Magpie Murders

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This book was doing too much. It’s a story within a story that also included an excerpt of another story.

The main reason I didn’t DNF this book was because I really wanted to finish my Book Club’s pick so that I can have a meaningful discussion when we do meet up. If I had picked this up on my own, I would have abandoned it within the first 100 pages.

Basically, there are 2 main stories.

1. A mystery novel that had the last few chapters missing.

2. The search for the missing chapters that bloomed into trying to figure out what really happened to its author.

This book started with the mystery novel. It progressed as stories usually do.

Frankly I could hardly get myself to be invested in solving who killed the so-called victims in the mystery novel. Both seemed like awful people. To me, they had it coming.

Then as things in that story finally got me invested, it abruptly halted because the succeeding chapters were missing. The story of this book suddenly shifted to the current day story about the missing chapters and the author of the mystery novel.

The current day story was even more boring than the story in the mystery novel. There were so many long-winded red herrings thrown in there that trying to scrutinize them for clues, as to who killed the author and why, was basically pointless. They all, in the end, didn’t matter other than to hammer home the point that the author was a <b>BIG HONKING DOUCHE</b>.

Were the missing chapters of the mystery novel found? Yes. Honestly, it was an interesting end to that story.

However, the rest of the book? Ugh. Self-indulgent. I should have just skipped all the chapters related to the current day plot about the author of the book. As for it’s ending, it was not really that interesting. It was similar to the movie Gattaca.

<b>Side Note: </b>

<spoiler>This is the 3rd book from my Book Club where a house/building burned down.</spoiler>