If you’re looking for something a little more exciting, perhaps not. Is It Worth Reading?If you like crime fiction, and you have nothing to read at the moment, go for it. It’s not particularly special on any front, and it doesn’t stick out among the dozens of bestselling entries in the Scandinavian crime thriller category.I’ve been told that some of the other books in this series are better than this one, so I might try another, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this series on the basis of this book alone. But it is a factor a reader should consider before picking this up, so I feel the need to mention it.All in all, Jar City is really just…okay. I really think this book could use a better translation.Again, though, that’s not the author’s fault. There was just something lacking in the prose, and I felt that, often times, the narration was somewhat awkwardly worded.
I know translations are hard, especially from a ridiculously complicated language like Icelandic, but I feel like, if I’d read this book in its original language, it probably would have come off as a bit more interesting, even with the plot and characters the way they are. Also, the characters, especially the main characters, read as somewhat one-dimensional throughout the book, and I thought their development could have used a little more focus.Also, I know this isn’t the author’s fault, but I found the writing in this to be very flat and flavorless. I also felt the plot moved far too slowly, and that most of the plot points could have been covered in half the pages. It was an okay crime novel with a few good twists, but I found it to be somewhat dull and boring at times. Hm, I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one really.
0 kommentar(er)
