Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Tainted Cup

A solid science fiction murder mystery! Attack on Titan meets Sherlock Holmes meets Star Trek.

I do however have a major gripe with Rob’s use of the adjective ‘queer’ throughout the book. Especially considering there’s LGBTQIA+ representation, there’s certainly an awareness as to the connotations of using it as a way to describe strangeness. I would have rated this novel higher had there been more care during editing to whittle it out of the manuscript more (because I KNOW that there would have been so many more instances of it).
But alas, it cropped up seven times in the span of 170 pages or so. And that’s only after I got annoyed enough to start marking them!

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errie's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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seasonedreadings's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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mar's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

OKAY. BANGER

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lbelow's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious

4.75

An excellent book and a compelling start to a new series! I'm not often one for Sherlock/Watson duos because a lot of authors take that kind of "smart" to mean "callous". And there's no denying that the Sherlockian character in this book is weird AF (and I suspect on the autism spectrum due to her sensory issues), but she also does things like take the time to check in with Din after he's had a near-death experience. The other thing I loved: the disability rep. Din is dyslexic and that reflects in how he navigates the world as well as the workarounds he comes up with to capture information.

This world is just as weird and unique as its main characters. And it's introduced with just enough finesse for the aspects of the world explored to tie back to the plot. As for that plot, some of the twists I guessed, and at least one important piece I did not. With the way that information is presented in this book, that makes me excited to reread this and pick up on the clues I missed during the first pass.

I recommend this book and will be searching out more by this author!

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

Really interesting ideas and I mostly had a good time, but I found myself losing interest and then getting confused about what was happening, then having to rewind the audio, and mostly being like huh okay I guess. The vibes were great, the fantasy was really imaginative, the main characters were really fun. However, there were maybe too many characters, too many twists, and too much fantastical elements going on. Tbh, I thought this was just a straight Sherlock Holmes retelling (very much misinformed lol), so I was kind of shocked by how fantastical it was! Which was a treat, I just wasn’t mentally ready for all of the new words and concepts and world-building. It was good but not great for me!

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