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A review by luluwoohoo
After Dark by Jayne Cowie
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
After Dark by Jayne Cowie
☀️☀️🌤️
A short, snappy whodunnit that explores heavy and important themes, but fails to expand on basic tropes or surprise with the ending.
I was immediately hooked by the premise of this story: an alternate future where men are placed under Curfew overnight for 12 hours a day. When a brutal murder occurs the detective in charge is convinced it had to be a man, but the body was dumped overnight...a solid, intriguing idea! This book raises a lot of valid points regarding domestic violence, sexual crimes and patriarchal dominance in society.
Unfortunately in execution I was left wanting more. The "dream scenario" of a gender flipped world was a little too good to be true with such low crime rates across the board (and statistically most women are hurt by their partners at home, so preventing men from leaving overnight would only increase this). It also wholly failed to acknowledge non-binary, genderqueer/diverse folk at all, which is a pretty egregious error for a modern/futurist book.
The mystery itself was set up well enough but the red herrings felt a little too blatant for my tastes. The ability for the criminal to do what they did was conveniently skipped over, because presumably the author didn't bother to figure it out, which is sheer laziness when Cowie went to great efforts to explain the new technology utilised in the plot.
Cowie's writing is succinct and unemotional which works well within this genre, but there were too many instances of finding repeat concepts/phrases only a few paragraphs apart which I felt could have been edited to flow better.
This book succeeds in the sense that it makes you think about the themes explored, but the plot itself was predictable and none of the characters did much to warrant any emotional connection.
☀️☀️🌤️
A short, snappy whodunnit that explores heavy and important themes, but fails to expand on basic tropes or surprise with the ending.
I was immediately hooked by the premise of this story: an alternate future where men are placed under Curfew overnight for 12 hours a day. When a brutal murder occurs the detective in charge is convinced it had to be a man, but the body was dumped overnight...a solid, intriguing idea! This book raises a lot of valid points regarding domestic violence, sexual crimes and patriarchal dominance in society.
Unfortunately in execution I was left wanting more. The "dream scenario" of a gender flipped world was a little too good to be true with such low crime rates across the board (and statistically most women are hurt by their partners at home, so preventing men from leaving overnight would only increase this). It also wholly failed to acknowledge non-binary, genderqueer/diverse folk at all, which is a pretty egregious error for a modern/futurist book.
The mystery itself was set up well enough but the red herrings felt a little too blatant for my tastes. The ability for the criminal to do what they did was conveniently skipped over, because presumably the author didn't bother to figure it out, which is sheer laziness when Cowie went to great efforts to explain the new technology utilised in the plot.
Cowie's writing is succinct and unemotional which works well within this genre, but there were too many instances of finding repeat concepts/phrases only a few paragraphs apart which I felt could have been edited to flow better.
This book succeeds in the sense that it makes you think about the themes explored, but the plot itself was predictable and none of the characters did much to warrant any emotional connection.
"Just as beautiful infants became bitter teenagers, domestic bliss became domestic drudge, and husbands who had broken Curfew came home, men always showed their true colours eventually.
They couldn't help themselves."