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A review by thomwallacern
The Abstainer by Ian McGuire
4.0
THIS book. I had read a preview for this book around the time it was published in September 2020 (so, you know, like 12 covid-years ago), and the description intrigued me enough that I decided to check it out. Gritty historical British crime-slash-revenge thriller novels appeal to me. Go figure, right?
Reading this was also a bit unplanned yet timely, being that Ian McGuire’s novel THE NORTH WATER was recently adapted into a BBC series. It’s like one of those cognitive bias things where you’ve never heard of something ever and then you hear of it, and then all of a sudden it’s everywhere like it’s been a part of normal life forever? Like when you hear someone call an umbrella a bumbershoot, and you know you’ve never heard that term before. But, all of a sudden, everyone says it like they’ve always said it when you know specifically that they have not.
It’s called Frequency Illusion. I just looked it up. Anyway.
This book fulfilled all the reading challenges for me: The #bpodread2022 category “a revenge”, the bookriot reading journal entry for a book about an immigrant, and OF COURSE the Taylor Swift 1989 Album Reading Challenge for “a book about a feud”. This book had everything.
The novel is set in 1867, months after the hanging of three Irish Nationalists charged and executed for the death of a British police officer. Which, come to find out, was an actual event.
James O’Connor, the only Irish police officer in Manchester UK, is having doubts over the suppression of the Fenians–the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who were fighting for Irish Independence. Also, an actual thing.
Irish-American Stephen Doyle, an American Civil War vet (real war, fictional person), has come to the UK to assist the Fenians in carrying out a terrorist attack. And hijinks ensue. And murder.
The first half of the book was gripping and engaging. Bleak. Lots of intrigue and suspense. The start of the second half, though, was very…how should I say…very EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Like, it wasn’t the best in the trilogy. It kinda dragged a bit. And I get that I will be argued with due to my EMPIRE opinions, but I feel the same way about THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. That film was literally three hours worth of Hobbits walking. Come at me.
But then, THE ABSTAINER picks back up in the third portion. Just like the returns of both the Jedi and the King. And that ending is not the way I wanted it to end. But it's the way the author needed it to end. And I respect that. But I was upset. I yelled WHAT THE HELL at a book. It was a very interesting subject matter. It did not, though, leave me wanting to read more from the author. Although, I may still watch THE NORTH WATER.
Reading this was also a bit unplanned yet timely, being that Ian McGuire’s novel THE NORTH WATER was recently adapted into a BBC series. It’s like one of those cognitive bias things where you’ve never heard of something ever and then you hear of it, and then all of a sudden it’s everywhere like it’s been a part of normal life forever? Like when you hear someone call an umbrella a bumbershoot, and you know you’ve never heard that term before. But, all of a sudden, everyone says it like they’ve always said it when you know specifically that they have not.
It’s called Frequency Illusion. I just looked it up. Anyway.
This book fulfilled all the reading challenges for me: The #bpodread2022 category “a revenge”, the bookriot reading journal entry for a book about an immigrant, and OF COURSE the Taylor Swift 1989 Album Reading Challenge for “a book about a feud”. This book had everything.
The novel is set in 1867, months after the hanging of three Irish Nationalists charged and executed for the death of a British police officer. Which, come to find out, was an actual event.
James O’Connor, the only Irish police officer in Manchester UK, is having doubts over the suppression of the Fenians–the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who were fighting for Irish Independence. Also, an actual thing.
Irish-American Stephen Doyle, an American Civil War vet (real war, fictional person), has come to the UK to assist the Fenians in carrying out a terrorist attack. And hijinks ensue. And murder.
The first half of the book was gripping and engaging. Bleak. Lots of intrigue and suspense. The start of the second half, though, was very…how should I say…very EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Like, it wasn’t the best in the trilogy. It kinda dragged a bit. And I get that I will be argued with due to my EMPIRE opinions, but I feel the same way about THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. That film was literally three hours worth of Hobbits walking. Come at me.
But then, THE ABSTAINER picks back up in the third portion. Just like the returns of both the Jedi and the King. And that ending is not the way I wanted it to end. But it's the way the author needed it to end. And I respect that. But I was upset. I yelled WHAT THE HELL at a book. It was a very interesting subject matter. It did not, though, leave me wanting to read more from the author. Although, I may still watch THE NORTH WATER.