The 6th Strike novel, at 34 hours, is the longest book that I’ve read in a while. I’ve heard a lot about how irritating a lot of people found the use of the internet during the book, which I have to agree with, but given what the book was based on, I can understand it and the plot of the book, running over a 6 month period, instead of the 1-2 weeks of your usual crime novel and because of the nature of detective work and the large character development in each book, the length of these books does lead you to get to know the characters. They have become some of my favourites in crime fiction.
Given the abuse that JK Rowling got after her previous book and the fact that she felt that she had to change the plot, I can see where the idea for this book may have come from. I’m not sure what the nature of the abuse was for, as I only saw brief extracts on the news and I’m not falling down on either side of the argument, but what an author experiences in life can often be reflected in their fiction. A youtube programme, as a visual medium can be hard to describe in the written form and given that all of the other books have been adapted for the BBC, I can understand why this form was chosen, but it did make it harder to visualise what was being depicted, given the fantasy nature of the cartoon.
In the past, Rowling’s influences have reflected the plotlines, in particular in book 2, and some of the highbrow references occasionally go over my head, but I just love the way that disability is held at the forefront in this, whether the bad or the good side. There are still very few depictions of disabled characters in crime fiction and there should be more. I intend to correct this, but without examples out there in the wider world, it wouldn’t be so easy to depict my own characters in there. I’m really looking forward to reading the next one, which came out in September, but I’m probably going to leave it for a bit, given the length of the books.
hawleyreviews 