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What Members Thought
Jul 17, 2014
Laura
marked it as to-read
Do I really need a reason to add this besides the fact that it's my favorite genre and was published on my 25th wedding anniversary? No, I think not! :)
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Jul 07, 2019
Nina ( picturetalk321 )
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
europe,
author-man,
genre-fiction,
a-reviewed,
z-read-2019,
transl-french,
europe-france,
theme-het
Disappointing. This book starts out well: as another reviewer put it, it seems to be "cool". Sparky writing (I read the sample chapter in the original French), snappy dialogue, an intriguing mystery.
The plot does tie up satisfyingly at the end. The middle is a too-long sagging middle but I liked the quick pace in the final 20% and the to-and-fro and knights' moves of suspicion deflected, re-directed and deflected again.
But nothing, people, nothing redeems the shallow characterisation and the ran ...more
The plot does tie up satisfyingly at the end. The middle is a too-long sagging middle but I liked the quick pace in the final 20% and the to-and-fro and knights' moves of suspicion deflected, re-directed and deflected again.
But nothing, people, nothing redeems the shallow characterisation and the ran ...more
After looking forward to a week of vacation and getting a lot of reading done there, I forgot my Kindle on the plane to my destination - major bummer. It's not that easy to find books to buy these days, but I came across this muchly hyped French bestseller which was also big enough (+600 pages) to make it last for a while, especially as I read much slower in French.
It wasn't bad and as a crime story it came up with some interesting twists and turns, but the whole thing was way too long and got ...more
It wasn't bad and as a crime story it came up with some interesting twists and turns, but the whole thing was way too long and got ...more
Between 2 or 3 stars, finally I decided on 3, for the author's effort to write a book about book and writers, although the plot itself is quite "meh". I think the writer tried to be too clever but forgot to fill in some loopholes. The writing itself is not that good, I'm not sure if it's because of the translation (the original story is written in French) or just because his writing is bad, LOL. Especially the scenes about love story between Harry Quebert, the writer, with a 15 year old girl, No
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This is the second book which I've read in the last few months where the main character is an author struggling with writer's block and both books have turned out to be pretentious claptrap!
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Dicker draws on varied inspirations here - Nabokov's Lolita is a clear influence, and I suspect that he's spent more than a little time nosing around in Golden Age mysteries mysteries as well. Like Christie, Dicker's story rewards you for asking questions of it, and those small elements that niggle at you throughout will eventually show their purpose. Goldman's investigation draws you forward inexorably, and the ultimate conclusion is both unexpected and satisfying.
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J'ai aimé ce livre.
L'histoire était bien ficelée et une fin imprévue. J'avais hâte de savoir la fin mais je ne voulais .
L'auteur s'est bien efforcé d'Américaniser l'histoire et le style, il reste qu'il y a des petites coquilles, les distances par rapport à la mer, à Concord, au Canada et ça me déplait.
Aussi, des mots trop "français" de France vs international et ça aussi ça m'embête.
De la bière sans alcool? Qui boit vraiment ça ? lol
Et l'éditeur en a manqué une ... Un paragraphe qui se répète.
Ma ...more
L'histoire était bien ficelée et une fin imprévue. J'avais hâte de savoir la fin mais je ne voulais .
L'auteur s'est bien efforcé d'Américaniser l'histoire et le style, il reste qu'il y a des petites coquilles, les distances par rapport à la mer, à Concord, au Canada et ça me déplait.
Aussi, des mots trop "français" de France vs international et ça aussi ça m'embête.
De la bière sans alcool? Qui boit vraiment ça ? lol
Et l'éditeur en a manqué une ... Un paragraphe qui se répète.
Ma ...more
It is getting exceedingly difficult to come up with novel ways of relating a mystery novel but young Mr. Dicker seems to have done it with this work. Harry Quebert an author who struggled with Writer's block takes Marcus Goldman, a young writer with similar problems under his wing. What they find out about themselves and each other makes quite a tail.
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Meh. Some exciting bits. Writing advice is good but overall I felt underwhelmed. It didn't need to be 600+ pages long. And it is definitely not as exciting and thrilling as the Millennium Trilogy books.
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May 27, 2014
Suzanne
marked it as to-read
Aug 20, 2014
Sharon
marked it as to-read
Dec 07, 2023
Colleen Chi-Girl
marked it as to-read
