Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Argylle by Elly Conway

15 reviews

dndeevee's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Absolutely nothing like the movie. Literally the only thing they kept was the name. But that being said, it was a solid “meets expectations” for a spy action novel! Lots of guns, adventure, mythology, and subterfuge to take down the evil Nazis.

My critiques are that it was too long — this plot was NOT complex enough to merit nearly 400 pages. The middle really dragged with one too many missions and became a slog. There were also too many characters in the spy team to keep track of, which cheapened the ending because I hadn’t spent enough time with any individuals to really care what happened to them in the climax.

Because of the length, I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone, but the spy tropes are well executed, so fans of the genre would probably enjoy it.
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kschmaltz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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keelirae113's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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lorinda817's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Probably wouldn’t have made it through this in paper format, as it’s definitely the kind of plot that for me is best for listening to with busy hands, but the audio narration is honestly so strange that I stopped it at one point to go do some research and try to figure out if all the mispronunciations and half accents were something the author had written in as part of the characters personalities. Apparently not—but by then I was caught up in the story and wanted to finish it.  
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queenbookbuff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

If you love Steve Berry books then you will love Argyle! It is your classic lone wolf recruited to be a spy.  The book is NOTHING like the movie so don't expect there to be any similarities. As far as I can tell is they used the names and that is pretty much it.
The writing kept me hooked and you can't help but love Argylle. It is an enjoyable read.
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uranaishi's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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taylormoore's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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ashlurtis's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I am not going to lie, I absolutely only read this book because the crazy Swifties had me convinced Tay wrote it. This is way outside of my normal reading genre and I think for that reason I did not enjoy it as much as someone who regularly reads such books would. Or, more likely, because Taylor Swift didn't actually write it. 

I figured out the who of the whodunnit almost immediately, which made the reveal a little less climactic and a lot of the leadup feel like fluff. The beginning of the book, pre-CIA really captured my imagination with its richly detailed settings, but that quickly faded when the action kind of took over. I'm just not much into reading action/adventure/mystery. 

It wasn't necessarily a bad book, just probably not the best book for this reader. I will definitely be watching the movie though!
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sher_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a fun read, I look forward to seeing the movie. The final reveal was well timed and the book had a mostly satisfying conclusion. I will be interested to see if there will be a sequel. The characters are almost all likeable and hateable at different times and the story itself was interesting with enough mystery to make it hard to put down. Some scenes felt a little repetitive, but by the end you can tell the purpose of them. The main villain is positively awful with practically no redeeming qualities. 

The ebook is poorly edited, with duplicate words, extra words left in some places, words dropped, and the second word in one chapter is Grance… instead of France. 
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onabookban's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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