Reviews with content warning for Murder - Dead Dead Girls

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

70 reviews

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Sadly, this book doesn't work: the writing is clunky, the main character never felt authentic to me, the setup (of her working with the cops) doesn't make any sense, and many of the things she does don't either (she's also constantly getting drunk and hardly sleeps, so maybe her terrible judgement is not that surprising). But the worse part is that we're told who the killer is in the middle of the book and everything that happens after that makes even less sense...

Other reviewers claim the killer was foreshadowed early in the book, but I thought the reveal came out of nowhere.

And then the ending is such a letdown. Ugh. I really wanted to like this book so much, but really I should have DNFed it.

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mcmanifold's review against another edition

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dark 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? No

1.5

The worst mystery I have ever read. The authors need to “foreshadow” at the end of chapters was frustrating. The main character was a bad detective. The book explicitly spoiled the murderer less than a third into the book. Most of the “investigation” work goes absolutely no where and is boring.

The only saving grace is that the chapters were short and the prose was straightforward, so it was a fast read. Would have DNF’d it if not reading for a book club.

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hawkmates's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.25

the book excelled in diversity, especialy in the romance, but i wasn't fond of the way this book was written for some reason. it took a while for the writing style to *finally* click which was strange because i usually enjoy murder mystery books. this book felt boring for some reason. i also wasn't fond of the rushed ending or of the pacing to how the killer was revealed. it genuinely felt as if the writer was just trying to rush to the plottwist. i think this book would've excelled if the writer didn't clearly rush to publication which really sucks because i really wanted to enjoy this book. but it took me so long just to finish it.

few issues with the plot:
- did we ever meet celia's fiance because i genuinely don't remember if we did?
- having the racist cop who literally called the protagonist the n slur on multiple occassions get with another black woman at the end was straight up bizarre. and everything with him playing with another woman (i think her name was maeve) barely got addressed. yeah the protagonist says he's bad and just watches the romance from afar in disgust but NOTHING USEFUL gets done about it. the guy's racism is practically looked over and the black woman he gets with doesn't seem to find out about it.

edit: i just found out this book is apart of a series so maybe the issues i had would be solved there.

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adiajamille's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

After so much build up, the ending felt abrupt. But overall it was an intriguing story.

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iridescentdreams's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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shortforvalkyrie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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cakehatwombat's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm not one much for murder mysteries, but I picked it up for the setting + protagonist, and ultimately I enjoyed it. While I don't think it's what she personally would want, I do kind of want to see the protag as a noir detective now, chain smoking in her suit and trench coat.

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