Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

La Sombra Del Viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

60 reviews

cheyrohm's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Confused by the number of five star reviews on this. Did we read the same book? Although it has a couple of exciting parts, most of the plot is obscured by overly flowery prose. I just wanted the author to get to the point already! 

And the misogyny... Ugh. I get it's set in the 40s/50s but there is literally not one female character in here that is described by something other than their beauty, youth, or fertility. Gross. And they exist solely to develop the character of Daniel, of course.

Also, the mystery is finally revealed by way of...someone writing it all out in a letter? Now that's a cheap writing trick if I ever heard one. Seems like the author didn't know how to wrap it up so threw this in at the last quarter of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

elfeeza's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I was not expecting this book to freak me out. It started quite slow and rather boring for me but after that the book just delivered surprises one after another.

It was so craftily written and I would have to say that it is the best mystery/thriller I have ever read. I haven’t read that many but this one is by far the best.

The author obviously put so much thought into crafting the story and the way the author revealed how all the main players in the book are connected to each other is so well-written and planned out.

The build up freaked me out and got me curious at the same time. The climax of the story had me holding my breath in anticipation and got me questioning if I could speed up the audiobook anymore without me losing comprehension of the narration. The ending was satisfying and brought my heart down to normal again. And then, as much as I wanted to hate this book because I didn’t know going into it that it was from the gothic horror genre and I was got so frightened of the scary parts of this book that as I was reading/listening to them I told myself that I am not going to continue on with the series, I couldn’t and I had to give it 5 stars. This book did everything it was meant to do. It was that good. And now I need to catch my breath and calm down before I can read another book.

Will I continue on with the series? I still don’t know but one thing is for sure. I am curious.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Murder

pr3rn4's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

While the story is engaging it's disturbing how every male character in the book views women. 
TW: sexual assault, rape
The book even minimises and blames sexual assault onto the victim.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Misogyny

r_b_c's review against another edition

I wanted to love this book. I liked the way he writes, the main story was intriguing. But, as others have said, I can’t stand the way he writes women. Get ready for a lot of objectification. I kept hoping this was maybe a flaw that the main character was going to find in himself and address so that there was a point to it all but that didn’t seem like it was going to happen and it just kept on going till I lost patience with it. Those who finished: do they ever actually address this? 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny

littlebook's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.5

Sexist, misogynistic

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny

schwabbelliese's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 Zafón writing is captivating as well as thoghtfull and even funny at times. This (his first) novel shows that he has talent.
What I did have issue with was the overall pacing of the book. It is, to put it simply, just weird. The time span inbetween events is often hard to follow and fully comprehend.  And I just feel like that is super unnecessary.

The novel was definitly drawn out too long for a plot that wasn't really that complicated.

It was also rather obvious that the bookburner was Carax all along

. While large parts of incidental and semmingly unneccesary mentions/descriptions or conversations certainly the worldbuiling and add character to Zafóns 1960's Barcelona, the book could have been at least 50 pages shorter without forfeiting any of it's charm.

The female characters were rather out of touch and of little depht or impotance. Mostly just existing so the male charcters could fawn over them for reasons that if existent at all, aren't illustrated very well. And even tough it seems obvouis that Zafón uses a specific image of or attitude towards women to embed his story even deeper in it's historical setting, he still could have put more effort in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Hate crime, Misogyny, and Excrement

Minor: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Rape, and War

bluejay21's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Police brutality

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Torture

florafauna's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Incest, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Death, Homophobia, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Chronic illness, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Torture, and War

sherbertwells's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.0

On the streets of fascist Barcelona, a boy unravels the mystery behind his favorite book. Some stories can survive the fact that their authors don’t really understand women; in this one the plot threatens to buckle under its own accumulated misogyny.

“I imagined Julián Carax at my age, holding that image in his hand, perhaps in the shade of the same tree that now sheltered me. I could almost see him smiling confidently, contemplating a future as wide and luminous as that avenue, and for a moment I thought there were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss and that the light that smiled on me was borrowed light, real only as long as I could hold it in my eyes, second by second” (147)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: War, Racial slurs, and Forced institutionalization

mesi_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, War, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Homophobia, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, and Rape

Minor: Abortion, Incest, and Bullying