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emma's Reviews > The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
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emma's review
bookshelves: arc, fantasy, from-publisher-author, mystery-thriller-horror-etc, 2-stars, unpopular-opinion, eh, reviewed, project-pride, lgbt-plus
Jun 04, 2021
bookshelves: arc, fantasy, from-publisher-author, mystery-thriller-horror-etc, 2-stars, unpopular-opinion, eh, reviewed, project-pride, lgbt-plus
I am going to sue the world.
At this point, I think it's my only option. Clearly, the epidemic of books that sound interesting turning out to be very boring is a top-to-bottom issue that cannot be reformed. Outright cancelation of us all is the only way.
Take this, for example. It has the words "affair," "mysterious," and "letter" in the title, all of which I find intriguing. It's a Sherlock Holmes retelling (cool) in a futuristic fantasy universe (attention piqued) with multiple dimensions and underwater cities and time travel and exclusively queer people (curiosity induced x 4).
And yet I did not like it and I had a really hard time paying attention. I kept tricking myself into reading it through strategies like Going To The Beach And Only Bringing This Book and Paltry Threats, and I still barely got through it.
The style didn't work for me, the narrative didn't feel cohesive, the narrator was a snooze and the other characters were too cartoonish to deal with.
There were cool parts with vampires that felt Dracula-y (I love Dracula) and trains (I love trains), but even those were unbearably short lived. Not to mention they were bracketed by encounters with old ladies who were actually witches and sky fights and brushes with death that all managed to put me to sleep like the tea with the sweet bear on it.
But I digress.
Bottom line: Deep sigh of disappointment!
--------------
i cannot remember the last time i wanted to DNF a book so badly.
review to come / 2 or 2.5 stars
--------------
hello gay magic female sherlock holmes
sorry you're an ARC that i'm reading 2 years late.
--------------
reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
book 1: the gravity of us
book 2: the great american whatever
book 3: wild beauty
book 4: the affair of the mysterious letter
At this point, I think it's my only option. Clearly, the epidemic of books that sound interesting turning out to be very boring is a top-to-bottom issue that cannot be reformed. Outright cancelation of us all is the only way.
Take this, for example. It has the words "affair," "mysterious," and "letter" in the title, all of which I find intriguing. It's a Sherlock Holmes retelling (cool) in a futuristic fantasy universe (attention piqued) with multiple dimensions and underwater cities and time travel and exclusively queer people (curiosity induced x 4).
And yet I did not like it and I had a really hard time paying attention. I kept tricking myself into reading it through strategies like Going To The Beach And Only Bringing This Book and Paltry Threats, and I still barely got through it.
The style didn't work for me, the narrative didn't feel cohesive, the narrator was a snooze and the other characters were too cartoonish to deal with.
There were cool parts with vampires that felt Dracula-y (I love Dracula) and trains (I love trains), but even those were unbearably short lived. Not to mention they were bracketed by encounters with old ladies who were actually witches and sky fights and brushes with death that all managed to put me to sleep like the tea with the sweet bear on it.
But I digress.
Bottom line: Deep sigh of disappointment!
--------------
i cannot remember the last time i wanted to DNF a book so badly.
review to come / 2 or 2.5 stars
--------------
hello gay magic female sherlock holmes
sorry you're an ARC that i'm reading 2 years late.
--------------
reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
book 1: the gravity of us
book 2: the great american whatever
book 3: wild beauty
book 4: the affair of the mysterious letter
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Reading Progress
May 28, 2019
– Shelved
June 4, 2021
–
Started Reading
June 7, 2021
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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message 1:
by
Ele
(new)
Jun 07, 2021 01:39PM
Well, your Pride reading list is going successfully *not*
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Ele wrote: "Well, your Pride reading list is going successfully *not*"it's my fault for giving myself a reading list that's 90% overdue ARCs and YA
I was pretty disappointed with this one, after enjoying other books of Alexis Hall's.
Holly wrote: "I was pretty disappointed with this one, after enjoying other books of Alexis Hall's."this was my first book by her...i might read boyfriend material this month tho (although i'm stunned it's the same author)
Emma please read Another Contry by James Baldwin this month I'm BEGGING you
Luisa wrote: "Emma please read Another Contry by James Baldwin this month I'm BEGGING you"i don't know if i'll get to it this month but i added it to my tbr!!
I thought Boyfriend Material was cute, so I would recommend it, even if you didn't like this one! Alexis Hall's books span a really wide range of genres, which might explain how they can be so different. This was my first step into his fantasy books, and I'm not sure that I'll be picking up any other ones soon, though I did really like some of the romance books! He explains on his website that Alexis Hall is a pseudonym because he has a day job that he doesn't think would be comfortable with his writing. There's some subtext to that in Boyfriend Material (people who say they want to show support of gay people, but judge on whether they are the right kind of gay people). He also says that while Alexis isn't commonly used as a male name in the US, it is in the UK, so he decided to keep using it.
The Glitterland series is quite good! Worth a read. I just started the mysterious letter & am not at all enchanted with the narrator (John), although Scheherazade is a...fun?...character
The book marketing is excellent lately. Great for people selling books but lousy for us readers. I had the same disappointment with Kingdom of the Wicked.
Holly wrote: "I thought Boyfriend Material was cute, so I would recommend it, even if you didn't like this one! Alexis Hall's books span a really wide range of genres, which might explain how they can be so diff..."oh huh! i'm reading boyfriend material now so i'll keep that in mind
Poptart19 (ren) wrote: "The Glitterland series is quite good! Worth a read. I just started the mysterious letter & am not at all enchanted with the narrator (John), although Scheherazade is a...fun?...character"
lol fair description
Jaid wrote: "The book marketing is excellent lately. Great for people selling books but lousy for us readers. I had the same disappointment with Kingdom of the Wicked."so accurate!
I want to like this but this was a DNF for me. Good for you for finishing. This was feeling like a chore and I just could not bother anymore.
