A review by kathryndouglas
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian

2.0

Bruh I had so much hope. Old Hollywood vibes, a safari in the 1960s, and all the potential of the African savanna. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. A group of Hollywood “lions” go on safari and instead of enjoying the animals and having fun taking in all the gorgeous scenery it’s an insanely violent bloodbath. I don’t have any issue with consuming violence in media, but I think that the violence in this novel was excessive. A lot of it was just unnecessary. And (spoiler alert) the fact that almost every character in the main cast perished on this trip was underwhelming. After the third person died yet another violent and bloody death, I was like, “ok great, can we get some actual plot, please?” There was so much trying to be achieved here with the political atmosphere of the world in the 1960s, discussion of race in Hollywood and hostage situations, etc. but none of it was done particularly well. There was too much going on, but it feels like nothing happened. There were too many POVs, too many characters we were supposed to know, and too much jumping between the present and the past. It was just really confusing for most of the book. Cannot recommend and I will not be reading any more of Chris Bohjalian in the future.