Book Talk

Logan's Book Talk Prezi Thing

Book Review: "The Cuckoo's Calling"

Book Review: “The Cuckoo’s Calling”

Introduction:

In “The Cuckoo’s Calling”, JK Rowling’s first venture into mystery, disabled veteran and private detective, Cormoran Strike, along with his new temp, Robin, look into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Lula Landry, beloved model. Together they question witnesses, deal with the worst of both high and low life, and avoid any discussion of each other’s personal lives.

Plot:

Although the plot structure of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” does not deviate very far from the standards set by the mystery genre (a unique and eccentric detective is hired to solve some sort of crime, they go clue hunting with their assistant for a while, and the culprit is typically someone you wouldn’t expect, but the evidence was there all along for you to figure it out), Rowling crafts perhaps a more modern and accurate of private detectives interviewing witnesses and searching through police statements, rather than the Sherlockian method of pulling clues from the very fabric of the cosmos.

Unfortunately, all of this interesting story is soiled by the seemingly surgically injected sexual tension that is both unneeded and rather unwanted. Cormoran’s interactions, or rather his lack of them, with his ex-girlfriend are entertaining and insightful, but why Rowling feels the need to make him stare at his married secretary while simultaneously chastising himself is unknown.

Characters:

One character that I was disappointed in was Robin, Cormoran’s temp. She had so much potential, and was supposed to be a main character, but all Rowling made her do was be married and have an interest in being a private investigator. Hopefully in future installments of this series she takes a bigger role, and is better developed.

The strongest characters in “The Cuckoo’s Calling” are also the worst. As in they are well written, but you would never want to meet in real life. They are models, and fashion designers, and boyfriends of models, and drug addicts, and members of the media. Rowling does a wonderful job capturing the hole where the souls of these people should be, and while they are cringe worthy, it is because they are written well rather than poorly.

Themes:

One of the major themes of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is that the media pursues and twists information ravenously, without any thought about who they are affecting. Anyone familiar with Rowling’s personal beliefs knows she is very anti-media, and she goes out of her way in this story to further her viewpoint. Even the lowest of people in this book complain about and hate the media. They are the worst of scum in this universe.

“And then, at last, the frenzy wore itself into staleness, and even the journalists had nothing left to say, but that too much had been said already.”

“They made Lula jump.”

Writing Style:

“The Cuckoo’s Calling” is a mystery novel written in third person, focusing on Robin and Cormoran, with only their thoughts and feelings being revealed. Rowling’s tone in this novel is often disdainful, mostly in her attitude towards the skeezier characters of both England’s high and low life.

“She was in it for the freebies, she didn’t give a monkey’s whether Cuckoo lived or died. Lucky for her, as it turned out…”

Conclusion:

Taking into consideration everything mentioned in this review, and my personal reading history, I would rate “The Cuckoo’s Calling” at 6/10. Mystery is not a genre I am particularly fond of, and though I enjoyed the book despite this, it certainly affected my feelings for it.

Post #2: "The Cuckoo's Calling", Initial Thoughts

"The Cuckoo's Calling", Initial Thoughts

1) "Though Robin Ellacott's twenty-five years of life had seen their moments of drama and incident, she had never before woken up in the certain knowledge that she would remember the coming day for as long as she lived".
The first line of "The Cuckoo's Calling" gave me several first impressions and thoughts about the story to come, primarily that some action would soon occur in the story, and that because this book was written by Rowling there was a good chance of this female main character being written well.

2) The good guys in "The Cuckoo's Calling" are Cormoran Strike, gruff detective, and his new temp Robin. They are an odd pair, but I can see them being memorable characters. Predictably for Rowling, the bad guys in this story are the media, who do anything to get a story and are generally loathed by the other characters.

3) I chose to read this novel after a recommendation from my mother, and because it was taking up space on my bookshelf. So far I am firmly on the fence about how I feel about "The Cuckoo's Calling".