So far I’ve managed to tick Still Lives off the list! This also helps toward my other two reading goals - reading from my physical TBR and reading from my NetGalley TBR!

I had no idea what this book was about by the time I got around to picking it up! It’s been on my TBR for quite a while. Still Lives is a thriller following the main character Maggie as she tried to piece together the disappearance of artist Kim Lord.

There was definitely something true crime-y about this and I did not see the ending playing out the way it did! The majority of the story unfolds over about ten days so it felt quite fast paced in that respect. It felt dark and edgy while reading and something about it just felt… gritty. I think I’d definitely reread this one at some point, or more from this author.

Vividly Painted…
The party of the year soon turns sour in this high concept, vividly painted thriller with twists and turns aplenty, red herrings scattered along the way. With a deftly drawn cast and an immersive plotline there is more to this than meets the eye. Multi layered and intriguing.

I'd like to start of by saying the novel was well written but I found the plot strange and I just couldn't get into the book.

Me giving 3-star-rating is because I think I probably am not the best audience for the novel - I am not interested in the modern arts and my lifestyle differs from heroine's.

Because this is partly a love letter to Los Angeles, partly a love letter to all things art, partly a modern city woman fiction with all of the insecurities, trying to find yourself and the place in life; partly a feminist manifesto and partly a murder mystery. And I feel that to understand this novel, to see it, one must be one of the birds of the flock.

But what I see is this - Ms Hummel is a fabulous writer. She can definitely "get you there" - to feel, to touch, to be a part of the scenery. Her writing is engaging, her questions are witty and valid, her understanding of a (lone) woman in the city is spot-on.

So, if you are one for the feminist-laced murder mystery accompanied with all things art, pondering and musings about the woman's place in the world - you might be arriving to a good address for yourself.
Me, I subscripe to a different literal localities, but in this case, it definitely "is me, not you". Because the novel is good, just not for me.

This was an unusual book, unlike any others I've previously enjoyed, but I must admit I did enjoy it too despite the focus on violence that has previously been perpetrated against women. Its focus was well aligned and made for an interesting plot. I didn't find the story to be too predictable for the most part. It was an easy read though, it wasn't too fast paced and it stepped outside the traditional crime detective genre in that we got a glimpse into the life of a copy editor and the art world also. Maggie, the copy editor was a plausible character who I liked. I liked this book. It was different and well researched. I'd recommend it and I give it 4 stars!!

hmm....ill be honest i had no idea what was going on in this book??? reese what a rogue rec from you tbh

Not a bad read but not as good as I had hoped. I’d definitely read more from this author; she’s on my radar!!

I couldn't get past the second chapter, really didn't enjoy the writing style. Not for me I'm afraid

So bored throughout this, i couldn't wait for the end unfortunately.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Following Kim Lord an avant-garde and somewhat controversial artist as she releases a new exhibition based on famous murdered people... but Kim never shows up to opening night.
I loved the fact that this was centred around the art scene, a world I have no experience of. The people were pretentious and rude and I loved every second of reading about them.

This was a brilliant read that took on the traditional contemporary thriller and gives it a new lease of life.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this read. I’d heard so much rave reviews about this book which has an intriguing hook. However ultimately I’ve found this book wasn’t quite for me. I couldn’t connect with the protagonist and found the revelation in the final act disappointing.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author, Maria Hummel, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Still Lives in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
Unfortunately, this book did not grab me like I thought it would. I thought it was very slow to start and I found it hard to engage with the characters. Sorry, but not for me.

*Many thanks to Maria Hummel, Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing me with ARC in exchange for my honest review.*
Still Lives tells a story of Kim Lord, an artist who works in L.A. and who has a disturbing and provoking idea of presenting female murder victims in her works. She disappears, and Maggie Richter, a copy editior working for a modern art museum, embarks on a trail to discover the truth: is Kim's disappearance part of her artistic vision or is there a possibility that something terrible happened to her?
This thriller is rather slow-paced, however, well-written and there is no need for speed reading. The backgound of the artistic world in California is depicted most interestingly, and you can learn a lot about how modern art is perceived and sold, which is another bonus for the readers, especially those interested in art.

I'm in two minds about this book: on one side it's well written and with an interesting theme, on the other side it was slow and it seemed nothing happened for a long time.
I appreciated the style of writing, the description of world of art and the basic idea. On the other side it sometimes bored me and it was hard to read till the last page.
I suppose my expectations were too high but I felt like it failed to deliver.
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC

I really wanted to like this one but somehow it just didn't work for me. The premise of the macabre art exhibition fascinated me from the start but its relevance seemed to be lost along the way. The setting of the art world and the LA Noir feel of the story wasn't quite for me. I couldn't really get a feel for the characters and disappointingly, ultimately the truth about Kim's disappearance fell a bit flat.

"She also says that unless women artists simultaneously inhabit the roles of artist and subject, the art world will never escape the prison of the male gaze"

This may not be the first book to make literary capital out of the juxtaposition of contemporary art, sexualised violence against women and murder, but it weaves its themes together with considerable deftness to create something that is immensely readable while constructed on a foundation of feminist aesthetics.

The first person narrator, Maggie Richter, is smart yet emotionally vulnerable and is a person whose company I enjoyed - not always the case with modern narrators in popular fiction/thrillers - and her investigation into the disappearance of a radical artist are generally kept plausible.

This isn't a rush of breathless page-turning action so if that's what you're looking for best step away now - it's also bold in its refusal to turn away from the extent to which modern western culture dwells on, even fetishises, beautiful dead women.

My one niggle is that Maggie makes a sudden leap of intuition to pinpoint the murderer and the motive/actions are not very credible. But, then, I'd say this is far less of a whodunnit and more of an exposé of the hip art world and its embedded capitalist concerns that make women's bodies and art itself into commodities to be bought, sold and owned.

Overall, then, a smart read that wraps up important ideas in a thriller-style format.

A very well written book with expertly drawn characters which brings the reader right to the heart of its glamorous setting, however the central mystery wasn't engaging enough for me.

When Controversial artist Kim Lord disappears before an important Gala,Maggie who works at the Roque Muesum investigates her disappearance.
I really wanted to enjoy this book but it felt flat to me.
Called a modern day thriller this book had so much promise with art and scandal and I enjoyed the first half.
My big problem with this book was that I didn't connect to the characters especially Maggie. I never really got her motives for wanting to find Kim and she came across quite cold. I didn't feel any emotion coming across from the characters and that left me feeling like I wasn't particularly bothered what happened to Kim Lord.
I applaud the author for writing with so much detail regarding the art world.
This book has got rave reviews so maybe although this book wasn't for me dont let it deter you from reading it.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It happened to be exactly what is described, yet I somehow feel a bit disappointed. The idea itself I found awesome, but the execution could have been better.

Before starting this book I thought it was gonna be a fast, modern thriller. Well, it wasn't. It was very much of a slow burner, and though I can love those, it really depends on my mood how much I feel like they're my thing. In this case, I was completely happy with this up until like half of the novel. I was chilling in a house by the lake, with a cat, a view, my boyfriend and lots of hot tea and hot wine. It matched my mood perfectly. In the second half, though, problems with pacing became more apparent and I got annoyed. Nothing really happened until like 60% in the book, then epiphany after epiphany was coming - and then somewhere around 80-85% I felt like we know everything. And you know what? We did. Nothing really happened after that.

Regarding the 'big reveal', I can only say the same I said about the whole book: it's a great idea, but somehow it didn't really work on me. Storywise it was all well worked-out, rationally it made sense. I think the reason it didn't add up at the end of the day was a problem with the characters. Here I had the same impression again: they were good ideas for characters, but that's what they remained: ideas. They couldn't come off the pages, they didn't come alive: they were black-and-white paper-figures. Sketches. And that's why the plot twist didn't really work. I was surprised by how things turned out, but not because it was such a clever twist, but because the character that turned out to be the murderer was someone I barely noticed in the book. I know they existed and that's it. I couldn't care less for what their motive was. It felt unrealistic because the character felt so. What made this reveal more disappointing to me was that I sensed a bit of discrepancy between the motive and nature of the murder itself and the supposed moral of the book (that by the way was so painfully obviously thrown at the reader from time to time..).

Though these are a lot of things that bother me, I feel conflicted about this book. There were times when I felt like I was getting sucked in and I was enjoying myself, so it wasn't all bad. Actually, I felt more fascinated with the artwork described than the novel itself. Then again, doesn't that mean that it's well written? At least in some ways.

In a novel that was supposed to critique the culture of violence surrounding women and their bodies, Still Lives only managed to glorify it. And the unique selling point of the book - the artist’s ‘self-portraits’ of herself as famous female murder victims, felt incredibly offensive and tasteless. How she would be considered a feminist by anyone’s standards, I will never know. And, all of the other characters?
Instead of raising women’s voices in a powerful crescendo, it had them bitching and shooting daggers at one another; obsessing over one another and wanting each other to fall. It was as if the book was some sort of horrendously misogynistic teen rom-com from the early 00s.
All in all, Still Lives only added to the exploitation, the misogyny, the glorification, the titillation - violence against women in minute detail for violence-sake. Honestly, I have never read a book that failed to make its point so wholly.