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elementarymydear 's review for:
The Dictator's Wife
by Freya Berry
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a book with an identity crisis. At the start, we’re presented with an enigmatic, charismatic woman, the widow of a communist dictator, who is standing trial for crimes she claimed her husband committed without her knowledge. At the end, we’re presented with a Handmaid’s-Tale-style commentary on state control of women’s reproduction. Did we successfully get from A to Z? I’m not sure.
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The opening of the book was really strong. Laura, the main character, is a young lawyer in the UK who grew up in the fictional country of Yanussia. When the former First Lady of said country, Marija Popa, is put on trial, and Laura’s company is hired to defend her, she is put on the case purely because her citizenship means they won’t have to wait for a Visa. As she meets Marija we begin to see that things are not all as they seem, and that Laura’s past is more intertwined with the Popa regime than she realised.
So the first third of the book? Brilliant. Due to the framing device we already know (or can guess) how the trial will end, but there’s plenty of intrigue, plenty of mystery, and I am stoked and ready for a legal battle for the ages. Except we never got to the legal battle. All of that happened off-screen, and instead we went through a meandering look through Laura’s past until the final twist came.
I have very strong opinions about what makes a good twist. The perfect plot twist in my eyes is the end of season 1 of The Good Place, and it’s a great comparison for other thriller-style twists. My rule is that for a plot twist like this to be convincing, then a) we must have enough information that retrospectively it’s the only thing that makes sense and b) it has to be a surprise. Too often the first part of my rule is ignored, and that was the case here. Without spoiling the ending, while there were a couple of bread crumbs, it didn’t really match either plotwise or tonally with the rest of the book. In fact, it felt like the start of a whole other book.
This book was a mixed bag for me. There was the start of two great books in there, but ultimately they didn’t combine to make an even better one.
I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.
📚Find this and more reviews on my blog!📚
The opening of the book was really strong. Laura, the main character, is a young lawyer in the UK who grew up in the fictional country of Yanussia. When the former First Lady of said country, Marija Popa, is put on trial, and Laura’s company is hired to defend her, she is put on the case purely because her citizenship means they won’t have to wait for a Visa. As she meets Marija we begin to see that things are not all as they seem, and that Laura’s past is more intertwined with the Popa regime than she realised.
So the first third of the book? Brilliant. Due to the framing device we already know (or can guess) how the trial will end, but there’s plenty of intrigue, plenty of mystery, and I am stoked and ready for a legal battle for the ages. Except we never got to the legal battle. All of that happened off-screen, and instead we went through a meandering look through Laura’s past until the final twist came.
I have very strong opinions about what makes a good twist. The perfect plot twist in my eyes is the end of season 1 of The Good Place, and it’s a great comparison for other thriller-style twists. My rule is that for a plot twist like this to be convincing, then a) we must have enough information that retrospectively it’s the only thing that makes sense and b) it has to be a surprise. Too often the first part of my rule is ignored, and that was the case here. Without spoiling the ending, while there were a couple of bread crumbs, it didn’t really match either plotwise or tonally with the rest of the book. In fact, it felt like the start of a whole other book.
This book was a mixed bag for me. There was the start of two great books in there, but ultimately they didn’t combine to make an even better one.
I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.