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ilovewednesdays's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Overall Rating - 5.5/10
Plot - 6/10
Above average. Plot was medium-paced with some interesting twists and went in some fun, unexpected directions.
World/Concepts - 7/10
Good. Digging through the Lovecraft canon for spooky stuff to put into the world was lots of fun. I love math so it was an easy win for this book when mathematics was integrated with the Lovecraftian lore.
Characters - 6/10
Above average. Nothing to write home about in my opinion. The main cast was characterized well, but development there wasn’t much exploration or development.
Prose - 4/10
Below average. Mostly average writing, but there was a lot of telling not showing and towards the end there were some odd tense changes that really took me out of it.
Themes - 3/10
Poor. Lovecraftian fiction is fighting an uphill battle in my opinion. So few authors are able to truly drive home the themes around cosmic horror and get readers to feel small, insignificant, and frightened by their unimportance. Unfortunately, Howard doesn’t stick the landing here. His tendency to tell instead of show made it difficult to immerse in the moments that made the characters feel those sweet sweet cosmically horrific feelings.
Enjoyment - 7/10
Good. Overall I had fun reading Carter & Lovecraft. Noir + Lovecraft is such a fun pairing, regardless of how well or not it was executed. There were elements I didn’t enjoy, and the writing wasn’t for me, but nothing could get in the way of how enjoyable it was to read the main character encounter a bunch of eldritch BS integrated into a modern setting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Gore, and Death
queenstaves's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
2.0
It went from 4 to 2 based on:
- Bad dialogue for female characters
- Bad character development and characterization of female protagonist
(ie. "Strong Black Woman" who treats a rapist like he sneezed on her and didn't just do something heinous to herself and another woman). It's weak and lazy writing.
It was just such a BAD job of writing a "strong female lead" that it just got so in the way.
And there are a lot of "because plot" character decisions leading up to the finale.
It's very frustrating because there are a lot of good parts to this book. I had a lot of hope but ultimately the good parts were interrupted by just such bad hiccups.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
The author uses rape in a very flippant way. A housekeeper is attacked and the way the author handles it in the context of the whole narratove is really disgusting. Extremely disappointing to see the rapist just... treated like he has a mild flu and did not just committ a heinous act. It's not even like oh, the characters are bad and this is why he is exonerated. It's just fully used as a narrative accessory and then forgotten. Gross.jet_nebula's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Child death
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