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Sibil's Reviews > The Undetectables

The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth
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bookshelves: netgalley, readtoreview

Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I think that the major part of this review will be a rant or full of complaints, because I am pretty mad at the book or, to be more precise, at the way they sell it to you. The book per se is not bad, not bad at all. We have a lot of good things going for it. The writing especially is pretty good. It is not that is poetic or beautiful (well, it’s not ugly, but that’s not my point) but it is smooth, and once you are reading is really hard to put it down, because it flows so well, and the story is captivating, and we have interesting characters, so the finished product is enjoyable, and I am not regretting reading it.

But this book is not what I was expecting. And, for once, this is completely not my fault. I am not new to having unrealistic expectations for books, and it happened that in my mind I decided that a certain book was in some ways, and then it wasn’t, and I have no problem taking the blame when the problem is me. It happened, and it will happen again. But this time it’s not because I didn’t read the plot, or because I decided with no reason that this book would have been something it was not.

1)Let’s start with the catchphrase, the thing that will catch your attention and would make you add this book to your TBR without a second thought: “Be Gay. Solve Crimes. Take Naps.”
Sounds great, right? And it is sassy. Or witty. And it led you to expect a certain tone from the book, if I can say so. But… Nope. We have one character that is sassy, or witty and that has great remark and gift us with some good dialogues and comic relief but… she is not the one up front center so… this doesn’t really work. And then we have the “solve crimes” part. Again, that’s not strictly true (and more on that part in the next point). And the take naps part? Whatever you are imagining, that’s not it. Again, more about this later on, but it is because the MC suffers from chronic illness. So the thing that would make you want to read this book is leading you around, and it won’t deliver.

2)Now, let’s talk a bit about the “solving crimes” part. It’s a lie. There is no detective agency. At all. When the first murder occurs, the three girls are teens and they have just started this so-called agency, but they are teens and they can’t solve Theodore’s murder (because they are little girls without a clue), and so they let it go (even if Theodore is now one of their friends, because he became a ghost, and Mallory, the MC is dead set on solving it, sooner or later), until today when they receive a job.
And let’s stop here a second. Between Theodore’s assassination and today, years passed. Our girls are no more teens but adults. Young, sure, but they are not teens. And this so-called detective agency is no more. It was a pet project of theirs when they were younger, but now the three of them have go on with their lives and all that. And still, they received a mysterious job. Some new murders happened, they seem linked to the one that happened some years ago, and they are hired to solve them.
And this does not make sense! We are not talking about solving something minor, we are talking about a detective agency that does not exist, if not in the mind of three young girls, hired to solve some gruesome murders. What the heck???
And the three girls, who obviously are happy to be involved and to resuscitate their pet project, have no clue at all about what they are doing. Sure, they are resourceful and brilliant (and it was fascinating seeing them doing magical things that are linked with science, that part was really brilliant from the author) but they are no detectives. Not at all. They discover the culprit because he grew tired of leaving them clues (and one of those is so clear that is like the assassin is screaming at them “It’s me! It’s me that you are searching for!!!) and kidnap one of them.
So… please, do not start this book expecting a detective story. It would be totally reasonable on your part since it is what the synopsis says, but you would be disappointed.

3)The naps part. We have an MC who suffers from a chronic illness. On the one hand, I appreciated this a lot. I loved the idea, and I think that we should get more books with this kind of rep. But I also think that you should advertise it, or say it somewhere in the synopsis. Because we choose which book to read even based on what we are in the mood for, right? And if I am feeling like reading something funny, or witty, something that would cheer me up, that would make me smile (and this is what I, but seeing what people wrote around it is also what other people too, surmised from the catch-phrase), and I find myself with a person that is constantly complaining because she is tired and she is suffering, well… things are not going to go well. Mind me, Mallory has every reason to complain about her suffering, because she is hurting and she is feeling tired all the time, and she feels like her friends are going on leaving her behind, and she has the right to say what she is feeling, but in the first part of the book especially, we get to hear her complain all the time. The first chapters are almost all about her feelings and… and if you go there expecting a sassy girl and you find a whiny one, well, even knowing that she has the right to it, you can be disappointed and annoyed all the same.
And the point here is all about expectations: if I know what to expect, I would be prepared, and I would choose the right moment to read it. If I want a pick me up, and you give me a tear me down I won’t be happy.

So, as you can see, I am mad at this book because it lies to you. And this hindered my reading experience a lot. I think that if you go in there knowing a bit better what this is all about, there are a lot of things to enjoy, because as I was saying, it is interesting to have an MC suffering from a chronic illness, and we have ghosts, gruesome murders, and more that make it the right book to pick up for the spooky season. And the plot is interesting, once the story starts going for good, the pace picks up and it becomes intriguing as hell! But the marketing here is a big problem. I think that the book as a whole should deserve 3.5 stars but I am not feeling so generous toward it, for all the reasons this book made me mad.
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Reading Progress

August 24, 2023 – Started Reading
August 24, 2023 – Shelved
August 31, 2023 – Shelved as: netgalley
August 31, 2023 – Shelved as: readtoreview
August 31, 2023 – Finished Reading

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