Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman

16 reviews

jvbook_reader's review

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of the best books I've read this year. Hoping for a sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Trafficking, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Cancer

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Murder, and Incest

thefragranthand's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was just what I hoped it would be. I wonder how long I have to wait for the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Excrement, Domestic abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Trafficking and Mental illness

Minor: Vomit, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Cancer, Blood, Suicide, Torture, and Gaslighting

lorialdenholuta's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 I noticed other reviewers expected a lighthearted romp, based on the book’s cover. This is a fine lesson in NOT judging a book by its cover. Our Ill-Mannered Ladies, while quite prim and proper in appearance, are anything but. In the Regency Era, women were treated as less important than men. If the trio of adventures in this book are based in some truth, women were treated horribly, often to the point of torture and even death.

The stories are dark, revealing the worst aspects of Regency men’s behavior. But, this is balanced a little by the inclusion of a good man with a sympathetic heart, who believes in the value of women. You won’t recognize this at first, as he’s a character that’s not fully revealed at our first meeting. This was one of my favorite aspects of the book. the slow revelation of a truly good and worthy man.

But back to our Ill-Mannered Ladies. 42-year-old twin sisters Lady Augusta and Lady Julia Colebrook are close enough to share ‘twin language’, with the ability to exchange entire sentences via a meaningful look. They are also financially independent and quite capable of looking after themselves.

Together, they fight crime!

Okay, that was flippant, but really, they do. Specifically, crimes against helpless women committed by men who believe their gender makes it all right to do so. This book follows their exploits during three adventures. Each deals with different situations featuring ladies in distress, though I found the sister’s cunning plans to be very similar in each story. This didn’t detract from my interest in the stories, it was just something I noticed.

I mentioned earlier that these stories are a bit dark. They need to be in order for the women’s plights to be meaningful. I must caution though, the final story is *very* dark, and to my mind goes completely overboard with the use of a certain substance that all humans produce but are usually not compelled to wallow in. My goodness. The digging of a short trench and a daily bucket of water would have solved the problem right away. But the author clearly felt the need of some shock value to underscore the horrors of the situation.

That aside, I was quite absorbed by the lives and adventures of the two sisters, and all the women who benefitted from them. Also, I’m a big fan of the Victorian era but my knowledge of the Regency era has lots of gaps. In particular, I liked learning about sealing wafers. I knew about sealing wax, but wafers were new to me, and now I love them. So practical! Go google them and see for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Confinement, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

li_gao's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Medical content, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Pedophilia, Vomit, Trafficking, Rape, and Lesbophobia

magnetarmadda's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Boy howdy this book did not hold back and did not blunt the edges of the Regency era, but it was very well done. I’m genuinely looking forward to more adventures of Gus and Julia

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Torture, Cancer, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Ableism, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, Racism, Child death, Homophobia, and Miscarriage

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, Emotional abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Blood, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Murder, Child abuse, Classism, Rape, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Death, and Eating disorder

Minor: Vomit, Pedophilia, Mental illness, and Deportation

sapphicsoilscientist's review

It really irks me when authors complain about historical fashion when they’ve clearly never worn it. This is a repeated offense in this book for everything skirts related. Clearly the author has no clue how women’s fashion of the period was actually made and worn. 
This writing often feels like an English major who wants to throw in tidbits to show they’re well read without any of the evidence to show they’re well written. Drug on quite a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism

Honestly it’s internalized misogyny at this point. The MC is rather unbearable.

churrocaitie's review

adventurous inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

What a fun book that felt like an adventure of a lifetime for women in the “Bridgerton” era (aka Regency England). 

It took me a good halfway through before I saw where the book was going but when I got there, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. I enjoyed how special each new character was that was introduced, and I loved how unique and dark Alison Goodman wrote the storyline with “history” as a baseline. I’m always a sucker for anything not-modern and I totally got my fix in this, while also enjoying a story that was perfectly adventurous enough for my liking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Gore, Grief, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

goldseamedglass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Classism, Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Medical trauma, Torture, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Suicide, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual violence, Child death, Torture, Gun violence, Rape, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Slavery

hdperez13's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Confinement

Moderate: Kidnapping and Rape