Norwegen im Jahr 2019: Emer Murphy, Kommissarin bei der Polizei Oslo, soll sich eigentlich erholen und an ihre Psychopharmaka gewöhnen. Doch als sie von einer Entführung erfährt, ist sie emotional betroffen. Die zweijährige Poppy, die Tochter von Lotte Wiig, ist verschwunden, nachdem ihre Mutter, eine Influencerin, ein Foto des Mädchens gepostet hat… „Poppy“ ist der Debütroman von Kristine Getz und der erste Band einer Thriller-Reihe um Kommissarin Emer Murphy. Meine Meinung: Der Roman beginnt mit einem Prolog. Die Handlung erstreckt sich vom 16. bis zum 26. Juni 2019. Fünf Tage werden besonders intensiv beleuchtet. Sie gliedern den Roman in fünf Teile. Erzählt wird aus wechselnden Perspektiven, zum Beispiel aus der der Kommissarin. Einheitliche Angaben zu Orten, Zeiten und Personen machen die Orientierung leicht. Der Schreibstil ist unauffällig, aber anschaulich und dem Genre angemessen. Enthalten ist viel wörtliche Rede. Immer wieder eingefügt sind Nachrichten und kurze Chatverläufe. Gereizt hat mich an der Lektüre, dass es um eine Polizistin geht, die nachweislich psychische Probleme hat. Zwar sind solche Charaktere nicht grundsätzlich neu. Die Ausprägung hat jedoch meine Neugier geweckt. Die Umsetzung finde ich größtenteils gelungen. Auch die übrigen Charaktere sind nicht uninteressant. Besonders gut gefallen hat mir die sozialkritische Komponente. Indem die Autorin die Schattenseiten des Internets aufzeigt, macht sie auf ein wichtiges Problem aufmerksam. Dadurch wird der Thriller mehrdimensional. Auf den rund 400 Seiten hat die Geschichte ein paar Überraschungen parat. Die Spannung ist nicht immer nervenzermürbend hoch, aber doch gegeben. Das Cover sticht aus der Masse hervor. Der Originaltitel wurde erfreulicherweise wortgetreu übernommen. Mein Fazit: Mit „Poppy“ hat mich Kristine Getz gut unterhalten. Ich hoffe, dass es tatsächlich eine Fortsetzung geben wird.

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

I came across this in the Lending Library. I liked the odd title and the gorgeous cover and the fact that I had really no idea what it was about.

When I started reading it, I was instantly conflicted. I really liked the poetic narration. However, the characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts you can find in any teen book. They aren't unique or fully-formed or even that interesting.

Also, the loose plot that is strung through the book didn't interest me. It just kind of went along without any real story, just the boring, annoying characters describing their lives with oddly similar narration styles. Also, Midnight's sections were so long that I just ended up hating him. I would go days without reading this if I was on Midnight's section or would just put it down partway through his dull narration because I had no interest in it.

My main problem with the book was that I just didn't care about any of the characters. The whole time you're supposed to be trying to determine who is the hero, who is the villain, and who is the liar. However, from the start, it's pretty obvious it's not going to be as clear-cut as presented. The book didn't make me feel invested in anyone so whenever something actually happened, I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

Once the big reveal comes about, it didn't even affect me because of this lack of investment. I was mostly just annoyed because it felt like the author was just trying to "trick" you with unreliable narrators, rather than coming up with an interesting twist.

Despite my initial excitement, I was left feeling dissatisfied when I finally finished this. Nothing happened, the message was fairly obvious, and any of the unpredictable twists just didn't seem to matter because the characters just felt like shadows on a page.

However, the narration was quite lovely at times with beautiful lyricism and interesting descriptions. I did enjoy the writing style overall. It was almost like reading a really long poem. I may check out more by this author, but I am definitely going to need a more interesting plot and more compelling characters.

It has been four years since Edie Blythe has seen her husband, Francis, alive.  He is officially missing, but presumed dead in the Great War.  When Edie receives a picture of Francis in the mail, she believes that he is out there somewhere, waiting to be found. Edie sends her brother-in-law, Harry on a mission to find Francis or his grave.  After the war, Harry has taken a job photographing graves or deceased service men for loved ones, now his brother is one more to add to the list.  As Harry returns to the war-ravaged landscape that he last knew as a soldier, the memories come flooding back and he struggles with the day that he left his brother for dead.  

The Poppy Wife is a journey of finding things that are lost and examining the state of the world post World War I.  I knew that many soldiers had been listed as missing after the War and that some were alive with no memory of life before; however, the impact that these missing men had on individual lives and whole town was immense.  The writing portrayed an air of melancholy wherever the characters went and seemed to carry a weight with them throughout the story.  While I expected the story to be about Edie's journey, it was mostly told through Harry's point of view and conveyed the psychological toll of surviving the War, revisiting the ravaged towns where he fought and finding closure.  Edie's journey was also about finding closure, but focused more on discovering just what her husband as well as the other men went through during the war.  The descriptions in the book took on the heavy task of describing a world torn apart and a people trying desperately to rebuild in the face of grief from many angles to accurately describe the overwhelming feeling post World War I.

This book... This book disappointed me. Part of it was high expectations. I know several people, whose opinions I trust, who loved this book. I was also looking forward to reading a fantasy inspired by Chinese history. I was excited about this one. So yeah, disappointment is certainly a factor here.

 

What I expected was something really fresh and new. So imagine my surprise when this book is trope after trope. You could play trope bingo with this one pretty successfully. It's also got some serious Harry Potter vibes early on. And some pretty significant anime vibes too. (The whole school yard to war thing. The gang of superpowered misfits in a rogue branch of the army. Summoning Suzaku...err...I mean the Phoenix.) It doesn't feel original in the slightest, and when so much of the book is also directly lifted from history there's not much left to stand out as creatively unique. That's not in and of itself damning, but it did take me by surprise.

 

However, what surprised me most are the undercurrents of strong anti-Japanese sentiment. You could make an argument that this is authorial voice. And honestly I'd be open to hearing compelling evidence supporting that stance. Unfortunately, I'm trained to read closely (blame my degree), and even if I could overlook the way this book ends (which I can't), or the way the Japanese are portrayed (again, hard to do), even word choices raised red flags. I get it: this is based off a point in time that is a very dark and ugly stain on Japanese history. Not disputing that in the least. It's abhorrent. But the way this is written is very uncomfortable in ways I'm not sure are intended. (And if they are intended, oh lordy is that even worse.) And then there is the entire issue of the way the Speerly people are written, which is a whole other can of worms (really problematic as well). It makes me deeply suspicious of the book and breaks all my trust in the author.

 

I might *maybe* have been able to overlook the tropes, and the uncomfortable undercurrents. Maybe. Possibly. But I had so many other little issues along the way as well. I couldn't stand the main character, Rin. I found her lack of growth frustrating and continued blunders repetitive. I thought the book was overwritten and far too long. Or perhaps, more compellingly, three books shoehorned awkwardly into one as the tone shifts were so jarring. And then there's the fact that the book seems totally onboard with abusive relationships. (Example: the glorification of an emotionally & physically abusive character, complete with the main character saying, "Who would I be without (them)?" Fucking gross.) And there's also the atrocity fatigue where it gets to the point where the author seems more intent on giving you a full litany of grotesqueries than crafting a scene that actually makes you feel something. I could probably go on. But really this book died a death of a thousand cuts for me. The longer I read it the less I liked it, and when I reached the end I was genuinely pissed off I had stuck it out. Especially given the way the book ended.

 

Look, here's the thing, these things aren't going to bother everyone. Some people are just going to be excited to be reading a more diverse book. And that's fine. We need more books written about other cultures by non-white authors. Lots more. Many many more. It makes it difficult to judge a book harshly when it represents an underserved minority of voices. I get that. That said, I don't think this is a good book. It needed more editing, and the author needs more time to hone their craft. Maybe I'll try Kuang again sometime down the road, but not for this trilogy.