series of events that affect multiple characters. The book also focuses on the experiences of two trans characters both past and present in relation to their families, friends, etc. Most of it is not written in a derogoratory way per se, but it is written out and described clearly at names which can potentially make it uncomfortable. It doesn’t affect the content of the book overall, but it’s something to be mindful of!

readthesparrow's review against another edition

dark 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? No

3.5

A pretty decent legal thriller! Though there were some sticking points for me (it was very clear the author doesn't speak AAVE and there was a lot of summary instead of narrative in the second half), I still overall enjoyed the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

mysterious tense 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

2.0

Intriguing format and overall plot, and the author's background in law grants the story a lot of believability (though it does get somewhat cliche at some points). However, the writing style is very dry -- lots of telling and repetition, which dampens the action and any emotional impact, and the dialogue is very scripted and impossible to distinguish between most characters, with the one exception being a grimace-inducing attempt at AAVE from a white author. The characters are pretty flat in general, and a lot of the suspense is also mitigated by scenes expanding on the antagonists' motivations and plans in detail. Definitely some strong commentary on the legal/justice system and violence against trans people, especially trans women of color, but unfortunately not as compelling a read as I had hoped. Still, it is a debut, so I may still check out more of Gigl's writing in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicide, Vomit, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

joey1914's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Outing

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

I’m really glad I read this because it enlightened me further on the special challenges that face transgender people who are just trying to live their lives in peace. The author is a transgender lawyer and her main character is a transgender lawyer defending a transgender woman accused of murder. Nothing about this book is subtle but it’s a well-written, intriguing mystery about characters I’d like to know because I admire them. 

I confess I was a bit disappointed in the plot in the last fifteen pages but that didn’t affect my rating. I’m hoping to read the second in this series to see how lawyer Erin McCabe develops. And a third in the series is being published soon so I can look forward to that, too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Gore, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

kaydawn's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

misgendering/deadnaming, transphobia, murder, SA, child abuse, homophobic/transphobic slurs

bookstwokathryn's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Thoughts:

This book was amazing but it is also very emotional. This book does deal with the difficult topics of transphobia and family not being accepting. I can completely understand if that is something that someone doesn’t want to read about. Because it can be very difficult to read about. I think that if you are going to read this book, you have to be in the right head space mentally in order to read this book. Because you are going to want to read a cheery fluffy read after this.

I really enjoyed the writing style of this. I think that the author does a great job of writing the trans main character and what that can entail for those who do come out as trans. Weather its a partner having to take a step back and wondering if its something that they can commit to. Or a family member thinking that they are doing the right thing by cutting you of their life and it turns out to be wrong.

I loved how our main character has stood up for the sex worker. Because they both have something in common. And the main character wants to do everything that she could to make sure that the people involved in this case can see Sharise the way that Sharise wants to be presented to the world. As a female. Going all the way to say along the lines, “if you are going to call my client by he/him pronouns then you best better treat me the same exact way.” I just loved how the main character can be vulnerable and at the same time be a bad ass. I think that those are some of my favorite qualities when it comes to a main character because if you cant be relatable in some way then I am not going to enjoy you as a main character. And I enjoyed Erin as a main character.

The secrets that this book has. It’s like the further you get into it the more you want to know what are the secrets that are worth killing other people over. What are you trying to cover up? And the more that you learn the more you want to find out. And also the more you find out what the secrets are the more you want to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Murder

whatlexysaid's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious sad 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Transphobia

catieohjoy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Transphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia