Release Date: October 20th, 2020

Genre(s): Fiction, Adult, Mystery, LGBT

Publisher: ECW Press

Pages: 220

Rating: 

Synopsis

The Adventures of Isabel follows an unnamed protagonist and her cat, Bunnywit, when she is suddenly brought onto a case as an amateur sleuth. Hep is a good friend of hers whose daughter, a sex worker, is murdered. Knowing that individuals with “high-risk” occupations don’t get the same treatment when it comes to investigations, Hep asks the narrator for her help. In that time, the narrator helps other friends, explores her identity as an ambisexual, and revisits her past.

Review

 What I liked the most about The Adventures of Isabel was its call for diversity and how it brought attention to issues that certain groups face. The most obvious based on the synopsis is the treatment of sex workers and other “high-risk” people, but we see other issues discussed as well. The narrator was let go from her job after her employer discovered her sexual orientation, which, while illegal, is also reality for many. Then there’s Jian, a woman who became homeless due to domestic issues. There’s a lot of different groups of people represented in this book, and throughout the book you can see how their identities impact them in different ways.

Despite the diversity in this book, I was surprised by some of the characters and the dialogues they took part in. Apparently this book was sensitivity-read, but there were some instances where I stopped and questioned whether I read what I just did. And the narrator in particular was just not always likeable to me. She had an interesting backstory, and her snark was there for comedic purposes, but there were so many times where she came off as too abrasive.

Additionally, the story was organized in such a way where the mystery wasn’t really at the forefront of the novel. I understand why this is, but I think that this story is just so dialogue-heavy and not reliant enough on descriptions that some elements of the story get lost in it. For example, there are many times where the narrator discusses her ambisexuality, but I think that these scenes could have been more powerful with more reliance on description and action rather than dialogue.

Overall, I liked the concept of The Adventures of Isabel and what it aimed to do in terms of not only a mystery novel, but also one that embraced diversity. But I do also think that this book could be improved with a more organized storyline and more consistency overall.