Written by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects is a mystery novel with a suffocating atmosphere that is ultimately wasted by a plot that takes too long to become interesting. Its protagonist may be fascinating, but that doesn’t compensate for the slow pace at which her investigation is carried out.
The story follows reporter Camille Preaker when she is assigned to cover a series of murders and disappearances of children in her hometown of Wind Gap, where she needs to reencounter her family and her hateful mother.
The book opens by problematizing maternal love, reporting a case of neglect that led to the death of a woman’s offspring. The narrative is concerned with [...]
“And they say marriage is such hard work,” a character ironically reflects in a certain scene in Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn uses here a typical suspense structure to deconstruct the institution of marriage and, through the conflicts of deeply troubled characters, expose the difficulties of maintaining a long-lasting relationship.
On his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne receives the news that his wife, Amy Dunne, has disappeared. His living room was turned upside down, the street door is wide open and the cat waits for him alone on the stairs. Nick doesn’t have a convincing alibi, and the neighbors’ testimony to the police said the couple had quarreled the night [...]
Written by Hanna Jameson, The Last is a mystery novel that surprises with its mix of genres, and how it develops a protagonist that, although far from memorable, contributes to the main discussions raised by the narrative.
You know the drill. A bunch of people are stranded in a faraway place – in this case a hotel – with a murderer amidst them. They have no access to the internet, no way of contacting the outside world, and no hope of rescue. The Last could have been a very formulaic mystery novel if not for one particular reason: those people are stuck in the hotel because nuclear war has just begun, ending civilization as they know it.
The protagonist is your typical [...]
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is a competent, albeit problematic conclusion to the Millenium series, written by Stieg Larsson. The book brings together the trilogy’s best features, with a narrative that is socially engaged and deeply concerned with violence against women, but also many of its worst flaws, such as useless plotlines and dialogues full of exposition.
The story begins immediately after the end of the previous book, with protagonist Lisbeth Salander being hospitalized after her encounter with Alexander Zalachenko, a Russian spy who sought political asylum in Sweden. Since Mikael Blomkvist is threatening to publish a story on Zalachenko, some SÄPO officials, [...]
The first volume of the Millenium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was very successful in being both an engaging thriller and a relevant social critique of the status of women in modern society. However, its sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, despite keeping its social aspect intact, presents a very slow-paced narrative that never seems to know exactly which characters and threads are better to focus its attention on: instead of always following the protagonist, the story often digresses, highlighting useless points of view that never interfere in the book’s climax.
It’s Lisbeth Salander who deservedly takes the lead role here. After investigating the frauds [...]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an efficient detective story but also a cry about the situation of women in modern society. Stieg Larsson creates, in the first volume of the Millenium trilogy, fascinating characters and an engaging plot, but excels when putting at the basis of the story the problem of how women are explored and discarded in our brutal masculine world.
The protagonist is Mikael Blomkvist, the Swedish editor-in-chief of Millenium’s monthly magazine, who was a hated, but respected journalist until he accused a powerful businessman of corruption without the necessary evidence and was rightfully sue in the process. Taking advantage of Mikael’s [...]