Reviews

The Big Four by Agatha Christie

sashahawkins's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.0

naomisbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

drivera956's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

dame agatha i know you were going through a lot when this was written but whyyyyyyy. this was such a slog, it was super racist even given its time of writing (i had a good laugh at the evil chinese smells). i got through this book only because of its smattering of fun poirot & hastings character moments, so i'm just going to imagine that hastings made all of this up to lie to his wife about why he was hanging out with poirot for 6+ months. 

outcolder's review against another edition

1.0

Jo and I read this out loud to each other, trying to do all the goofy accents, and I would give that experience all the stars. But as a Poirot book, this was terrible. In addition to being a disjointed collection of short stories posing as a novel, and the ridiculous Fantomas Batman vibes, all the crap about Chinese “subtle minds” and Hasting’s disgust with “Slavs” and foreigners has me looking forward to tossing this in the paper recycling bin.

momreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was not as well plotted as some of Christie's other books.  Too many unknowns that were not worked through and nothing is really explained.  I felt like Poirot just knew things without any explanations and the criminals were supposed to be super powerful with a whole network of people working for them but when they are caught, supposedly it is all over and the people under them all quietly fade away.  The book just didn't flow well for me and had a lot of plot holes.

bookmar0's review against another edition

2.0

[2.5]

j'allais être aigrie et dire que le tome était trop nul mais j'ai appris que c'était en fait 4 nouvelles différentes réunies en un livre donc ça explique beaucoup de choses mais j'ai quand même eu du mal à accrocher, le schéma était trop différent de ce qui me plaisait dans ceux que j'ai lu et certains dénouements étaient un peu trop facile

poirot's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Torture, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicide

eesh25's review against another edition

I stopped about halfway. I guess it could finish it if I really wanted to, but I just can't get myself to be interested in anything that's going on. This book is so unlike Christie and Poirot. The Big Four are these supervillains and secret crime group, and Poirot has to foil their plans of world domination or some shit. It just doesn't work.

bethmtaps's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

lisg's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0