Reviews

Oxblood by Tom Benn

krobinson9292's review

fast-paced

2.0

tysuckz's review

adventurous challenging dark funny sad tense medium-paced

3.0

Wanted to love it, but hated the first half. It was slow, confusing and generally just sounded like a load of incomprehensible waffle to me.

I disliked Carol's chapters, I rhought they were unnecessarily confusing and regularly felt like a chore. Nedras chapters were okay but I absolutely loved Jan's chapters. Jan was an amazing character and I loved her a lot! I felt bad for Carol and think she deserved more love than she was given. 

Regardless, I'd like to say that I loved the second half and read it so fast compared to the first half. I also think this book would be remarkable as a film; probably more coherent too. Would be a fun thing to have alongside it especially since when reading it I could really imagine seeing it with some grainy images like it was from the 80s. 

The ending was great and I'm so so so glad what happened happened. 

amberjanereads's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

racmicash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

charlie12xxx's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

jem_268's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

colpenbewley's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

georgiekirk's review

dark sad slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

chrisp_9's review

An unbearable maelstrom of overused and cryptic metaphors, innuendoes and non-sequiturs which made trudging through the barely-there plot next to impossible which is a shame given I was looking forward to reading about the very recognisable streets my school bus would travel down each day. Made all the stranger by a ghost with a recalcitrant erection which is utterly out of place in what is sold as ‘northern noir’.

Genuinely gives off the energy of a book which the author feared would struggle to make the grade in creative writing class so put every other word through an online thesaurus in an attempt to sound more high-brow but resulted in the reader being unable to follow the basic narrative.

amigo_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5