Day of the Jackal

TL;DR

I don't get the "masterpiece in the spy/thriller genre" reviews of this book. I watched the new TV show and I liked it way more than this book. I will explain more of my thoughts in the Extended section but in my opinion this is an average book. Starts boring, gets interesting towards the end and then the ending leave me unsatisfied. I do not agree with most of the people saying this is a great thriller/spy story. I would look elsewhere and just watch the new TV show.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: The beginning is rather boring, we don't get to meet and start to follow the Jackal until halfway of the book. Once we get to that point it starts to get better. From there until the ending it's good.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): The books main problem in my opinion is how many character we get introduced and every single one of them has a backstory that we have to stop and learn when that character is meaningless to the story. We read half a chapter of their past then we don't see that character again and their arc doesn't even finish. It happens to so many characters in this book.

X - Characters: There are way to many characters, every time we get introduced to a new character we learn that he has another five people under his command, so we get names and descriptions of those characters as well. Even if they don't matter to the story. This is just my personal take but I hate French names, they're so complicated half of the time I don't even know who we're talking about.

The only main characters in this book should have been Lebel and the Jackal.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: I liked how we visited different places in Europe. They were interesting.

X - Ending: I didn't like the ending at all. I'm not going to talk about it because any little thing I say it will be a spoiler or give it away but I was not pleased with it.

Extensive Review

The main problem in my opinion are two things:

1- Too many characters: There are so many unnecessary characters. You meet a new character and on top of getting his complete backstory about his past that no one cares since in a few chapters this character won't be mentioned again we learn that he has five more people under his command and we get descriptions and names for those characters as well.

2- The backstories of all those unnecessary characters: You will learn about the childhood of so many random not interesting characters it's not even funny. You will learn about the motivations of characters and after a few chapters you won't hear from them again. Leaving you with the feeling "why did I read half a chapter about that character if we don't even get to see where it goes?"

The book from the beginning was just straight up boring. Nothing interesting happens until more or less half way when the Jackal gets to be more or less the main characters. Which he's not, we spend more time with the police than the Jackal. Then the ending I didn't like at all.