A review by florencia
The Bright Lands by John Fram
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This is a pretty solid debut. The mystery is intricate enough to keep you interested, but not difficult to follow and it ties up nicely.
The small town vibe is really well achieved, and I loved the level of wtf throughout the story. There's a lot of shitty people, and shitty situations and an overall feeling of dirtyness in this town.
We have different points of view, most of which I really enjoyed and felt that added well to the story. I specially enjoyed the badass woman police officer that's really tenacious and goes against the bullshit of this town. (Every female character was pretty badass , which I appreciate).
There were some relevant themes explored here, like sexuality, shame and toxic masculinity.
The only reason I didn't enjoy it more is because it's a pretty plot driven book, and though we learn a little bit about some of the characters backgrounds, I never fell in love with them. (We do learn enough to at least care about them)
The small town vibe is really well achieved, and I loved the level of wtf throughout the story. There's a lot of shitty people, and shitty situations and an overall feeling of dirtyness in this town.
We have different points of view, most of which I really enjoyed and felt that added well to the story. I specially enjoyed the badass woman police officer that's really tenacious and goes against the bullshit of this town. (Every female character was pretty badass , which I appreciate).
There were some relevant themes explored here, like sexuality, shame and toxic masculinity.
The only reason I didn't enjoy it more is because it's a pretty plot driven book, and though we learn a little bit about some of the characters backgrounds, I never fell in love with them. (We do learn enough to at least care about them)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, and Sexual assault