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A review by theshiftyshadow
Kala by Colin Walsh
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This is billed as a "literary thriller" and I think that's the problem for me.
The first 2/3 of the book are definitely literary, and I was really enjoying it at that point. I liked the characters, I liked the slow reveal of who they were, who they are now, and what happened when Kala went missing. But, the last 1/3 of the book leans heavily into the thriller aspect and as the pace sped up I felt like the characters were left behind a little bit.
Kala reminded me of three other books, Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These", Rebecca Wait's "Our Fathers", and Graham Norton's "Holding". It's purely personal taste but I felt like these books did a better job of handling this kind of story, the open secrets of small places, the turning a blind eye, hypocrisy, the legacy of good old Catholic Ireland etc. And most importantly, for me, I felt like those books always had their focus purely on the victims, they were giving voices to the women and girls. (more specifically talking about the Irish books here), and I just felt like Walsh didn't do that. He uses this tragedy to spin a bigger web of crime and corruption.
If you're a fan of thrillers or crime I think this is a really well done story, don't get me wrong. And as much as I felt like he did a bit too much with the ending, it's unfortunately still fairly realistic and believable. So I think your enjoyment of this book will come down purely to whether you care more about the characters or having the mystery solved. For me it didn't deliver on the things I cared about, but it was certainly a page turner, and worth picking up.
P.S. I still can's figure out if Mush was called Mush before he got his facial scars and they kept calling him that, or if they started calling him it after he got them. Either way it feels a slightly cruel thing to call him, but honestly it's also very Irish, I suppose.
The first 2/3 of the book are definitely literary, and I was really enjoying it at that point. I liked the characters, I liked the slow reveal of who they were, who they are now, and what happened when Kala went missing. But, the last 1/3 of the book leans heavily into the thriller aspect and as the pace sped up I felt like the characters were left behind a little bit.
Kala reminded me of three other books, Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These", Rebecca Wait's "Our Fathers", and Graham Norton's "Holding". It's purely personal taste but I felt like these books did a better job of handling this kind of story, the open secrets of small places, the turning a blind eye, hypocrisy, the legacy of good old Catholic Ireland etc. And most importantly, for me, I felt like those books always had their focus purely on the victims, they were giving voices to the women and girls. (more specifically talking about the Irish books here), and I just felt like Walsh didn't do that. He uses this tragedy to spin a bigger web of crime and corruption.
If you're a fan of thrillers or crime I think this is a really well done story, don't get me wrong. And as much as I felt like he did a bit too much with the ending, it's unfortunately still fairly realistic and believable. So I think your enjoyment of this book will come down purely to whether you care more about the characters or having the mystery solved. For me it didn't deliver on the things I cared about, but it was certainly a page turner, and worth picking up.
P.S. I still can's figure out if Mush was called Mush before he got his facial scars and they kept calling him that, or if they started calling him it after he got them. Either way it feels a slightly cruel thing to call him, but honestly it's also very Irish, I suppose.