Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. SullivanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Month Read In: April 2022
Challenge:
Beyond the Bookends April 2022: In a Bookstore
While trying to get through who was who and character relationship development was a mystery, there came this point when every character and their connection to the overall plot started to make sense. There was often disjointed connections and they felt contrived and tenuous until the big aha moment. I rated Character at a 6.
The story could have taken place Anywhere, USA, but the addition of the storm that was integral to the plot and became its own character within the story placed it firmly within the mountainous west. This was certainly a character driven story, but between the storm being so important to the plot and the character connections being formulaic, I rated Atmosphere a bit higher at 7.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I realized the book was a male author writing a female MC. Normally they fall fully flat, and while Lydia was definitely not what I would call a typical woman, she wasn't written like a woman either. This aspect is another reason I rated Atmosphere higher than Character. The story wasn't about Lydia being a woman though, so the lack of a sense of femaleness didn't really detract from the writing. It was more about an adult woman coming to terms with a traumatic event in her childhood and her oldest friendship and her relationship with her father. Writing earned an 8 out of 10.
This was the first time in a really long time where I figured out whodunnit and was 100% sure of it chapters before the MC did. Typically I'm making the realization at the same time the characters are and frankly, that's how I like it. I want to be immersed in the story as though I am a character within it. My goal with mysteries is not to figure it out before the characters. I do not want to feel smarter than the average hooman. Plot gets a 7/10 for the way the story got to the end, the pieces that didn't fit and the methodology for investigation. But since I did figure it out much earlier than Lydia, the rest of the book just felt like I was trying to push her to figure it out because I was getting bored. Intrigue gets a lower score for that, coming in at 5.75.
As for the logic progression, this was one of the best plot progressions I've read all year. Even the conclusions made sense once revealed and lately the revealed conclusions in books have been ho hum and a downer or simply made me feel like I was trying to have a conversation with someone obtuse and no excuse to be. Logic got the highest rating of the categories at a 9.
Finally, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this. Most of the recent challenge books I've read have been a slog or simply background noise. But this was a good jaunt through mystery and time. 8.5/10.
All that brings the average to a 7.32 and translates into a solid 4 star read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and logic puzzles (Joey's little book desecrations...) or to anyone who wants a little distraction from their own childhood traumas.
View all my reviews
Methodology: Audiobook read by Madeleine Maby, via Library on Libby
Genre- Mystery: Amateur Sleuth
While trying to get through who was who and character relationship development was a mystery, there came this point when every character and their connection to the overall plot started to make sense. There was often disjointed connections and they felt contrived and tenuous until the big aha moment. I rated Character at a 6.
The story could have taken place Anywhere, USA, but the addition of the storm that was integral to the plot and became its own character within the story placed it firmly within the mountainous west. This was certainly a character driven story, but between the storm being so important to the plot and the character connections being formulaic, I rated Atmosphere a bit higher at 7.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I realized the book was a male author writing a female MC. Normally they fall fully flat, and while Lydia was definitely not what I would call a typical woman, she wasn't written like a woman either. This aspect is another reason I rated Atmosphere higher than Character. The story wasn't about Lydia being a woman though, so the lack of a sense of femaleness didn't really detract from the writing. It was more about an adult woman coming to terms with a traumatic event in her childhood and her oldest friendship and her relationship with her father. Writing earned an 8 out of 10.
This was the first time in a really long time where I figured out whodunnit and was 100% sure of it chapters before the MC did. Typically I'm making the realization at the same time the characters are and frankly, that's how I like it. I want to be immersed in the story as though I am a character within it. My goal with mysteries is not to figure it out before the characters. I do not want to feel smarter than the average hooman. Plot gets a 7/10 for the way the story got to the end, the pieces that didn't fit and the methodology for investigation. But since I did figure it out much earlier than Lydia, the rest of the book just felt like I was trying to push her to figure it out because I was getting bored. Intrigue gets a lower score for that, coming in at 5.75.
As for the logic progression, this was one of the best plot progressions I've read all year. Even the conclusions made sense once revealed and lately the revealed conclusions in books have been ho hum and a downer or simply made me feel like I was trying to have a conversation with someone obtuse and no excuse to be. Logic got the highest rating of the categories at a 9.
Finally, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this. Most of the recent challenge books I've read have been a slog or simply background noise. But this was a good jaunt through mystery and time. 8.5/10.
All that brings the average to a 7.32 and translates into a solid 4 star read. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and logic puzzles (Joey's little book desecrations...) or to anyone who wants a little distraction from their own childhood traumas.
View all my reviews
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