Rating: ★★★☆☆
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime
Publisher: Orenda Books
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Disclaimer: I received a free eARC copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Jaakko learns he’s dying, he has to not only solve his own murder but also save the mushroom business that will become his legacy.
The sun rises, the sun sets. Life is a single day.
At 37, Jaakko is dying from exposure to natural toxins, such as those found in wild mushrooms. In other words, he’s been poisoned, to the extent that his organs are shutting down and he has months, at best. Before he dies, Jaakko is determined to find out who has killed him, but the more he digs, the more mysterious circumstances he digs up. Nothing in his life seems as straightforward as it had just days before, and now, it seems many people want him dead. But only one has succeeded, and Jaakko is determined to find out who before it’s too late.
☙ The writing style is flowy and poetic, sometimes bordering on purple prose, but I liked the unique descriptions and felt many descriptions were written beautifully. Because this is a translation, and the original was written by a Finnish author, I wasn’t sure what to expect on the writing front, but it really was lovely. Some of the descriptions were just beautiful and really brought the scene to life. Some were interesting, things I never would have thought to compare, but they worked well, and I liked the uniqueness of it.
☙ Nothing is quite what you expect, and an otherwise mundane life becomes a mysterious roller coaster ride. Jaakko thinks he has it solved right from the start, so of course I expected him to be wrong, and in my smugness, I was like, nope, I’ve got this one solved. We were both wrong. There were so many twists as far as what one might expect to happen that it kept me on my toes.
☙ Tuomainen has a wonderful sense of dark humor that, while overdone in a few places, I found I really liked. Then again, I do have a thing for dark humor, so this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. It’s subtle and not at all in your face, but there were quite a few tongue-in-cheek or morbidly ironic moments that I enjoyed.
☙ The Man Who Died raises important questions about life and death, but not in an obnoxious, in-your-face sort of way. It’s very subtle, as Jaakko faces his own mortality and starts considering what things are worth it and how his personality should change in his final days. He’s less inhibited in life, and it does wonders for him and really opens his eyes. A lot of these questions are raised with dark humor, which I thought was a different way to do it, rather than on-the-button philosophical musings from the character.
☙ The main character, Jaakko, comes across as very emotionless and cold; we’re told he feels X, Y, or Z, but he never actually shows it or describes reacting to anything, leaving the character feeling a bit monotone. This is especially problematic, because he’s the point-of-view character and we’re in his head the whole time. But I don’t feel like I’m in his head. The whole book feels very emotionless, even though a lot of things happen that should justifiably be very emotional in different ways, so I never really felt like I connected to the book fully.
☙ Time and time again, Jaakko’s actions make no sense, and I just find myself shaking my head wondering why. There’s no explanation for the illogical things he does. It’s not a facet of his character, even. He just … does them? I couldn’t suspend disbelief that much, and it yanked me out of the story every time because I was so annoyed with the random choices Jaako makes seemingly just to serve the plot of the story.
☙ Actually, none of the character’s motives really make sense, and they act in a way that forces the plot forward but which lacks motives and reasoning. But why, you might ask, would a character take such wild risks or act in such an unseemly manner? Because the plot needs them to, I suppose. There were too many times I found myself asking why a character would choose to do X, Y, Z, and there were no explanations except that the plot would stagnate if they didn’t. This became particularly obvious during the “big reveal” (which ended up falling flat to me) when Jaakko finds his killer.
☙ If Jaakko mentions how fat he is one more time, I swear … I get it. He’s 37, not 18 anymore. He’s put on weight. Is this really the most pressing thing he has to harp on? A couple mentions of it would be fine, throw in a joke or two. It’s all good. I mean, hey, while you’re questioning your life, of course it would be natural to question how you’ve changed physically. But it’s mentioned every chapter, often multiple times in a chapter, ad nauseum, and I’m picturing this guy as, like, 15 pounds overweight, and I have no idea if that’s accurate, but it makes his whining even more unbearable.
☙ As much as I like the descriptions, at times it becomes obvious that it’s a translation because they don’t always work or make sense. There were several times where they just yanked me out of the story and made me go, “What?” One such instance is when a redhead’s hair in the sun is compared to a brand-new copper roof. Which I guess works, but it’s awkward and odd and gave me pause.
I picked this up because I love reading things from foreign authors, and I enjoy seeing how different cultures approach certain books. This was a little hit or miss for me. While I enjoyed it, there were times I considered just setting it down and walking away as a DNF. It’s definitely not a thriller in the sort of page-turners that I’m used to, and it dragged a lot in some places. All in all, it was an okay read. I liked that Jaakko was just an ordinary person, which lent an interesting perspective to the story. The things that happened to him, though, were extraordinary, and a bit too much so to be believable, which made it hard for me to read. I might recommend this to someone who enjoys dark humor and something maybe more literary, as if you’re going in expecting an American thriller, you’ll be sorely disappointed.
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