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skzats_we's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
revisins's review against another edition
4.0
There are times when psychological thrillers focus so much on their antagonists that much of that much of the emphasis falls on the psycho portion of the genre. The psychological thriller has become a playground for authors to trot out their Hannibal-lites, proto-Hannibals, or such extreme and perverse variants on Harris’ character. It has diluted an otherwise effective and unnerving genre into becoming a pulp mill for the next cinematic IP. So, it is shocking when a writer crafts a novel that lacks a scenery chewing, cartoonish, over wrought and thinly drawn devil and instead uses the mental mechanisms of its protagonist to underline the psychology at work in their novel.
Kind of Cruel is at moments, immediate and others clinically distant. The push/pull of the story’s three woven narratives pronounces that ebb and flow. The tensions inherent in all three strands harmonize with each other to compel a reader to burn through page after page. It is a taut read and anyone who is looking for a late summer scorcher of a story, will not be disappointed.
That is not to say Kind of Cruel is perfect. There are some narrative leaps that can lead to momentary confusion and frustration. There is also some necessary suspension of disbelief that is customary to genre—but it doesn’t strain against credulity.
Kind of Cruel is a family story in how dysfunction can function in day to day. The little familial guilts and larger familiar grieves that accumulate inform the story that bring it to an incredible focus. With no overt villain, Kind of Cruel feels more realistic in its approach—even with some of the narrative gymnastics. It is a story that if you let it work its nails into your skin, it will not let go easily and you will appreciate the marks it leaves.
Thank you for the ARC copy prodvided by GoodReads FirstReads program.
Kind of Cruel is at moments, immediate and others clinically distant. The push/pull of the story’s three woven narratives pronounces that ebb and flow. The tensions inherent in all three strands harmonize with each other to compel a reader to burn through page after page. It is a taut read and anyone who is looking for a late summer scorcher of a story, will not be disappointed.
That is not to say Kind of Cruel is perfect. There are some narrative leaps that can lead to momentary confusion and frustration. There is also some necessary suspension of disbelief that is customary to genre—but it doesn’t strain against credulity.
Kind of Cruel is a family story in how dysfunction can function in day to day. The little familial guilts and larger familiar grieves that accumulate inform the story that bring it to an incredible focus. With no overt villain, Kind of Cruel feels more realistic in its approach—even with some of the narrative gymnastics. It is a story that if you let it work its nails into your skin, it will not let go easily and you will appreciate the marks it leaves.
Thank you for the ARC copy prodvided by GoodReads FirstReads program.
hkburke2's review against another edition
Didn't realize it's part of a series - need to go back and read the others
averyavenue's review against another edition
3.0
kept me invested enough. interesting perspective on misogyny through the way Amber is viewed. self driven is often confused with selfish which she proves she isn’t but caring and loving her husband and children. i never felt bad for Jo though. i understand where she came from and her trauma but i couldn’t justify it. gave me a good gasp once or twice though
tatterededges's review against another edition
2.0
This book started off ok but very quickly went downhill. There are a couple of very glaring problems. The first being that Ginny is a hypnotherapist, someone who helps people quit smoking, lose weight etc by using hypnosis to alter their automatic thought processes. She is not a psychoanalyst. The two are very different with very different training and purposes, yet Ginny behaves as though she's a psychoanalyst who dabbles in hypnotherapy. She psychoanalyses everyone in the book from just meeting them briefly which is just preposterous. There's a reason psychoanalysis takes years.
It's as though her character's main function in the book is to explain the motives of the other characters, which is fine if it's absolutely necessary, but at least get the characters profession right. Make her presence in the book vaguely plausible. Or better yet, don't make the characters behaviour and motivations so ridiculous that they need third party explanations.
The second being that the words kind, cruel, kind of cruel are not so obscure. To suggest that somebody uttering them under hypnosis would attract so much attention that the police be involved is pretty far fetched. That it would be considered so strong a lead that a detective would spend the whole day sitting in while the suspect/witness undergoes hypnosis is ridiculous.
I call bullshit on the extent of Ambers insomnia. If she really did sleep as little as is claimed, she could not function, she would not be able to hold down a job or look after two kids. You need a certain amount of sleep for brain function. Amber would have been physically sick, depressed, forgetful, accident prone, paranoid, if not experiencing some degree of psychosis. I also think the reason given for the insomnia was weak.
What was the relevance of the pages and pages of psychoanalysis of Simon's character? Why do we care how he feels about having sex with his wife? In fact, what is the relevance of that whole Charlie and Simon relationship? And the Charlie and Olivia relationship? And while I'm on this Olivia character, why would a non-cop be involved in a murder investigation? Let alone solving it.
Which brings me to the killer. Who didn't see that coming from the first few chapters? Jo's motives are asinine. If she really didn't want to look after her disabled sister sometime in the distant future, she'd have killed her sister and not a slew of strangers, in an incredibly convoluted and dubious plot to have people think she has her hands full. Or she'd just plant the idea that she's got her hands full in people's heads. She's a narcissist, they're very good at spin. Her "plan" is just so ludicrous that she'd probably get off in court because you can drive a truck through the holes in the logic.
I don't think I'll be reading any more of these Spilling CID books.
It's as though her character's main function in the book is to explain the motives of the other characters, which is fine if it's absolutely necessary, but at least get the characters profession right. Make her presence in the book vaguely plausible. Or better yet, don't make the characters behaviour and motivations so ridiculous that they need third party explanations.
The second being that the words kind, cruel, kind of cruel are not so obscure. To suggest that somebody uttering them under hypnosis would attract so much attention that the police be involved is pretty far fetched. That it would be considered so strong a lead that a detective would spend the whole day sitting in while the suspect/witness undergoes hypnosis is ridiculous.
I call bullshit on the extent of Ambers insomnia. If she really did sleep as little as is claimed, she could not function, she would not be able to hold down a job or look after two kids. You need a certain amount of sleep for brain function. Amber would have been physically sick, depressed, forgetful, accident prone, paranoid, if not experiencing some degree of psychosis. I also think the reason given for the insomnia was weak.
What was the relevance of the pages and pages of psychoanalysis of Simon's character? Why do we care how he feels about having sex with his wife? In fact, what is the relevance of that whole Charlie and Simon relationship? And the Charlie and Olivia relationship? And while I'm on this Olivia character, why would a non-cop be involved in a murder investigation? Let alone solving it.
Which brings me to the killer. Who didn't see that coming from the first few chapters? Jo's motives are asinine. If she really didn't want to look after her disabled sister sometime in the distant future, she'd have killed her sister and not a slew of strangers, in an incredibly convoluted and dubious plot to have people think she has her hands full. Or she'd just plant the idea that she's got her hands full in people's heads. She's a narcissist, they're very good at spin. Her "plan" is just so ludicrous that she'd probably get off in court because you can drive a truck through the holes in the logic.
I don't think I'll be reading any more of these Spilling CID books.
krobart's review against another edition
3.0
See my review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/day-599-kind-of-cruel/
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/day-599-kind-of-cruel/
mikewa14's review against another edition
5.0
Hannah is back on form - full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/kind-of-cruel.html
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/kind-of-cruel.html
claireptondre's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting psychological concepts throughout! Definitely a lot to mull over!
marybethorama's review against another edition
5.0
Fun. I really enjoyed Amber. She seemed like she could be a friend. Always enjoy Charlie and Simon too.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
3.0
I like Sophie Hannah's series of crime novels set in the fictitious Culver Valley in England. They do follow a pattern, which doesn't inhibit my enjoyment of them. Sometimes a solidly written and plotted escapist novel is no bad thing. That said, in this installment, the puzzling occurrence that sets the book in motion is so convoluted that instead of intriguing me, it made me roll my eyes. Hannah stills pulls off a convincing explanation, but it took her longer to suck me into the story because of the beginning.
Kind of Cruel centers around a prickly, opinionated woman named Amber, who is suffering from extreme insomnia. She becomes tied into a murder investigation that had stalled out through her recognition of a phrase that had been found on a scrap of paper at the murder site. As the police try to find the connection between Amber and the dead woman, Amber is desperate to find answers of her own to a family secret and another murder.
Despite the rocky start, I enjoyed this book. Despite the focus of each book being largely on the mystery, it is a series that is probably best read in order, with the relationships between the continuing characters being utterly incomprehensible otherwise.
Kind of Cruel centers around a prickly, opinionated woman named Amber, who is suffering from extreme insomnia. She becomes tied into a murder investigation that had stalled out through her recognition of a phrase that had been found on a scrap of paper at the murder site. As the police try to find the connection between Amber and the dead woman, Amber is desperate to find answers of her own to a family secret and another murder.
Despite the rocky start, I enjoyed this book. Despite the focus of each book being largely on the mystery, it is a series that is probably best read in order, with the relationships between the continuing characters being utterly incomprehensible otherwise.