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A review by jessiereads98
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Lavender House is a semi-locked door mystery with an all queer cast. I really loved the idea of a queer take on the classic mystery, but was a bit disappointed in the execution. I would say this story is fine. It’s not the best mystery I’ve ever read, and it’s not the worst. The solution was predictable and underwhelming, but I’m willing to give another in the series a try (as the door for this to become a serial was clearly left open at the end).
The characters here really weren’t fleshed out. We get a peak at each one, and they each seem to be interesting. Unfortunately, we really never get more than an interesting peak before they’re flattened back out and left unexplored. The main character is a recently-outed gay former cop. The story attempts to grapple with his complicity in oppressing his own community a couple times, but ultimately this, like all other character development here, falls off to the wayside. It was difficult to invest in the main character because of the failure of the story to actually confront the main character’s former role as a gay cop, and it was difficult to invest in any other individual character because we didn’t really get to know them either.
The mystery was fairly obvious from the start, so at times it felt like the plot was being drawn out. I think this would’ve been more successful as a fully locked room mystery, rather than bringing in outside suspects for seemingly no reason.
The concept of this book is unfortunately just much better than the book itself.
The characters here really weren’t fleshed out. We get a peak at each one, and they each seem to be interesting. Unfortunately, we really never get more than an interesting peak before they’re flattened back out and left unexplored. The main character is a recently-outed gay former cop. The story attempts to grapple with his complicity in oppressing his own community a couple times, but ultimately this, like all other character development here, falls off to the wayside. It was difficult to invest in the main character because of the failure of the story to actually confront the main character’s former role as a gay cop, and it was difficult to invest in any other individual character because we didn’t really get to know them either.
The mystery was fairly obvious from the start, so at times it felt like the plot was being drawn out. I think this would’ve been more successful as a fully locked room mystery, rather than bringing in outside suspects for seemingly no reason.
The concept of this book is unfortunately just much better than the book itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail