A review by kaixaron
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.0

This needed more time, I think. There were interesting aspects but most of them fell flat. Cool setting and some decent world building. Post-apocalyptic humans taking refuge on Jupiter is an interesting concept, and I liked the way it was handled. I like some of the themes as well, though I wish they were explored just a little more. I always enjoy the idea of Greedy Humans Destroyed Earth, but it was only ever brought up a handful of times, and never seemed to go anywhere. 

The characters were incredibly one-dimensional so the romance especially ended up lacking. Despite being the narrator (and especially it being in first person) Pleiti had very little input for a huge chunk of the story. She really just gives a play-by-play of the plot. Mossa is a very typical detective archetype. Neither show much personality until the end, though I can't say that is from any sort of character development. The climax of the romance subplot also happened at a weird point in the book as well. (yes do please make out in a garden like you dont have a criminal tied up in your house????) 

I didn't love the way the mystery wrapped up. Perhaps this was just a me issue, because it took me so long to get through this book, but I didn't feel like I was following many threads. It also relied too much on the characters spelling everything out at almost every step. I feel as if they didn't make much progress in the actual case until about half-way through the book, and up until that point they did quite a bit of just going from A to B then back to A and then stopped at home for tea and scones.

The writing itself felt too clunky at times. Dialogue tags were sometimes placed mid-sentence, which made the dialogue itself read weird. 

I wanted to enjoy this book significantly more than I did, but nothing about the story really pulled through. The setting was good, but the characters needed more work, and the mystery just didn't keep my attention like it needed to.