Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Zaaba Publishing, Arthur Conan Doyle

4 reviews

surrendersouls's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I’m not sure if the stories got better over the course of the book, or maybe I just got settled in with the style. It’s partially formulaic, but it has a wide array of mysteries and crimes and different enough plots in each that it didn’t become the same thing again and again. Also at points it became kind of horror themed? A man got locked in a hydraulic press that was going to crush him in one story, had me on the edge of my seat. If you stop and read slowly, playing the scenes in your head, you can really get a taste of the characters, and I find Holmes to be delightful to read about.

Content Warnings

stories's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious 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? No

2.0

Whereas I was pleasantly surprised by volume 1, the stories of volume 2 were a mild letdown.

Less… complete? Cohesive? Certainly, Silver Blaze ended prematurely, if only by a scene or two.

I was somewhat surprised also by the time jump. I don’t know if I’m correct, but it seemed these were amongst the later tales.

Content Warnings

chalkletters's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious 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? No

2.25

After getting angry at period-typical misogyny and racism in the first two Sherlock Holmes novels, Nickie suggested that I might find the short stories to be more palatable, so I was curious to find out whether that would be true for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Though I’ve read (or listened to) all twelve stories before, it’s been a long time, so my tastes might definitely have matured out of them.

There was only one instance, in A Case of Identity, in which I felt that Arthur Conan Doyle really mistreated one of his female characters: Holmes works out exactly how his client, Miss Sutherland, was manipulated and deceived but declares that she won’t believe him if he tells her, so just leaves her to get on with her unhappy life! Clearly, it’s the solving of the puzzle that matters to Sherlock (and Dr Watson), and not the actual result of his actions. That would be okay, except that I increasingly feel as though the same is true of Arthur Conan Doyle, and what’s forgivable in a flawed character is less so in a real person.

For the most part, the beginnings of the stories were a little tediously repetitive: Watson notes that Sherlock solves cases for the nobility, but says that these are sometimes less interesting and shows off Sherlock’s skills less well than whichever case he’s introducing. There’s nothing wrong with a formula that works, I suppose, but I might recommend not reading these stories back to back to back.

The problems and their solutions are clever, and anyone reading these for the first time would likely be carried along by that alone. (Except in the case of The Five Orange Pips, which is sadly incredibly obvious to a modern reader. I can only assume that the Klu Klux Klan was less familiar to British readers in 1892 than it would be today.) Remembering the endings of ten out of twelve stories definitely put me in a position to notice more of the flaws!

Content Warnings

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Content Warnings

More...