Look. This book.
It's so good.
I mean, it's definitely parallel to Rowling's own life. I mean, a female content creator is harassed online and accused of being racist, ablest, and transphobic and it culminates in her death. I mean, there was a point when I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to get through this (SO ON THE NOSE!), but then it was just so mesmerizing. The book has many chapters that are just conversations that people are having through online chat and chapters about Strike and Robin and their sleuthing and I just really enjoyed reading it and trying to solve the mystery.
But. I'm over the Strike/Robin will they or won't they. They're aren't teenagers and I find their inability to communicate about their relationship to be downright tired and boring. Also, this book is 1012 pages and it's quite a doorstop. Ha! If you're not into long books, maybe this one won't be for you.
Okay, and this is so nitpicky. The font used in this book has quotation marks with only one apostrophe, as in:
'OK," said Robin coolly moving off. 'That stuff on the dashboard's for you to look at.' (page 283) This is fine in many circumstances, but can be confusing when the person is talking in dialect. Consider:
'No, I was bein' insigh'ful an' profound,' said Josh...'No, it's 'er, really, it's all 'er fault this 'appened. We were talkin' abou' the, you know, the people wha' are buried there --' (page 124).
I did not like the font, but I did like the book.
4.5/5 stars
Lines of note:
Reflecting ruefully that he'd now reached the age where almost everyone he met reminded him of someone else he'd known, Strike continued to scroll through Cardew's list of videos. (page 110)
I so rarely meet someone these days and don't rack my brain trying to figure out who they remind me of. It's incredibly distracting and I wish I could turn that part of my brain off.
"What we're seeing here are sophisticated campaigns of misinformation and harassments which aim in part to turn progressives against their own," said The Times' source. "While we've previously seen "trolling" of liberals originating in spaces like 4chan, the terror group is using social media in a more organised and sophisticated way to incite harassment and campaigns of intimidation."
Singer Gigi Cazenove was subjected to sustained abuse on social media after emails in which she had allegedly used racist language to describe a former backing singer were leaked online. The emails were subsequently found to have been faked. Maya Satterthwaited was revealed to have "misgendered" a prominent trans woman in private messages which were also leaked online, while Edie Ledwell was subject to a prolonged hate campaign for multiple alleged transgressions, particularly against the disabled..." (page 140)
This is the part where I nearly shut the book. I mean, could this be any more transparent?
Things I looked up:
internecine (page 123): destructive to both sides in a conflict (I think I should probably know this word...)
Brown-Sequard syndrome (page 198) - a rare neurological condition characterized by a lesion in the spinal cord that results in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and a loss of sensation on the other
Cyril Scott (page 228) - An English composer, poet, writer, and occultist alive from 1879 - 1970.
solecism (page 292) - a grammatical mistake in speech or writing (another word I think I should probably already know...)
vegvisir (page 439) - (Icelandic for sign post or wayfarer) an Icelandic magical stave intended to help the bearer through rough weather
Yay! I'm so glad you liked it. Yes- the very first chapter starts with the Robin/Strike conundrum, and I have to admit I was annoyed. But I will say the issue is handled in a slightly different, more interesting, way than these situations usually are. Like Strike has valid reasons for not wanting a relationship- it's not entirely clear whether or not they would be truly happier together. But yes- their inability to communicate on this subject is getting old.
ReplyDeleteThey are ADULTS who OWN A BUSINESS TOGETHER. They could not let this fester for years in real life because it would impact the business. I really don't like that aspect of this series. I also sort of wish Rowling would be able to write a male/female friendship that isn't always mired in sexual attraction. It would make a more interesting story to me and might edge this towards 5 stars. But it's just my own personal preference.
DeleteI love the series and the tv adaptation, but I agree with the romance or lack of it. Go to bed already.
ReplyDeleteThis was a tough read via audio because all of the oral reading of tweets drove me to distraction. Although daughter has the audio version, I think she opted to stop it and get the print version.
I have read what Rowling has to say and never found it odious. People can have non-woke opinions and not be hateful. I say this as a fairly woke bloke who knows and is supportive of someone who is genderqueer. Maybe I am dense and need someone to point out specifically what is so wrong.
Very interesting note about the audio! You also would miss a lot of the clues about who is who if you weren't reading it.
DeleteI think the issue is that people in the communities that she's been accused of being insensitive about (notable the trans community) DO see what she's said as harmful and hurtful. So, even if I don't see it, that's not really relevant. My feelings and interpretations aren't part of the story except in that I still read these books. Ha!
I just want the relationship portion to be STRIPPED from this series. I do not care. Actually, I do: I do not want them to get together, I want them to be best friends and colleagues and not think about each other in a romantic way at all. I agree with the rest of your feelings about this book as well, although I didn't mind that it was so thick. I like a book that can absorb me so well for so long. It would have been much shorter if we didn't have all the transcripts of the chats, which I found annoying (though, I say grudgingly, effective) for multiple reasons.
ReplyDeleteYes! Like I said in response to Jenny, it would be much more interesting to me if they just had a functional male/female friendship and partnership. I liked the chats, actually, and spent a lot of time digging through them for clues. I thought it was a super smart method of writing. (Dang it. I do think she's clever.)
DeleteShe is clever. Sigh. My complaint about the chats was that they ran simultaneously, as I suppose they would if you are really an admin in the game. But I had a hard time figuring out how to read them -- a page at a time? A whole chat thread at a time? It distracted me. (I did what you did, too, combing through for clues. I figured out the identity of one person, I think, but I still had multiple suspects right up to the very end.) And YES. I think there is this belief that books MUST have a romantic component, and it's dumb. Functional male/female NON-ROMANTIC relationships are just as interesting -- moreso, I'd wager, because they are more rare.
DeleteI am excited about this one but I get your conundrum about if it's okay to still read her. I love Harry Potter, too, but get lectures every time from my daughter why Rick Riordan books are so much better (diversity, diversity, diversity - apparently it shows).
ReplyDeleteAfter you mentioned the over 1000 page count I decided to go with the audio book 😉 I have a tendency to read the end first if it gets too exciting....
I think the audio is going to be confusing, based on what Anvilcloud said above. Be warned!
DeleteI get the conundrum, too. I feel this way about Roahl Dahl - do you know how much of an anti-Semitic a-hole he was? Just google him and you'll see how terrible he was. And yet - I love his books and can't imagine not introducing my children to Matilda and The BFG. And I will read HP to them, too, but we'll talk about the problematic authors, too, when they are old enough for those convos.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I have only read the first book in this series and didn't care to go on. I'm not a big mystery/thriller reader, though, and thought the first book felt long, so 1000+ is definitely a hard pass for me!!