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abbitha1108's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
juliannethebookworm's review against another edition
2.0
The main character's interest in, effort towards, and tenacity for solving the crime seemed disproportionate to her personality as well as her relationship with the victim and those who were close to the victim. The crime also often seemed an afterthought when I feel it should have been a little more at the forefront.
helena_basket's review against another edition
3.0
Cute mystery that hits my mixtape nostalgia loving heart in just the right place. Loses 1 star for overuse of annoying hipsters and predictable killer. But overall the music is great.
naughty_librarian's review against another edition
5.0
Brooklyn hipsters solving a crime? Romance, weirdos, obscure bands, and danger--it's
been awhile since I've been hooked on a book, unable to put it down. I haven't read a lot of modern mystery or new books (mostly classics and nonfiction lately)--so glad I found this while working at the library.
And yes, I have made many mixed tapes and CDs in my day...
been awhile since I've been hooked on a book, unable to put it down. I haven't read a lot of modern mystery or new books (mostly classics and nonfiction lately)--so glad I found this while working at the library.
And yes, I have made many mixed tapes and CDs in my day...
booklife4life's review against another edition
3.0
Basic Info
Format: Paperback
Length/Page Count: 256pgs
Genre: Young Adult; Mystery
Reason for Reading: Cover.
At A Glance
Love Triangle/Insta Love/Obsession?: N/A
Cliff Hanger: no
Triggers: n/a
Rating: 3.5 stars
Score Sheet
All out of ten
Cover: 8
Plot: 7
Characters: 7
World Building: 5
Flow: 8
Series Congruity: n/a
Writing: 7
Ending: 4
Total: 6
In Dept
Best Part: Park and Rec!
Worst Part: Songs from the 80's
Thoughts Had: I need music!
Conclusion
Continuing the Series: n/a
Recommending:Sure
Short Review: Well if you like old 80's and 90's songs, you'll like this book, i didn't know any of the songs they mentioned at all. The ending wasn't a surprise at all, in fact when Sid mention some girl earlier, i thought he was talking about her then so i kinda knew it. There was a Parks and Rec reference, made me giddy. I think the murdered was too fat fetched anyhow. Like why would she just randomly snap and kill her over that little bit? and then the PI guy was like yah we can totally set her up, no police involved at all. Not safe. Random booty call was not needed either. Just saying.
Misc.
Book Boyfriend: No.
Best Friend Material: Jett.
hobbes199's review against another edition
1.0
Review first published at If These Books Could Talk.
High Fidelity. That was a thing wasn’t it? Hugely successful, and incredibly influential, the novel by Nick Hornby spawned a movie and countless imitations.
Now, apparently, we need a ‘High Fidelity for Women’, and ‘The Big Rewind’ unfortunately, does neither the inspiration, women, or music fans in general, any favours.
Basically:
- Jett is a pretentious wannabe music journalist, leeching off her grandmother’s rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn. She hates hipsters, despite being one and surrounding herself with them.
- KitKat lives upstairs. She’s ‘alternative’ because she has strange hair and deals in pot brownies.
- KitKat is murdered -her body discovered by Jett when she tries to return a wrongly delivered mix-tape. Death by rolling pin. How very hip.
-Jett spends the novel ‘investigating’ KitKat’s death at the request of her sister. She gets incredibly involved and emotional about KitKat’s death despite hardly knowing her, making her basically one of the ‘grief tourists’ she lays into so viciously early on.
-One of the ways Jettsticks her nose in investigates is by looking through the victim’s collection of personal mixtapes, tracking down as many as she can to have a good nose about. This triggers Jett’s own feelings of ennui about her past love life and her present, causing her to seek out old flames. And the reader to realise what a crashing bore the main character actually is.
-Jett wants to have her cake and eat it too – moping about ‘the one that got away, while claiming to be hot to trot for another. Yes reader, she’s one of those.
-Sid is the poor bastard who has to deal with ‘Little Miss Indecisive’ on a daily basis, and the subject of her lust. Naturally he’s oblivious until the final act. And very stupid. As are most of the men involved.
-There are other characters, but they’re really too one-dimensional, flat and boring to bother with. Honestly…struggling to remember any of them right now.
-I’ve seen cigarette papers thicker than this plot. The ‘crime/mystery’ element is non-existent until the final part of the ‘The Big Rewind’ and no matter how much Cudmore may elude to the crime genre in her title, this is no Marlow. The ‘perp’ is obvious from their introduction, and procedures are full of faults. Not sure how much research was done into the P.I. trade or sting operations, but, put it this way, if the case ever got to court, it’d get thrown out on so many technicalities, even Nelson & Murdoch (Avacados At Law) couldn’t get a successful conviction.
-‘The Big Rewind’ is the book equivalent of a Bond movie. Jett doesn’t just go to a shop. Oh no! She goes to ‘Trader Joes’. Regularly. We’re bombarded with mentions for clothes, make-up, and all sorts of bollocks it’s like sitting through a commercial break every few chapters.
-Oh. There’s music. Lots of it. Whereas Hornby delicately wove his musical loves and those of his character Rob throughout High Fidelity, Cudmore smashes you around the head (probably with an advert emblazoned rolling pin) at every turn. Subtlety is not in play here. If you came to read this novel having lived in Antarctica, with limited music knowledge, then you may be impressed, or informed.
-Actually…fuck it…they’ve probably got internet somewhere in Antarctica, so I’d hazard a guess that even the bloody penguins know that The Smiths recorded ‘This Charming Man’.
-Jett is a judgemental arsehole. If she doesn’t like/agree/understand it, then it’s the worst thing to happen. Inpaying homage to ripping off ‘High Fidelity’ Cudmore has lost the very essence of the book: music is subjective, an emotional, heart-felt, awe-inspiring thing that evokes memories, painful and joyful, that go beyond the boundaries of almost any other medium other than literature. This is a character who wants to be a journalist? Gimmie a break!
-Less said about the sniggering ‘heehee’ attitude to her boss’ thing for female underwear the better. Seriously. Quit.
-Having one POC does not mean you have to bring up the subject of their skin colour as often as you mention Trader Joes. It also does not excuse all the other judgy bullshit.
I had high hope for this, genuinely I did, but it’s let down too quickly into the narrative by shoddy characterisation, silly plot elements, and that aforementioned patronising and judgemental tone.
I’m not sure the publishing world needs a ‘woman’s High Fidelity’, as hey, you know, we kinda read it already, enjoyed it, and then moved on. ‘The Big Rewind’ is a confused, direction-less novel that certainly doesn’t bring out anything in the reader other than a distinct hatred of Trader Joes.
High Fidelity. That was a thing wasn’t it? Hugely successful, and incredibly influential, the novel by Nick Hornby spawned a movie and countless imitations.
Now, apparently, we need a ‘High Fidelity for Women’, and ‘The Big Rewind’ unfortunately, does neither the inspiration, women, or music fans in general, any favours.
Basically:
- Jett is a pretentious wannabe music journalist, leeching off her grandmother’s rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn. She hates hipsters, despite being one and surrounding herself with them.
- KitKat lives upstairs. She’s ‘alternative’ because she has strange hair and deals in pot brownies.
- KitKat is murdered -her body discovered by Jett when she tries to return a wrongly delivered mix-tape. Death by rolling pin. How very hip.
-Jett spends the novel ‘investigating’ KitKat’s death at the request of her sister. She gets incredibly involved and emotional about KitKat’s death despite hardly knowing her, making her basically one of the ‘grief tourists’ she lays into so viciously early on.
-One of the ways Jett
-Jett wants to have her cake and eat it too – moping about ‘the one that got away, while claiming to be hot to trot for another. Yes reader, she’s one of those.
-Sid is the poor bastard who has to deal with ‘Little Miss Indecisive’ on a daily basis, and the subject of her lust. Naturally he’s oblivious until the final act. And very stupid. As are most of the men involved.
-There are other characters, but they’re really too one-dimensional, flat and boring to bother with. Honestly…struggling to remember any of them right now.
-I’ve seen cigarette papers thicker than this plot. The ‘crime/mystery’ element is non-existent until the final part of the ‘The Big Rewind’ and no matter how much Cudmore may elude to the crime genre in her title, this is no Marlow. The ‘perp’ is obvious from their introduction, and procedures are full of faults. Not sure how much research was done into the P.I. trade or sting operations, but, put it this way, if the case ever got to court, it’d get thrown out on so many technicalities, even Nelson & Murdoch (Avacados At Law) couldn’t get a successful conviction.
-‘The Big Rewind’ is the book equivalent of a Bond movie. Jett doesn’t just go to a shop. Oh no! She goes to ‘Trader Joes’. Regularly. We’re bombarded with mentions for clothes, make-up, and all sorts of bollocks it’s like sitting through a commercial break every few chapters.
-Oh. There’s music. Lots of it. Whereas Hornby delicately wove his musical loves and those of his character Rob throughout High Fidelity, Cudmore smashes you around the head (probably with an advert emblazoned rolling pin) at every turn. Subtlety is not in play here. If you came to read this novel having lived in Antarctica, with limited music knowledge, then you may be impressed, or informed.
-Actually…fuck it…they’ve probably got internet somewhere in Antarctica, so I’d hazard a guess that even the bloody penguins know that The Smiths recorded ‘This Charming Man’.
-Jett is a judgemental arsehole. If she doesn’t like/agree/understand it, then it’s the worst thing to happen. In
-Less said about the sniggering ‘heehee’ attitude to her boss’ thing for female underwear the better. Seriously. Quit.
-Having one POC does not mean you have to bring up the subject of their skin colour as often as you mention Trader Joes. It also does not excuse all the other judgy bullshit.
I had high hope for this, genuinely I did, but it’s let down too quickly into the narrative by shoddy characterisation, silly plot elements, and that aforementioned patronising and judgemental tone.
I’m not sure the publishing world needs a ‘woman’s High Fidelity’, as hey, you know, we kinda read it already, enjoyed it, and then moved on. ‘The Big Rewind’ is a confused, direction-less novel that certainly doesn’t bring out anything in the reader other than a distinct hatred of Trader Joes.
urbaer's review against another edition
4.0
"Raymond Chandler meets Nick Hornby" was the pull quote that got me to read this. And it's apt, though I think it's more Hornby than Chandler.
It leans very heavily on High Fidelity, Jett isn't on a quest to revisit her old romances, but it happens in any case. Much of the focus switches between the murder mystery, Jett's love and work life and the revisits.
The mystery is probably the weakest part of it. I called the killer before they were introduced by name in the story, though I was hazy on the reasons until 3/4 of the way through. And it does suffer from the painful thing of character who wants the killer found doesn't tell the detective really important information that they're like "oh yeah, that would have been good to know".
There are some dumb bits, but I got dragged along for the ride and felt good at the end of it so I'd say that's a win. It did feel somewhat refreshing in a way.
It leans very heavily on High Fidelity, Jett isn't on a quest to revisit her old romances, but it happens in any case. Much of the focus switches between the murder mystery, Jett's love and work life and the revisits.
The mystery is probably the weakest part of it. I called the killer before they were introduced by name in the story, though I was hazy on the reasons until 3/4 of the way through. And it does suffer from the painful thing of character who wants the killer found doesn't tell the detective really important information that they're like "oh yeah, that would have been good to know".
There are some dumb bits, but I got dragged along for the ride and felt good at the end of it so I'd say that's a win. It did feel somewhat refreshing in a way.
capeybara's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the High Fidelity vibes I got from reading the blurb, and sometimes I like a fun murder-mystery—which is how this book started out for me. It was a quick and engaging read about a music journalist wannabe trying to make it in the big city who finds her next-door neighbor dead after mistakenly receiving a mix tape for her. I thought the protagonist's relationship with her straight guy BFF was a little unrealistic—they were super close, but he had no feelings for her, or vice versa??—but I was willing to let it slide.
Unfortunately, the second half of the book got kinda slut-shamey (calling girls dancing in Victoria's Secret slips skanks, etc.) and negative toward sex workers. I don't know if this was merely to show the narrator's flaws or what, but it didn't sit right with me. Plusthe guy she ends up with was in love with a stripper and not into our main girl until ... he gets beat up and realizes she was terrible?! and suddenly the narrator is willing to accept him with open arms? So yeah, 2 stars for me.
Unfortunately, the second half of the book got kinda slut-shamey (calling girls dancing in Victoria's Secret slips skanks, etc.) and negative toward sex workers. I don't know if this was merely to show the narrator's flaws or what, but it didn't sit right with me. Plus
moreadsbooks's review
2.0
I could've done with less ex-boyfriending and more sleuthing, but that might just be my mood lately.