staceyinthesticks's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Trafficking and Death
Minor: Murder
wanderaven's review
4.0
Admittedly, it does seem strange to me that I count Atkinson within my top handful of favourite authors, and yet I haven't yet read her last two, [bc:A God in Ruins|3722183|A God in Ruins (Todd Family, #2)|Kate Atkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451442002s/3722183.jpg|42652219] and [bc:Transcription|37946414|Transcription|Kate Atkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1521173471s/37946414.jpg|64175388]. I already own and will read them (and suspect I will adore them, at least A God for certain), but somehow I just haven't managed them after loving [bc:Life After Life|15790842|Life After Life (Todd Family, #1)|Kate Atkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1358173808s/15790842.jpg|21443207]. I chalk this up to bad timing, primarily, but it may also be due to having initially been ensnared by Atkinson via Jackson Brodie.
Our polarizing differences in musical tastes aside, Brodie has always been one of my favourite fictional characters. After almost a decade without him, it can be difficult to remember details but if you're a fan, you'll know that Brodie (and Atkinson's writing of him), leaves you with a strong sense of dry and devastating humor entwined with an equally gray and devastating melancholy.
And Brodie has returned. It's all here; same heavy and funny with strained but dependent relationships. Atkinson does an awfully skillful job of illustrating both Brodie's internal struggles and private relationships and also those of the other characters in this story.
Little, Brown, & Company provided an ARC for one of my few guaranteed reads this year (and this has been - and looks like will continue to be - a great publishing year, at least in my areas of interest). Because I was provided this advanced read, I must qualify the following concern with the grain of salt that it's entirely possible that edits and changes were made before the final publication (June 25, 2019) of Big Sky that smoothed things out a bit. My primary drawback was that I was sometimes confused by the timeline/scene jumping. I'd read a brief scene that had clearly jumped forward in time, and then the next would be a jump back to the night before. But most of the scenes in general were jump-into-the-fire starts and could be disorienting for several sentences, if not paragraphs. This felt stylistic on Atkinson's part and was generally fine, but then to also jumble up the scenes themselves was... dispiriting feels like kind of the right word, here? I know it took me out of the story more than once.
However, again, these jumps may be altered in the final publication. And a tiny fly in the ointment when you consider that we've been gifted a new Brodie! Although the plot wasn't likely the most intriguing to me of what I remember of the previous ones in the series, I feel this was a personal choice, and it didn't really much matter.
Brodie novels, for me, are loved for the immersion in the characters, the setting, and Atkinson's luminous and insightful writing. Brodie novels are always richly populated with nuanced characters (though in Brodie's case often dubious attraction to those characters - not ill-advised necessarily, just not... understandable, given the way those characters are often drawn).
The ending is - somewhat efficiently - wrapped up in such a way to leave room for either closure or continuation, which I gather is intentional, but felt weighted towards tidying things away. I have a tendency, with favourite authors who have substantial backlists, to prefer either their stand-alones (or shorter series) or their longer series, often the character(s) who reeled me in. Atkinson doesn't really fall on either side of the fence for me, since I've loved most everything she's done since the beginning, so while I was very happy with this installment of Brodie, I'll still be happy to pick up A God and Transcription and eagerly welcome whatever turn she takes next.
Our polarizing differences in musical tastes aside, Brodie has always been one of my favourite fictional characters. After almost a decade without him, it can be difficult to remember details but if you're a fan, you'll know that Brodie (and Atkinson's writing of him), leaves you with a strong sense of dry and devastating humor entwined with an equally gray and devastating melancholy.
And Brodie has returned. It's all here; same heavy and funny with strained but dependent relationships. Atkinson does an awfully skillful job of illustrating both Brodie's internal struggles and private relationships and also those of the other characters in this story.
Little, Brown, & Company provided an ARC for one of my few guaranteed reads this year (and this has been - and looks like will continue to be - a great publishing year, at least in my areas of interest). Because I was provided this advanced read, I must qualify the following concern with the grain of salt that it's entirely possible that edits and changes were made before the final publication (June 25, 2019) of Big Sky that smoothed things out a bit. My primary drawback was that I was sometimes confused by the timeline/scene jumping. I'd read a brief scene that had clearly jumped forward in time, and then the next would be a jump back to the night before. But most of the scenes in general were jump-into-the-fire starts and could be disorienting for several sentences, if not paragraphs. This felt stylistic on Atkinson's part and was generally fine, but then to also jumble up the scenes themselves was... dispiriting feels like kind of the right word, here? I know it took me out of the story more than once.
However, again, these jumps may be altered in the final publication. And a tiny fly in the ointment when you consider that we've been gifted a new Brodie! Although the plot wasn't likely the most intriguing to me of what I remember of the previous ones in the series, I feel this was a personal choice, and it didn't really much matter.
Brodie novels, for me, are loved for the immersion in the characters, the setting, and Atkinson's luminous and insightful writing. Brodie novels are always richly populated with nuanced characters (though in Brodie's case often dubious attraction to those characters - not ill-advised necessarily, just not... understandable, given the way those characters are often drawn).
The ending is - somewhat efficiently - wrapped up in such a way to leave room for either closure or continuation, which I gather is intentional, but felt weighted towards tidying things away. I have a tendency, with favourite authors who have substantial backlists, to prefer either their stand-alones (or shorter series) or their longer series, often the character(s) who reeled me in. Atkinson doesn't really fall on either side of the fence for me, since I've loved most everything she's done since the beginning, so while I was very happy with this installment of Brodie, I'll still be happy to pick up A God and Transcription and eagerly welcome whatever turn she takes next.
katekate_reads_'s review against another edition
3.0
It’s been almost ten years since we last got to spend time with private investigator Jackson Brodie. I loved getting to reconnect with him in Big Sky and was immediately reminded why I loved the earlier books.
It’s important to know going in that these books aren’t a fast paced roller coaster mystery. It’s more of a slowly unfolding deeply layered mystery.
For the first third of the book - we are following a variety of different characters without a clear path to see how they connect with each other - but little overlapping breadcrumbs. Then right around 35% into the book - we start to really see it coming together and I got really into it.
However, there were some parts for me in the middle that got a little slow and I kept wanting to get back to Jackson. I also didn’t love some of the resolution.
I would recommend this book if you love Jackson and are excited for a reunion! If you haven’t read the others in the series yet, I would recommend starting with the first book. While the stories can stand alone, I think you’ll get more from it having the background.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review.
It’s important to know going in that these books aren’t a fast paced roller coaster mystery. It’s more of a slowly unfolding deeply layered mystery.
For the first third of the book - we are following a variety of different characters without a clear path to see how they connect with each other - but little overlapping breadcrumbs. Then right around 35% into the book - we start to really see it coming together and I got really into it.
However, there were some parts for me in the middle that got a little slow and I kept wanting to get back to Jackson. I also didn’t love some of the resolution.
I would recommend this book if you love Jackson and are excited for a reunion! If you haven’t read the others in the series yet, I would recommend starting with the first book. While the stories can stand alone, I think you’ll get more from it having the background.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review.
vandergaard's review
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
elittle's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
readingfar's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
susie_strawberry's review
1.0
A detective who fails to detect anything. Maybe this is deliberate, but even if it is, I can't understand why anyone would enjoy such a trope. Astonishingly bad
bzoetbzoet's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5