A review by tmkutawrites
The Enforcer Enigma by Gail Carriger, G.L. Carriger
1.0
I received an ARC of this book for an honest review.
This book, like the others in this series, is okay. Like most Carriger books the prose is beautifully snarky and terminally delightful--I laughed and smiled a lot. The dynamics of the pack are cute, and the found family and queer aspects makes my heart wiggle happily. Lots of funny visuals and nods to current queer culture, which made me smile.
The characters in this series are hard to distinguish, especially the gay men--their voices all feel similar to me. They're all waspy, catty, faaaabulous gays. Also there are a LOT of characters. So damn many. I love playing count-the-side-character, but if you're coming into the series blind with this one you'll probably be lost. There were a lot of subplots in this book happening all at once...almost too many. Trick stole the show from Judd and Colin, but his subplot with the werebear officer felt a bit forced (although I enjoyed the Otter/Bear joke LOL). It felt like Colin got lost in his own story. The plot itself was kind of slow, although the book started off fast. At the end the book knotted, a bit unsatisfactorily in my opinion, in a neat bow.
[Spoilers]
I also wasn't super comfortable with the objectification of Judd, a gay Black man, in this book. Even though he's on the cover of the book, the plot was very much about Colin and Colin's struggles and backstory. If he was that much of the story, Colin should have been on the cover, not Judd. I would have liked to know more about Judd's backstory, because if he is 150+ years old he lived through some of America and Canada's worst racial discrimination, that would have affected him. He also wouldn't have been super hyped about the police showing up, even if it was a fellow supernatural. I understand not wanting to write too much history of a Black character as a white writer, but it did not feel like his Blackness informed how he interacted with the world at all. This is why this book gets such a low rating from me.
[End Spoilers]
All this said, I'd rather read a book about Agent Lenis, or Miss Trickle and her wife Pepper, or....many of the other side characters, honestly. I probably wouldn't read TEE again, but it was a fun distraction during COVID-times and I don't regret that I did. I'll probably read the fourth book about Trick, since I love him to pieces.
This book, like the others in this series, is okay. Like most Carriger books the prose is beautifully snarky and terminally delightful--I laughed and smiled a lot. The dynamics of the pack are cute, and the found family and queer aspects makes my heart wiggle happily. Lots of funny visuals and nods to current queer culture, which made me smile.
The characters in this series are hard to distinguish, especially the gay men--their voices all feel similar to me. They're all waspy, catty, faaaabulous gays. Also there are a LOT of characters. So damn many. I love playing count-the-side-character, but if you're coming into the series blind with this one you'll probably be lost. There were a lot of subplots in this book happening all at once...almost too many. Trick stole the show from Judd and Colin, but his subplot with the werebear officer felt a bit forced (although I enjoyed the Otter/Bear joke LOL). It felt like Colin got lost in his own story. The plot itself was kind of slow, although the book started off fast. At the end the book knotted, a bit unsatisfactorily in my opinion, in a neat bow.
[Spoilers]
I also wasn't super comfortable with the objectification of Judd, a gay Black man, in this book. Even though he's on the cover of the book, the plot was very much about Colin and Colin's struggles and backstory. If he was that much of the story, Colin should have been on the cover, not Judd. I would have liked to know more about Judd's backstory, because if he is 150+ years old he lived through some of America and Canada's worst racial discrimination, that would have affected him. He also wouldn't have been super hyped about the police showing up, even if it was a fellow supernatural. I understand not wanting to write too much history of a Black character as a white writer, but it did not feel like his Blackness informed how he interacted with the world at all. This is why this book gets such a low rating from me.
[End Spoilers]
All this said, I'd rather read a book about Agent Lenis, or Miss Trickle and her wife Pepper, or....many of the other side characters, honestly. I probably wouldn't read TEE again, but it was a fun distraction during COVID-times and I don't regret that I did. I'll probably read the fourth book about Trick, since I love him to pieces.