- Unknown Binding
- Publisher: Pan Books (2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330489461
- ISBN-13: 978-0330489461
- ASIN: B001KTO2H2
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
Acid Row
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Product Description
Unread paperback some light bumping to spine vg clean unread copy
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fortunately, I picked up this book from the hotel bookcase on a wet day, so it passed the time!
It's also the first Walters' book I've read. I will try another but not hold out much hope for a riveting read filled with sturdy characterisation and reliable reporting of a riot situation. The author mentions Bradford as though this justifies the reasoning behind her storyline. Hmmmm. I lived there when the riots were in full swing. Don't recognize much by way of a comparison with the real world. Anyway, the book passed a day. Don't expect much else!
It's also the first Walters' book I've read. I will try another but not hold out much hope for a riveting read filled with sturdy characterisation and reliable reporting of a riot situation. The author mentions Bradford as though this justifies the reasoning behind her storyline. Hmmmm. I lived there when the riots were in full swing. Don't recognize much by way of a comparison with the real world. Anyway, the book passed a day. Don't expect much else!
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's hard to take this book seriously on any level.
I always get the feeling, from reading Walter's books, that she's a rather well-to-do middle class lady... and reading this book, above all her others, seems to confirm my suspicions.
The descriptions of the ordinary estate people (there are millions in Britain, Minette) were cliched, tired and frequently verged on the offensive. There are many many single mothers... but do they all have to be daytime TV addicts, swigging lager and smoking fags to their daily dose of Trisha? And do they all really need to be following that supposed 'cycle' of single parents, with jobless jailbird junkie males as the only love interest? The book seems confused, too. Are we following the listless 'missing girl' plot (which thankfully seems to get all but forgotten in the latter half of Acid Row) or the dastardly paedo/dirty Daddy story, which, with increasing ridiculousness, takes the forefront in the book?
I'm usually quite a fan of Walters' knack for writing a book you feel could have been set in your own village - she seems at home in the comfy, conservative, country villages like Dorset....but desperately out on a limb when writing about anything but this priveliged rich existence. Her genuine lack of knowledge regarding things like housing estates, race problems, drug problems and the relationships which run these apparently crime-ridden estates is glaringly obvious in Acid Row, and her generalisations and Daily Mail-like observations gave me frequent intakes of breath and curling of the toes.
A blip on an otherwise pretty near faultless body of work, Acid Row should be avoided. It really isn't a book to be proud of, and it certainly isn't one to recommend or read again.
And I haven't, for the benefit of Ms Walters writing career, even mentioned the gut churningingly American ending......
I always get the feeling, from reading Walter's books, that she's a rather well-to-do middle class lady... and reading this book, above all her others, seems to confirm my suspicions.
The descriptions of the ordinary estate people (there are millions in Britain, Minette) were cliched, tired and frequently verged on the offensive. There are many many single mothers... but do they all have to be daytime TV addicts, swigging lager and smoking fags to their daily dose of Trisha? And do they all really need to be following that supposed 'cycle' of single parents, with jobless jailbird junkie males as the only love interest? The book seems confused, too. Are we following the listless 'missing girl' plot (which thankfully seems to get all but forgotten in the latter half of Acid Row) or the dastardly paedo/dirty Daddy story, which, with increasing ridiculousness, takes the forefront in the book?
I'm usually quite a fan of Walters' knack for writing a book you feel could have been set in your own village - she seems at home in the comfy, conservative, country villages like Dorset....but desperately out on a limb when writing about anything but this priveliged rich existence. Her genuine lack of knowledge regarding things like housing estates, race problems, drug problems and the relationships which run these apparently crime-ridden estates is glaringly obvious in Acid Row, and her generalisations and Daily Mail-like observations gave me frequent intakes of breath and curling of the toes.
A blip on an otherwise pretty near faultless body of work, Acid Row should be avoided. It really isn't a book to be proud of, and it certainly isn't one to recommend or read again.
And I haven't, for the benefit of Ms Walters writing career, even mentioned the gut churningingly American ending......
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was not neary as good as the hype on the covers said it would be. There was no tension at all, i ended up skimming bits of it. Some of the words and phrases she puts in the mouth of her characters are plain daft. Luckily i got if from the library, i would have been mad if i had paid money for it. I did like her early work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unspeakable
'Acid Row' is a salutory lesson in what can go wrong when an author steps outside their comfort zone. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2009 by M. D. Smart
A good read but occasionally too predictable
My first Minette Walters book. A good read that kept the pages turning. Too many characters to learn much about them and some of them occasionally too predictable. Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by Alison
A difficult read
Maybe the readers who gave this such low marks for unbelievable characters have never lived on a run down council estate or met such people as featured. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2008 by M. Reeve
Patronising & badly-researched!
This is the worst of her novels. The estate described in the book is something imagined from the worst excesses of many Daily Mail articles and bears no relation to reality... Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2007 by J. BENNY
Hmmm...somehow I managed to read it to the end
What a letdown. The story had a very good idea behind it, but the author fails to really picture any of it clearly. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2007 by T. C. Walker
Badly written, terrible plot.
Even though this book was badly written, the characters unbelievable, and the dialogue ridiculous, i still found myself wanting to read on to the conclusion of the story. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2006 by A. Smith
Thank goodness for Minette Walters
Minette Walters never fails to disappoint. She draws you into the plot and you actually feel as if you are there. Acid Row is absolutely gripping and one of her best novels. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2006 by "susie2shoes56"
Really nasty piece of work
I have read other books by this writer and enjoyed them but I thought this was awful. The plotting is clumsy and confused. The violence is gratuitous and the story nasty. Read more
Published on 20 May 2005
A difficult one to judge....
As my title suggests, this book is difficult to judge. On one hand I applaud Minette Walters for tackling such a sensitive subject in paedophilia but on the other I found that the... Read more
Published on 25 July 2004
A Little Information Is Dangerous
This thought-provoking book is a stark example of how a little bit of information, when it gets into the wrong hands, can be dangerously and tragically misused. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2003 by Untouchable
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