The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

Dahlia Moss is billed as WOW meets Veronica Mars, and honestly, that's pretty apt, sans the hard exterior. I found the fast-paced mystery enjoyable. Wirestone is heavy on the allusions -- I can imagine the book is almost illegible to people who aren't part of at least one fandom -- but he draws from a pretty diverse pool, so it's not like you have to specifically play MMORPGs to find it enjoyable. Besides the general geekery, I found the mystery well-built, with some nice clues, some nice distractors and overall good pacing. The characters were all pretty shallowly depicted, but each was quirky and fun.

I thought where the story showed some depth was in exploring the ways in which Dahlia had separated herself off from a social life when show more life didn't turn out how she planned, and how she managed to find her way back to having friends and accepting herself how she was. I think it's a pretty universal story of the mid-20's and this is one of the most honest depictions I've seen.

It's imperfect: some of the allusions felt a little forced and the witty repartee felt a little on the nose, but overall, I found it a completely enjoyable, fast romp (I read nearly the entire thing over the course of a 90 minute flight) and I'll probably read the next books in the series. show less

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

This book was incredibly funny! I loved Dahlia from the very beginning: she is smart and sarcastic just to the right point. Ok, so admittedly she has some issues: moping over her cheating ex-boyfriend, Dahlia has become totally isolated from all of her former friends and to top it all off has been unemployed for a very long time. In this, Dahlia is a somewhat exaggerated version of your average young adult in a big city: who hasn't endured the seemingly-never-ending pain of fruitless job interviews and non-existent personal life while your former classmates get married and promoted all show more around you? Of course, it rarely gets as bad as Dahlia has it.

The plot is nothing too original, in that it's your average cozy mystery: Dahlia gets hired by a rich eccentric to solve a digital theft in the world of Zoth, only to find out a few days later that her new employer has been murdered with the exact replica of the item she was hired to recover. A series of unfortunate decisions bring Dahlia ever closer to finding the thief - and unmasking a killer in the process. All the while, trying to stay alive of course.

If the mystery itself isn't anything new, the execution is what made this book a delight to read. I really couldn't stop giggling by myself while reading, and a few times I couldn't help but outright laugh at loud at the witty banter and sarcasm that Dahlia never fails to employ. And she doesn't do it alone: the rest of the cast is just as colourful and funny as our lead, and the absurdity of the situations they end up living really made this book a bright spot in a n incredibly busy week.

If you're looking for an intelligent and funny read, then look no further! The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss is just what you need to unwind and relax after a long day, to bring sunshine to a dark day, to make you look like a mad person if you're reading it in public, or even if you need some handy tips on starting your own detective business. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting out with a dead client... but then again, it worked for Dahlia Moss! show less

This book is a geeky mash-up of noir detective novels and fandom culture. It's zany, sometimes outright ludicrous, and laugh-out-loud funny with its loving riffs on Pokemon, World of Warcraft-like culture, and cosplay. Heroine Dahlia is a hapless loser who has gone to job interview to job interview to no avail. When a guy shows up and offers her a load of money to play private detective for him and retrieve a stolen spear, she takes the job out of utter bewilderment. But when said dude ends up dead, things end up considerably more complicated.

It's not a "serious mystery." There are goofy coincidences and convenient plot elements, but with the zany mood, it's easy to forgive such things and go with the flow. I adored the book and I'll show more be on the look out for more by this author. show less

Dahlia Moss is a smart and educated, but unemployed and stressed about money. So when a guy offers to pay her $2,000 to help him retrieve the Bejeweled Spear of Infinite Piercing that was stolen from him in an MMORPG, she's seriously tempted. (No, she's not a detective, but she did temp in a detective agency once.) After all, he says he knows who did it, so it's just a matter of confronting the guy and getting him to confess.

Except the next day the police show up at her door. Things have taken a definite turn.

I don't want to give you any spoilers, because I enjoyed the heck out of this book. I'd style it as a cozy mystery for semi- to hardcore geeks, e.g. anyone who's ever played World of Warcraft even casually. There are lots of nerdy show more references that ring true and realistic, and I literally laughed out loud several times. Dahlia is a great character, not overly defined by her hobbies or habits or quirky clothing or any of the tropes that tend to make a character into a caricature. I'd also grade the writing as well above average for cozy mysteries -- I don't recall being pulled out of the storyline by any awkward phrases or poor word choices. Sometimes the best writing just gets out of your way so you can enjoy a good story, and that's exactly what this does.

I hope Max Wirestone has a whole pipeline of Dahlia Moss mysteries waiting to be published. I will devour them as fast as my greedy little eyes can take them in.



I received a copy of this egalley from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
Expected publication October 20. show less

If you are the kind of person who would be friends with me, even just in an online goodreads sense, you need to pre-order this book right now because you will want to own it, read it, and re-read it whenever you need to laugh. i don't do reviews with memes, if I did I would insert the take my money meme because I am buying my own copy.

It might be the funniest book I have ever read. I laughed out loud dozens of times and that is not an exaggeration. You don't even need to get the references to think they are funny, and there is plenty of humor that doesn't rely on you being a complete nerd. The mystery is equally great.

I could gush about this book for days, but I can't because work.Trust me on this one.

I was lucky to get an advanced readers copy of this title. I am glad I did. Dahlia is one of those characters you can't help but root for as she muddles through. The side characters are a quirky bunch as well. This continues the trend of books written for geeks. MMORPG players will find plenty to love as will pop culture fans. There is enough of a mystery to draw in those fans as well so definite genre crossover appeal. Then throw in a healthy does of humor and you get one great Summer read!

If you like this one, and I think you will, the author said on Twitter there are two more planned in the series!

Twenty-something Dahlia Moss is broke and unemployed, so against her better judgment, she agrees to help a friend of a friend retrieve a stolen item despite not actually being a private investigator as her new client seems to think. Things are more complicated than they appear when it turns out the stolen item is virtual -- a spear from a popular MMORPG. And then it gets a whole lot more complicated when her new client is murdered with a real-life replica of the spear. With the police warning her to stay away from the case, will Dahlia be able to recover the spear, find the virtual thief, and maybe just maybe also reveal the flesh-and-blood murderer?

So I need to preface this review by saying I read this book about 5 months ago but just show more kept getting distracted every time I went to put my thoughts down here. My memory being what it is, this book is already fading and quickly. That being said, I recall that I enjoyed it quite a bit for being funny in a snarky sort of way, with lots of geeky references. There were a few times when the slapstick comedy parts got to be perhaps a bit too silly, but it seemed to work for this relatively light read.

The mystery itself is quite good as it is complicated without being overly so and its solutions is neither predictable nor completely out of left field. There is a large cast of characters, many with both online names and real-life names, which might be a lot to negotiate except Wirestone does a pretty decent job of keeping it all sorted for the reader. There are some possible romantic interests for Dahlia thrown in for good measure, but the book doesn't get particularly sappy at any point or delve too deeply into this.

That all being said, I heard that a sequel was just released, and I'm not entirely sure that I'll read it. While this shtick was entertaining enough for one novel, it's not necessarily a world I feel I need to re-visit. show less