A Particular Eye for Villainy vs Wild Swans: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Social conditions, History, Fiction
A Particular Eye for Villainy
From "an accomplished veteran" of crime fiction, a Victorian murder mystery featuring a female sleuth and her detective husband (Kirkus Reviews).When Mr. Thomas Tapley is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room,…
vs
Wild Swans
"Jung Chang vividly evokes China's sights, sounds, and smells to create what must be one of the grimmest, yet most perceptive accounts of growing up middle-class in the maelstrom that has swept China since the 1920s." -…
The verdict
- Readers rate Wild Swans highest: Wild Swans 4.3 · A Particular Eye for Villainy 3.9.
- A Particular Eye for Villainy is the quickest read — about 6 hours vs 13 for Wild Swans.
- Wild Swans has the widest readership — 128589 ratings behind its score.
- Wild Swans runs the darker storyline; A Particular Eye for Villainy stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Scores by source
| A Particular Eye for Villainy | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | — | 4.3 (128589) |
| Hardcover | 3.3 (3) | 4.3 (104) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (7) | 4.5 (187) |
Reception
| A Particular Eye for Villainy | Wild Swans | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 7 | 128589 |
| Editions | 3 | 72 |
| Film adaptations | — | 1 |
| Want to read | — | 161756 |
| Reading it now | — | 9161 |
| Written reviews | — | 8970 |
| Wikipedia attention | — | 5578 |
| Pages | 373 | 729 |