A little too sappy for my personal taste. Also very predictable, but in that feel-good story way, which I know appeals to many people. Fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea would probably love this. I was expecting some hardcore competition with serious rivalry and maybe even danger, but there was none of that.

I found the first two parts to drag a little bit, but once Lucy got on the island, it picked up and I was much more interested in the story. I wish Lucy wasn't such an obvious favourite from the start, that I could have at least pretended that the playing field was more level than it actually was. I also wish it had focused more on the games and riddles, but there were the first two and the rest were just glossed over, except the very last one, which is a bummer because the games were the most exciting part.

There's also a mishap with the points towards the end where it says that

both Melanie and Lucy had five and Andre had six, but Melanie had five points earlier, with Lucy and Andre on five

.

Absolutely superb. The setting, the characters, the plot - I can't say a single negative thing. The humour took me by surprise, but it was very much appreciated. The blend of dread and hilarity was something new for me, but I'm definitely craving more. 

The plot is great, but the writing feels very mid, even for a thriller.

If I had only one word to describe this book, it would be this: heartbreak.

I really loved the POV and timeline switches, although I have to say that I wish the past timeline hadn't been so contemporary in language. It didn't exactly feel like the 1940s. I enjoyed seeing Stella and Dan's relationship develop. I could see them falling in love on the page and understand why they developed such strong feelings for each other, and that's partly why it was so hard for me to believe that

Stella would give up so easily and stay with her husband. She could have lied and said the baby was Dan's. She could have threatened to tell everyone that he beat and raped her. Although back then, it was believed that marital rape didn't exist, I don't women in their community would have looked too kindly on this. She could have threatened to tell everyone he was a closeted gay man. She could have made his life absolute hell, but she did nothing and let Dan go.

I understand what the author was trying to do by creating a parallel to their story in the present, but I wish she hadn't. In contrast to Stella and Dan, Jess and Will's story was rushed and their feelings unfounded. Given where they both were in their lives, it felt rather toxic and founded on lust more than anything else. Like two drowning people cluthing onto each other, thinking it would keep their heads above water. I'd have liked it much more if they could have gotten to know each other better throughout, had mutual experiences that made them closer, and gone on a date at the end.

Another thing I didn't appreciate was the severely misleading depiction of depression and mental illness – getting laid and thinking you're in love does, in fact, not cure you, unfortunately.

It's known from the start that the ending would be absolutely soul-crushing, but still it just punched me in the gut. I don't know how one can live with the regret and despair and know that you can never get that time back, get another go, change anything. If I was Stella, I'd have gone mad.

This, for me, is definitely a 5-star police procedural. I'm genuinely so surprised at how good this was because – and you can call me biased – I'm always wary picking up crime novels written by men, especially one that's not very recent, because I'm tired of reading about sexist policemen with antiquated and gross views on women. I had to check multiple times when this was written because I just couldn't believe this was published more than twenty years ago.

First and foremost, the story itself was so utterly gripping. It hooked me from page 1 and I just knew that this would be good. I loved the way everything was put together. There was balance between all the POVs and I felt like I really got to know the characters. And speaking of the characters, I was very impressed with how fleshed out they all were, not just the MC. Something I absolutely love in crime novels are (male) detectives who aren't emotionally stunted douchebags and Robinson definitely delivered on this. 

Very different from what I was expecting based on the blurb, but I quite liked it. It's weird to call novels with body horror fun, but I think it was just that. I really liked the parts where

the characters were discussing all the religious elements that have been distorted over centuries to manipulate and control.

This was one of my most anticipated books this year. The first book was nearly perfect for me, so I had high expectations for this one too.

There's no doubt that Shelley Parker-Chan is an amazing writer. The world they built is magnificent and felt so real, as if I was truly there myself. Their characters are rich and complex, their internal turmoil so palpable in these pages. The way they are written evokes such complicated and conflicting emotions – they are obviously not good people, but you can't help but understand them and root for them. 

If I had to pick a favourite, it would be Ouyang. Both his and Zhu's motivations and drive are portrayed so well. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Baoxiang's. As

he's the one who the book is titled after

, I expected his storyline to be clearer and done better. 

Everything was amazing until Chapter 15, and then it started to disintegrate. Baoxiang's chapters started to feel repetitive and extremely rambly, his motivations unclear from the writing. Even after finishing the book, I couldn't truly understand his reasoning, and what I did understand felt wonky to me.

And it wasn't just Baoxiang's POVs that took a nosedive. The entirety of Chapter 17 felt as if it was written by someone else and what took place in it was so full of holes and so far fetched that it bordered ridiculous.

Drowning the men and resuscitating them? Please. Steering through the gaps between the ghosts when ghosts can move? Makes no sense. Zhu was supposed to go through with each ship, which means she would have had to go back and forth, but there was no way for her to do that and it sounded like they went through all at once, on a single ship. But once they were through, they had many ships again. It was all just confusing and illogical. Then, they send swimmers to pour oil around Chen's ships, when we know from an earlier chapter that her men can't really swim. After that, they needed someone to go and physically light the oil on fire, so they needed a swimmer again, but suddenly they had a hard time finding one, and Xu Da sacrificed himself, when they had a bunch of pirate women who could swim? Hmmm.

Aside from that, I can't see why

Ouyang had to die. And him dying left me feeling like their story had no conclusion. I think the let-people-be-who-they-are message would have had a stronger impact had Zhu and Ouyang stood together at the end, with Ouyang finally accepting her as she is, and coming to terms with who he is.

Overall, I can appreciate it for Parker-Chan's beautiful worldbuilding and use of language, but I can't help but feel let down at the same time.