Reviews

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

ariiiibaby916's review against another edition

3.0

This started off realllllly strong and I abso loved how the author wrote it with flashbacks and multiple POVs but it ended up being really slow and super action-y

Will still read more.

sohare1981's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

hurricanejeanne's review against another edition

fast-paced

4.0

sarah_mitra's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

januaryjane's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

pomengranate_moon_'s review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.0

Wow, I absolutely hated this book. 

This convoluted mess of a novel has so many characters and pretty much no character development. To make matters worse it’s a colonialist love letter to Ernest Hemingway. It feels like it’s trying its best to check diversity boxes without the details having place in the rest of the narrative or teaching us anything about the characters that advances their stories individually or advances the plot (ex the one chapter where we learn that a character is queer and then it’s never mentioned again for any reason. It feels like it’s just there for diversity points). 

Getting through to the end of this was about as fun as having teeth pulled.

katereading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

thehornyprofessor's review against another edition

1.0

How was a book about a safari-gone-wrong hostage situation so boorrrring?! It couldn't even make up for it by being profound (which is was decidedly not.) A straight-up snooze-fest with characters you don't care about. I think I need to accept that I'm not a Bohjalian fan.

emilyb_chicago's review against another edition

2.0

The first chapter lays out the book and the rest of the book is told in flashbacks - one timeline following the safari and a variety of other timelines to flesh out our characters.

I felt like the actual “ahh” part of the story was glossed over too quickly and not quite enough space was given to the surprises. Similarly, to me too much space was given to backgrounds. I think I would have preferred this more if the timelines were laid out slightly differently and there was an extra 25 to 50 pages in the last part of the book.

jen_again's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0