Title: Lock & MoriAuthor: Heather W. Petty
Series: Lock & Mori
Volume: 1
Genre: Mystery, Realistic Fiction
Goodreads
A Quick Introduction: When brilliant high school students James "Mori" Moriary and Sherlock Holmes meet at the scene of a murder, they click. When Sherlock challenges her to solve the murder before he does, Mori accepts. They only have one rule: no secrets- they have to share every bit of information they find about the case. It isn't long before Mori discovers something that makes her break it.
This review is of an ARC copy provided by the publisher.
Out of Ten: 5/10
Review at a Glance: An overly convenient plot and frustratingly inconsistent narrator left me unimpressed by this novel.
Review: I continually search for Sherlock Holmes retellings, tributes, and spin-offs that will impress me. This one... didn't, unfortunately. I wasn't impressed with it as an adaptation- the way the story was told, and the story itself, just didn't work for me. Though I did get an ARC copy at the Book Blogger Ontario meet-up this year, I didn't end up reading it until later.
The mystery itself worked well enough, though it was not particularly elegantly plotted. I find with a lot of mysteries, especially YA, authors have a tendency to make things almost too neat. There isn't enough work done to reach the conclusion. The line is crossed between making intuitive leaps and fabricating connections where none actually exist. Things are just a bit too convenient for me to suspend disbelief on. This did happen in this novel, to an extent, and it wasn't carried by the other aspects of the story.
What I didn't really enjoy was the characters and their relationships. The relationship between Lock and Mori felt really rushed, and I found I really didn't understand the motives behind the decisions of the main character (Mori) sometimes. The character that she was set up as didn't seem consistent with her decisions (I suppose her character felt inconsistent).
I recognise that this novel had some strengths, but I didn't overall enjoy it as much as I was hoping to. The characters and plot didn't ring true for me, and the mystery didn't have much of a flow. As an adaptation, I wasn't thrilled with how the characters were translated.
When I first read about this, I thought it sounded potentially amazing (being the Sherlock Holmes fan I am). But then later on, I read something (I don't remember what exactly or where) that made me question my interest. Since then, I've steered clear of this one and it sounds as if that's a wise choice. Thanks for the review! :D
ReplyDeleteYeah... probably for the best. I'm always a bit wary of Sherlock Holmes retellings, spinoffs, and the like, they very rarely impress me (I think maybe I have weird standards...).
DeleteI adore BBC's and CBS' Sherlock re-tellings (for different reasons) but I've never read any of the original stories, so that might be why I'm a little lax there. Still, something about this one just doesn't appeal.
DeleteThere's nothing wrong with having standards about re-tellings. Not every new story or reimaged classic works for everyone and that's okay. :)
I audiobooked a lot of the Sherlock Holmes stories as a child. (On CASSETTE tape! It was one of my parents' strategies for quiet car trips.) My favourite was The Speckled Band, which never seems to show up in adaptations.
DeleteI really enjoyed the first two seasons of BBC's Sherlock, but I was super disappointed by season three, and just haven't been able to watch it since. I was actually surprised to find myself really enjoying Elementary (Joan! Joan is great. I love the dynamic between our dynamic duo in this adaptation.)