Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

3 reviews

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-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? No

3.0

This was a nice, easy to read  historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectacular but I still had a fun time. It also has one of the most truly hateable out and out villains I’ve read in a while.

For a book so focused around the black market trade of antiquities, I was a bit disappointed that the role of the British Empire in plundering Greece artifacts was never really raised. There was very little nuance in relation to this subject which threw me out of the book a bit. I think it would have been a more interesting read to have that kind of topic included.

I really enjoyed the side characters (Lady Latimer being a particular favourite).

Overall glad I read this. Recommended to those looking for a nicely paced, ambiguously supernatural historical mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Gore, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, War, and Homophobia

Instances of sexism, misogyny and homophobia etc. are in-world and consistent with the time period. They are also challenged, addresses or overcome. Also with regard to the animal death:

the villain of the story kills the main character’s pet bird. It is off-page and the description of its corpse is one line, but the instance is still upsetting.

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

While I found the mystery in this book to be very enchanting, and I always love mythology-adjacent literature, I simply did not enjoy this as much as I had hoped. I found the pacing to be quite sluggish in parts, the plot somewhat predictable, and some of the characters to be caricatures. 

I also found the historical setting of Georgian England to be quite unbelievable due to the manner of speaking, some of the behaviour and some of the social/political attitudes of the characters not being aligned with what I’d expect from characters in this era. While it was refreshing to see in certain ways, it wasn’t exactly historically accurate. 

However ultimately I was quite satisfied with the ending. There were some loose ends that I don’t think were properly addressed, which may have just been added to add mystique midway through the book. An interesting take on a greek myth retelling for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Murder, Vomit, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse