Scan barcode
A review by wouterk
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I'm giving this book 3,5 stars rounded to 4. It is a wonderful palate cleanser that I would recommend to anyone. I always feel kind of guilty to make someone's hard work to out to be the ginger of the sushi restaurant, but let me tell you why that is a great compliment. For me a good palate cleanser is a book that is:
1. A well-written book that is very easy and accessible to read;
2. fit for almost any time and any mood to read;
3. fast to medium-paced, so no slogging;
4. something completely different from most things you will read and therefore really resets your mind and reading experience.
This book does them all, but then I get to immediately the first personal thing that kind of tempered my enjoyment. This book is an amazing noir work from the perspective of a funny, interesting and well thought out protagonist, Detective Tippy Triceratops. However, I've recently read 4 of the best books in the Dresden Files after each other. And it is not a fair comparison between late Butcher and Hayes' debut (hence the rounding up). I'm just slightly satiated with the first person smart guy detective vibe and then the flaws become more visible.
But let's start with the good, cause it is mostly a great and wonderful book. Tippy is a detective in the Stillreal where all important and special ideas and imaginary friends go after their person does not need them anymore. It is a very rich world that gets explained very well and we meet some amazing and fun creatures. Hayes does a great job to make them as diverse as the people you encounter on a day to day basis (of all ages). I love this world!
In the Stillreal usually creatures do not die, but now there seems to be a villain that actually kills 'friends'. And Tippy has to try and found out who or what this villain is and try to stop it. The villain is interesting and the way they try to stop it as well.
Another thing that Hayes does very naturally is using the nature of the Stillreal to make it very logical to ask for pronouns. Yes in the Stillreal someone can probably actually identify as a lamppost. But that makes sense. It is the fluidity of ideas that makes it very natural to ask a person how to call them and what their pronouns are.
Now one of the things that I liked less was that some responses of the people/creatures we encountered were somewhat repetitive, as were some of the steps in the process of solving the mystery of the murderer. By no means was it bad enough to judge the book unfavourably but there were some points where I kind of zoned out because of similarities. And then again, this is also one of the greatest risks of noir novels.
And that brings me to the unfortunate comparison to the Dresden files. Tippy is imagined and invented by his person as a very stereotype noir detective, with the particular tone of voice, jibes and banter that come with it. And I like that, but that was also somewhat repetitive in this book. And this book is short enough to not get annoyed by it, but I'm satiated with it through Dresden and Dresden really does it better. But no shade to this author at all and if you miss the Dresden file and have read everything, this is actually a great new take on the same subgenre. My recommendation is just not to read them parallel to each other.
1. A well-written book that is very easy and accessible to read;
2. fit for almost any time and any mood to read;
3. fast to medium-paced, so no slogging;
4. something completely different from most things you will read and therefore really resets your mind and reading experience.
This book does them all, but then I get to immediately the first personal thing that kind of tempered my enjoyment. This book is an amazing noir work from the perspective of a funny, interesting and well thought out protagonist, Detective Tippy Triceratops. However, I've recently read 4 of the best books in the Dresden Files after each other. And it is not a fair comparison between late Butcher and Hayes' debut (hence the rounding up). I'm just slightly satiated with the first person smart guy detective vibe and then the flaws become more visible.
But let's start with the good, cause it is mostly a great and wonderful book. Tippy is a detective in the Stillreal where all important and special ideas and imaginary friends go after their person does not need them anymore. It is a very rich world that gets explained very well and we meet some amazing and fun creatures. Hayes does a great job to make them as diverse as the people you encounter on a day to day basis (of all ages). I love this world!
In the Stillreal usually creatures do not die, but now there seems to be a villain that actually kills 'friends'. And Tippy has to try and found out who or what this villain is and try to stop it. The villain is interesting and the way they try to stop it as well.
Another thing that Hayes does very naturally is using the nature of the Stillreal to make it very logical to ask for pronouns. Yes in the Stillreal someone can probably actually identify as a lamppost. But that makes sense. It is the fluidity of ideas that makes it very natural to ask a person how to call them and what their pronouns are.
Now one of the things that I liked less was that some responses of the people/creatures we encountered were somewhat repetitive, as were some of the steps in the process of solving the mystery of the murderer. By no means was it bad enough to judge the book unfavourably but there were some points where I kind of zoned out because of similarities. And then again, this is also one of the greatest risks of noir novels.
And that brings me to the unfortunate comparison to the Dresden files. Tippy is imagined and invented by his person as a very stereotype noir detective, with the particular tone of voice, jibes and banter that come with it. And I like that, but that was also somewhat repetitive in this book. And this book is short enough to not get annoyed by it, but I'm satiated with it through Dresden and Dresden really does it better. But no shade to this author at all and if you miss the Dresden file and have read everything, this is actually a great new take on the same subgenre. My recommendation is just not to read them parallel to each other.