beriboo's Reviews (411)

Read as part of Phoebe Read's  a Mystery.

This is not my favourite ACD books, I was a bit disappointed with it. Essentially  it is a story of two halves. The first half is your typical Sherlock Holms novel, then the second delves into the backstory of one of the minor characters.

The second part of the book felt very different to the first half, and I did loose interest quite quickly,

We meet Queenie, a 25 year old women living in London, just as she is about to go through an difficult period in her life. Battling cultural conflicts, processing childhood trauma, a break up, problems at work and more, Queenie doesn’t always make the right decisions but you follow her through her journey of healing and self love. 

Queenie is one of best characters I have read in some time. Despite having completely different backgrounds and cultures I related to Queenie so much. I adored how quick witted she could be and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. 

I felt very protective of Queenie, I wanted to shake her at times but really just wanted to give her a big hug (metaphorically because she wasn’t keen on physical contact 😊)

The book covers some dark topics and it tricked me a bit as the first chapter was written in quite a lighthearted way and had some funny interactions. This comedy doesn’t stop as the book goes on and I think it does really well and taking the sharpe edge of what could have been a really heavy read.

Candice Carty-Williams wrote about the struggles of mental health and generational trauma in such a realistic way. It was subtly feed to you as the reader and my love for Queenie just grew and grew. 

This isn’t anything like Bridget Jones, I don’t like that comparison it doesn’t do Queenie justice. It isn’t a rom-com it’s a story about a young woman struggling to process pain and learn to love herself. 

This is 5 stars for me. Make sure to check the content warnings though. 

A story about relationships, unlikely friendship and loss set in the Reconstruction period following the American civil war. 
 

In his debut novel, Nathan Harris tells the story of Landry and Prentiss, to newly “freemen” who have spent their lives as slaves and are now trying to work to save money so they can travel North. They come across George, a landowner in their town Old Ox, who employees them to work and live on his farm, which is shares with his wife Isabelle. 

The return of soldiers from the Civil War reignites a forbidden love affair. The discovery of this affair collides with the brother’s struggle for freedom and peace, resulting in murder, persecution and a town besieged in chaos. 
 

The characters are diverse and different in many ways. As well as the characters who’s narrative we read, there are other characters on the side-line, some are good people, some are not. Nathan Harris writes these characters with so much depth and reality that you do feel for them and are invested in their story. 

My only negative on the characters is that I would have liked to hear from Landy and Prentiss more, they are often pushed aside for the other characters, all of whom are white. I think this is potentially a missed opportunity to give Landry and Prentiss more of a voice in a story they play such a big part of. 

The plot twist and turns, and you never quite know where the book is heading. I didn’t think it slowed at any point, I was completely invested and wanted to know what happened to each of the characters. 

Not everyone gets their happy ending, but I was not left disappointed by the end of the book. It was all wrapped up nicely, with no loose ends or cliff-hangers. 

When I first read the synopsis for this book it reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. If you like that book, The Underground Railroad, Colour Purple or Washington Black then you will enjoy this book. 

Possibly my favourite book this year. 

Oof, I was looking forward to this book. I like mythical stories and anything based on folklore or fantasy, but this book was not it for me. 

I would describe this writing style as the modern art equivalent of literature. It is slightly pretentious and doesn't make much sense, yet at the same time the dialogue is repetitive and childlike. It would leave people thinking 'maybe I'm not smart enough to get why this is good'. When in reality it reads like a school child's English literature assignment.  

I'm sure there will be people who enjoy the book, as there are people that enjoy modern art. I'm just not one of those people.