Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Dix Petits Nègres

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Dix Petits Nègres by Agatha Christie

51 reviews

xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Spoilers Ahead:

Honestly, I was not expecting this book to be that good. In the beginning, there were a few comments that made me wonder whether I was going to like the book, but it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable read.

We follow a group of people as they are lured onto an island - Soldier Island, to be exact. I won’t go into each character in detail, as it will probably take all day, and, if I’m honest, I can’t remember half of their names. All of them don’t know each other, and have been sent letters by a man called Owen, inviting them using their own needs to get them down there. One of them was offered a job as a secretary, others the promise of seeing an old friend, etc etc.

They get to the island and go to the house, and each pick out a room. At this point, there is no sign of Owen, and he has sent a letter saying he is ‘caught up’. In each room is a poem about 10 little soldiers, a dear old nursery rhyme, describing how each soldier died until there was none left. They all think about how weird it is.

They go down for dinner. Unfortunately, a grammar phone plays a particularly scary message, accusing all of them of killing people. No one knows this yet, but these are all true, accident or not. They accuse everyone of setting it off, not trusting anyone.

One of them dies. They rule it a TW suicide, but others exclaim that the man didn’t seem like he would do that. They find that out of the 10 little soldier statues on the table, only 9 remain. Shaken, they all go to bed. And, when they wake up the next morning, another one of them dies, this time a woman.

They start pointing fingers at each other. One by one, they are picked off, and killed. In accordance to the rhyme on their walls, they go in that order and suffer that fate, and then the little china soldiers are slowly hidden.

They keep going, blaming each other, until one of them shoots the other, and she’s left alone, with 9 dead bodies around her. TW ‘One Little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself, and then there were none’. It wasn’t the grief of killing someone that made her hang herself, for the noose was already set up, but she felt the presence of the man she loved, and wanted to do what she knows he wanted her to do.

Ten people dead on an island, no one else there, and the police are baffled. But who done it?

The killer writes a letter in a bottle, and puts it out to sea. He says that out of all of the 10 people, only 1 of them was innocent (the one that sentenced someone to prison, who eventually got hanged for his crimes - crimes he definitely committed, so his conscience is clear). It was him that was the killer, one of the 10. ‘A red herring swallowed one and then there were three’. He faked his own death, and made it look like it was other people doing the killing, and then he killed himself afterwards, to corroborate his story. He said that he had the urge to kill, but not any innocent people, because he liked justice. So, he killed people that were guilty of murder, and then he felt he was doing a service for the world.

I love this book. I loved the fact that all the characters were so just distasteful, I think it worked really well with the plot. As I said, there were a few comments, particularly about ‘queer’ people (I’m assuming they meant weird, but I’m not 100% sure) and some misogynistic comments, but they seemed to be few and far between, and it got a lot better towards the end. It might just be me being sensitive, to be fair, but I just remember feeling a bit uneasy whilst reading those parts.

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about this book, only that I would definitely recommend reading it. It’s a nice mystery book, quite an easy read, and definitely intriguing. I love the fact that everything is tied up and makes sense, and I love the fact that there is a poem to go along with the plot. It’s very clever, and I love it!

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theliterarylayla's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense 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

4.5

This book is unpredictable, fascinating, and fun to read.

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book! I did guess the murderer early in the book but I couldn't have predicted the twist. A short and enjoyed read although a tad slow in places.

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rochelleisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

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clagofr's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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kemrick19's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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knkoch's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed the island setting, psychological character-building, and emphasis on dialogue and interpersonal dynamics. There was a note from Christie included in the beginning detailing her personal pride in the complicated plotting of this mystery, and I agree with her: I didn’t guess the solution! This was a quick, engrossing read.

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lalu's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow. This was quite something! I couldn't help myself but read the second half in one sitting.

Ten people are invited to "Soldier Island" under different pretences. It turns out that each one caused the death of someone in a way that was untouchable by law.

One after another they all die.

Here are some of the guesses/suspicions I had while reading. None of them were correct.

When Mr Rogers was seen outside and very shortly afterwards was seen in the attic, I thought he might have a twin or doppelganger.
The way Ms Brent wrote in her diary and also went outside on her own... Very suspicious!
When the last five sat in the drawing room and we could read each ones thoughts I thought the last one was Blore and therfore suspected him.

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bringmybooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I did it, y’all. I DID IT. I read And Then There Were None before someone spoiled it for me!

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

To explain further, I became convinced within literal moments of deciding last year that I wanted to read Agatha Christie that someone would spoil her books for me (namely this one & The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) before I could actually read them, thus depriving me of the joy I would have had upon finishing them.

Is there a statute of limitations on spoiling books? Honestly, I think there is. If I happen to off handedly mention the ending of The Great Gatsby, I don’t think I can get blamed for ruining that for you, you know? (Personally I put my limit at 50+ years - if it’s been published prior to 1970, that’s fair game)

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, I WAS NOT SPOILED AND I AM SO GLAD

Furthermore, take this as your sign to read And Then There Were None if you haven’t already, because this was such a dang fun read and I absolutely loved how everything came together at the end! Loved the setting, loved the characters, loved the plot, loved the writing, LOVE how a mystery book that was written almost 100 years ago could still be so relevant & important to the genre today!

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locust1266's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

This books was good. I had recently read a book based on then there were none (daisy darker) and I liked . So I decided to read then there were none which I had for a long time the book was pretty addicting and fun . But the thing is all the characters suck even the" Mr Owen" so I had a hard time getting attached to anybody I liked Philip because I was imagining the actor from the BBC movie who's like soooo hot . That being said I didn't like how there were so many unecessary plot points but I can understand why they were necessary. Overall pretty good book.

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