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review SPOILER ALERT! 2019-11-01 15:27
A Certain Type of Trouble
The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell

This intriguing story captures the tone of New York City in 1924 and has a great premise: Rose Baker, a young female stenographer works in a Manhattan police office, taking the confessions of witnesses and criminals. The arrival of glamourous and independent Odalie, 'the other typist' adds flavour to Rose's otherwise routine life; spicing it up with exotic characters at underground speakeasys/bars. Rose falls right into this lifestyle as her obsession with Odalie grows. But, who is Odalie and will her life irrevocably damage Rose's?

 

Rindell has a clean, concise writing style that is engaging. Rose's first person narrative is enticing in that you're not quite sure what's going on and what is going to happen. The mini-cliffhangers make for a page turner. There were a couple of plot lines that I thought were going to be the focus for the story, but they ended up not really developing.

 

What I loved: The style of the book that captures the stylistic feel of the 1920s, and the way Rose speaks and observes.

What I didn't love: The ending. I won't ruin it further except to say that I felt it was a bit too vague and easy to read in a number of ways -- hence the "WHAT?!?" rating.

  

Reviews compare 'The Other Typist' to "Hitchcock, with a flourish of Great Gatsby"; Patricia Highsmith and Gillian Flynn's 'Gone Girl.' 

I might recommend this to lovers of psychological thrillers and book groups who like to lively discussions on open-ended finales - there are also book group discussion questions in the back.

 

I didn't realise until writing this post that this was made into a movie by the same title, in 2015 and stars Keira Knightley.

 

Favourite quote (this reference is to the telephone/landline telephone back in 1925):

"It is interesting to me how technology has in many ways facilitated and refine the practice of deception."

 

 
ave 
 

 

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review 2015-10-07 14:38
Typist #1, Working for the Billionaire Novelist (Billionaire Novelist, #1) by Mimi Strong
Typist #1, Working for the Billionaire Novelist - Mimi Strong

7/10 - Not a fan of this 'publish part of a book' trend that's going around. It makes it difficult to review any single 'part' of a book without feeling annoyance due to the fact that I've only read a short quarter of what will likely be a short book, and annoyance is likely to lead to low ratings.

The story was okay, a bit similar to some more famous billionaire man/secretary-style woman books, but that's not altogether surprising as billionaire men paired with more working class women seems to be another trend that's going around at the moment. The writing was a bit choppy and the characters were not particularly well developed, possibly they will be further developed in later 'parts' but I'm not going to assume a criticism I have will be resolved in a later book. This has been published as a book, so I'm going to review it as a book. In my opinion, a book should be complete in and of itself. You shouldn't need to read a second book in order to understand the first. I found Tori a bit weak and Smith a bit needlessly inscrutable. Tori makes decisions or gives Smith ultimatums and then within seconds she's gone back on everything that she decided was right for her, and is in most cases back in bed (or wherever) with Smith. I have no idea who Smith is, we don't know anything about his family, how he got into writing, exactly where he earned all his billions (sure he's an author, but most authors don't actually end up being J.K. Rowling rich), or how old he really is. Tori is a college student so we have to assume that she's in her early 20s and she considers him to be 'old', but for a 20-year-old 'old' could be anywhere from 35 up. Oh and Smith is a dreadful first name, just saying.

The editing was pretty good, except for the fact that the editor didn't catch the lack of characterisation, weak characters, or the fact that the book has been hacked into multiple parts. I wonder... Is it chopped up because the author wants more money for the book so figures that selling it in small parts for small amounts of money will eventually add up to a higher price for the full book than she would have been able to get selling it all in one go at one higher price? Or is the author a slow writer who doesn't feel capable of turning out the whole book in one go in a reasonable period of time? Or maybe the author has no say in how her book has been published and all blame should be laid at the publisher's feet? Don't know, but it's the author who is most hurt (after the readers) by this decision.

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review 2015-09-05 00:00
The Other Typist
The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell Bravo por la ambientación. Memorias a lo Gran Gatsby. The roaring twenties, el alcohol prohibido...


description


Epocas de flapper girls

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(Hola, Margaret Mitchell! description Siempre tan hermosa, ¿no?

...speakeasies...

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...bootleggers...


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....y la crisis económica fatal acechando, obvio.

Historia y decadencia narradas por una suerte de Nina Sayers, con la cual es difícil darse cuenta de si es o se hace, y que te tiene del cogote la novela entera, con los ojos rojos (los oídos alerta, en mi caso), degenerando misterio por frustración y, finalmente, enojo al no terminar de darte cuenta de cuál es la verdad verdadera.

Me tuvo en vilo todo el día y me distrajo de varias preocupaciones. Ningún personaje es santo de la devoción de nadie, pero eso no es lo que importa. Hay mentiras entre mentiras, y más mentiras. The roaring twenties y un misterio a punto caramelo para cualquiera que tenga ganas de leer sobre una pareja dispareja y una narradora nadie que es sombra del brillo enceguecedor de otra.

Bravo.
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review 2015-03-05 00:00
The Other Typist
The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell Author Suzanne Rindell crafts an enticing, easy to devour story of deception and sin in her debut novel The Other Typist. This is the kind of book you can (and I certainly did) finish in a single weekend, a pleasurable story full of suspense and scandal. Set in the 1920’s, Rindell’s prose rings with the effortless formality of that era’s speech, never jilting or awkward to read as such writing can sometimes be. Her picture of Prohibition-era Manhattan is replete with flapper dresses, edgy bob-haircuts, dark alleys leading to speakeasies, and all the glamour and depravity expected of that time.

Rose is an immediately endearing character, but her reliability as a narrator and her purity don’t take long to come into question. At first, she seems the picture of simplicity and goodness with her uncomplicated lifestyle, her remarkable plainness, and her ability to recognize and quickly forgive the faults and flaws of others. As it is revealed that Rose grew up in an orphanage, we learn about her exceptional capacity for observation, developed at a young age but in her adulthood, bordering on voyeurism. The purity of Rose’s nature becomes increasingly questionable when a new girl is hired at the office, an alluring but mysterious woman whose favor Rose fools herself into thinking she doesn’t desperately want to win.

Working at a Manhattan police precinct during the early days of Prohibition, Rose is initially one of three typists on staff, but becomes one of four when Odalie is hired to meet the increased demand for stenographers due to rising alcohol-related arrests. Odalie’s arrival is treated as ominous from the moment she steps through the precinct’s doors for her interview. Fashionable and obviously from a moneyed family, Odalie possesses a magnetic presence and a stunning wardrobe. Through the first person narrative, Rose drop hints as to how everything will change once Odalie comes into her working life. At first we are just privy to the daily minutiae of the precinct, gossip about the new girl, minor transgressions when some of the typists exclude the other ladies from a lunch date, and a cast of drunken criminals providing incoherent testimonies for Rose to transcribe. During this time, Rose’s keen observation of her new coworker manifests itself as she keeps notes on Odalie, becoming both overwhelming suspicious and jealous of the new hire. But when Odalie befriends Rose, treating her to lunches at white tablecloth restaurants and eventually inviting her to live in the spare bedroom at Odalie’s spacious apartment, Rose’s initial misgivings about Odalie are immediately forgotten.

Rose delivers her narrative from an unidentified point in the future, struggling to tell the story of past events in chronological order. She makes repeated reference to her doctor, assumedly one from the mental health field as it becomes increasingly obvious that she is unstable, easily influenced, unreliable in the narrative, and maybe even prone to illusions of grandeur and resolute morality. Odalie introduces Rose to the world of speakeasies, fashion, and high society. Though she strenuously argues otherwise, Rose’s will and sense of goodness is not so strong; she quickly succumbs to the temptations placed before her by the new typist, going so far as to forge the testimony of a serial murder who won’t speak in an attempt to see justice done. Odalie’s motives for applying to the precinct were initially questioned on account of how she presented herself; such a stylish woman obviously comes from good breeding and shouldn’t need to work to survive. Rose accepts Odalie’s haphazard excuses for these sorts of incongruities, accepting that the truth of Odalie’s past will never be nailed down. But to both readers and Rose alike, the later revelation that Odalie is involved in the speakeasy community, importing illegal alcohol, comes as no surprise.

In fact, the majority of the book hovers upon similar suspicions that are usually confirmed. This predictability, however, isn’t boring because the personalities and stories are so fascinating to discover in their unveiling. While there is an overriding ominous feeling that something large, terrible, and irreversible are about to occur, the beauty of the book lies in seeing just how such events play out, in determining the full extent of Odalie’s sinful nature and Rose’s blind loyalty and naivete.

Rose’s story is ultimately about betrayal, temptation, loyalty, and the ways in which morality can go against the grain of social codes. So completely obsessed with Odalie, Rose ties herself tighter and tighter into bundles of trouble that she has no hope of removing herself from, sometimes consciously and other times at the hands of Odalie without a hint of suspicion from Rose. The play of deception is a constant undercurrent of the story, the source of the twists and turns that make it so interesting despite the often easily foreseeable turns of events. The course of Rindell’s novel also speaks to the glitz and glamour that makes it easy to forgive, if not deny against all evidence, the sins of others, and how we are so easily enraptured by such superficial and socially valued things as wealth, expensive wardrobes, and glittering diamonds.

Although The Other Typist doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking in the world of suspenseful, thriller novels, it’s a highly satisfying addition to the genre that will quickly envelop you in Rindell’s fictional world, never sure whether to champion, abandon, denounce, pity, or even trust the unsteady Rose.
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review 2015-01-09 00:30
The Other Typist
The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell

If The Great Gatsby and speakeasies speak to you here is a book for you.  As a debut novel by Suzanne Rindell I hope there will be more to read by her in the future.

 

It's New York City in the 1920's, we first we learn about Rose who is plain and mousy. Dull clothes and a lackluster personality her life centers around her job at the precinct as a stenographer/typist.  A new typist Odalie walks in and Rose's drab world is instantly filled with color.  Odalie is charismatic, beautiful and alluring, in other words, everything that Rose is not.  She is quickly drawn to Odalie's charm and beauty and before you know it they are fast friends. Rose confides to her of an unfortunate incident at her boardinghouse and Odalie asks her to be her roommate and share the rent at her luxurious hotel or "just pay me what you pay now."  Rose can't believe her luck.  Never having a friend like Odalie nor the exciting life that Odalie so generously shares, Rose's preoccupation with her becomes an obsession and things that should have been obvious with her friend go unnoticed for a time, until she is surrounded by mystery and lies.

 

Some underlying themes of The Great Gatsby are subtley present.  A good read and a light mystery of historical fiction that I would recommend. 

 

How I acquired this bookHalf Price Books, Concord, California

Shelf life 9 months

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