A review by emmaward55
Something Terrible Happened Last Night by Sam Blake

slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It sucks to give a bad rating to a book, never mind a review, but unfortunately this felt warranted to me. 

Blake's pacing is off, the structure is weird, and logic rarely aligns with the prose. It took me ages to read, maybe because there was zero tension or any real desire in me to solve the mystery. Particularly irksome for me was the immediate cut off in the action the second it peaks in the climax, followed by a big revelation in the epilogue of all places. 

Whilst an epilogue can be a great place in a mystery for a final twist that turns the plot on its head, Blake doesn't do that. Instead, it's a continuation of what we know and could easily have taken place in the rest of the novel.

I'm also not comfortable recommending this book to other queer readers, because of the way homophobia and related content is treated.  Major spoilers, but
a queer character stabbing someone who threatens to out them DESPITE knowing that said queer would be kicked out and made homeless, is something that readers could have found sympathetic. Especially seeing as the argument started because Patrick caught Josh about to cheat on his girlfriend!! At her own birthday party!! (It was also implied that Josh was planning to SA Ruth, but this gets exactly one mention and then Blake returns to slut shaming Ruth and has a character blame her for Josh's death????)

Yeah IDK, there were some gross things that I'm pretty sure Blake didn't intend to add, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. If I'd been the editor on this, I'd have had a fair few thoughts on how to handle the above without it coming across like "nasty closest boy and skanky girl are responsible for Nice Guy TM's murder".


Can't say I'll be picking up another of Blake's books any time soon.
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