YVONNE’S SHORTIES #408 – Red As Blood // The Museum Of Ordinary People

Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around a Nordic noir sequel I loved and a contemporary that didn’t quite hit the mark in the end.

Title: Red As Blood
(An Áróra Investigation #2)
Author: Lilja Sigurðardóttir
Translator: Quentin Bates
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Nordic Noir
First published: October 15th 2020
Publisher: Orenda Books
Finished reading: February 16th 2024
Pages: 293
(Originally published in Icelandic: ‘Blóðrauður sjór’)

“Every time life punches you to the ground, it knocks away some of the arrogance and the illusion of self-importance, and that makes it easier to understand the circumstances others find themselves in.”

REVIEW

Lilja Sigurðardóttir is without a doubt one of my favorite Icelandic noir authors, and I’m still not sure why it took me this long to finally pick up the An Áróra Investigation series. I loved my time with the first book earlier this year, and I decided to continue with the series ASAP. Red As Blood is book number two, and I loved it just as much as the first one. It’s the perfect dose of Nordic noir! There is just something highly addictive about her writing, and I literally couldn’t stop reading. The short chapters only added to the speed, and I enjoyed how the plot offered you multiple POVs to help explore all the different angles. One of the things I love about this series is the fact that the main character Áróra isn’t a detective, but instead a freelance financial investigator. This means that she doesn’t exactly follow the rules, and it gives the series in general an unique touch. I do have to say that it is important to read the books in order, because you will find major spoilers for the developments in Áróra’s personal life otherwise… That said, I liked those developments, and with how everything ended I’m already looking forward to pick up the next book. The case itself in Red As Blood has its predictable side and it’s kind of hard to properly feel sorry for Flosi, but he does make for an interesting character. The plot twists themselves are well handled, and there were definitely some I didn’t see coming. If you are looking for an excellent dose of Nordic noir, I can highly recommend this series!

Title: The Museum Of Ordinary People
Author: Mike Gayle
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
First published: July 7th 2022
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Finished reading: February 20th 2024
Pages: 352

“Looking back, I don’t think there was ever a point where I officially gave up on my dreams; instead I think it happened gradually, as these things do, so that I barely noticed the shift in my thinking”

REVIEW

WARNING: yet another unpopular opinion review!!

I had such high hopes for this story as people kept raving about it, and I’ve been looking forward to finally try Mike Gayle‘s writing. Things started out well enough as I was really enjoying both the writing style and the idea behind the museum. I was already thinking that The Museum Of Ordinary People would end up on my list of February favorites, but somehow these feelings started to change over time. There were certain aspects of the story that started to irk me more and more, and this had a lot to do with the characters. I hated gaslighting bastard Guy SO much, but what was even worse was how Jess reacted to him and kept putting herself down. In fact, she NEVER stood up for herself with him, and this all made me so angry… To make things worse, there is just SO much drama and negativity especially in the second half, as if the author just wanted to bury the main character under it. I can get some challenges along the way, but this was just getting ridiculous… Especially with so many revelations that only seemed to be there for the shock factor. I also wasn’t a fan of the ending and how the solution for the problems with the museum kind of came out of nowhere… And the love triangle vibe wasn’t exactly helping either. I still really enjoyed the museum itself and what it stands for (I would definitely visit if I could!), but as a whole there was too much drama and negativity going on in especially the second half of the book to properly enjoy The Museum Of Ordinary People as expected. I still want to try more of his work though, because I did enjoy the writing style itself.