Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Midnight Riot

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

28 reviews

selimhannah's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.25

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searobin's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

1.0

The misogyny, fat-phobia, and horniness was very off-putting. I wanted to DNF this book, but it was for book club so I didn't.

I think the premise had a lot of potential, and I did enjoy some aspects of the storyline, but it was not executed well.

I would absolutely love a book (not by this author) from the perspective of Mother Thames, or one her tributaries, though!

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bronzeageholly's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

In general, the book has a very interesting concept. I went into it with no clue what the plot would be like and I was intrigued and then hooked very quickly by the great pace and immersive scene setting.

The main character isn’t exactly cool or exceptional and I kind of like that everything mystical or brilliant just happens around him and he stumbles through it all. He doesn’t seem too fazed by much of the magic or even his own abilities (which is perhaps a point missed), but despite this he is very inquisitive about the mechanics of it which is great for a main character and I appreciate the effort in that side of the world building.

What I really didn’t like, though, is that the guy is casually creepy all the time about women’s bodies - sexualising and oogling is pretty much always his immediate thought when he meets a woman. Hints that other characters are aware and critical of his creepiness did make it bearable, however. I slowly realised he’s a magical touch-starved idiot, a lover a dreamer a fighter a loser, and I have a soft spot for those kinds of characters.

why are you, a cop on the job trying to save all of london from horrifying supernatural terror, primarily concerned with hiding an erection you got from seeing a lady in a vest on the tube 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

last 5 mins of the book and we get “phantom dick snatcher” yo what

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rivikah's review

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lighthearted mysterious medium-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

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the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.5

Ported over from my now-abandoned Goodreads:
I'm a sucker for an urban fantasy. A British-set urban fantasy chock full of geeky pop culture references, authentic slang, brilliant wit, quotable lines, genuinely tense mystery, an amazingly unique premise, excellently crafted magic system, lovable and complex characters, gloriously hateable villains- how could I possibly refuse?

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

This book was really promising and had a very strong start, but as things went on I think it suffered from having too many ideas that didn't mesh cohesively together. It resulted in a lot of repetition and a lot of descriptions of the main character walking, driving and running everywhere and limiting the interesting parts of the action (then again given he was a police officer, I'm not surprised).

Things I liked:

Having a POC protagonist and going into detail about the struggles of his childhood was interesting.
I really loved the idea that every river in London was represented by a character that was either chosen by the river or born into the family of rivers.
I liked Nightingale's character and, ironically for a mystery book, the fact that his past wasn't spelled out and gave him some sorely needed intrigue.

Things I didn't like:

The protagonist didn't really have a strong character or any flaws that weren't certain characters bashing us over the head with "oh you have a shit home life and you fucked up your education" or "you need to be more focused". To me those aren't really flaws, or at the very least strong flaws that could cause interesting conflict in the story.
On a similar side note,
while it was nice to have the protagonist and the rivers be POC/mixed as generations went along, I feel like the author was trying to express how they were both African-British families from a different diaspora from one another, but didn't. The rivers family seem to have some kind of West African/Yoruba heritage, but the protagonist was just "African-British".
As mentioned above, the story suffered from too many ideas that didn't mesh well together. In particular, I feel as if the story suddenly spinned into
acting out the play of Punch and Judy, with the culprit being the ghost of an actor for Punch out of nowhere.

I think the author should have leaned more into the idea of people being forced to act out the roles of fictional characters if he wanted to include this element in the book
. This also meant the titular rivers of London characters felt superfluous in a book that was named after them. The tensions between the two river families went nowhere and was an absolute waste.
Part of me should have honestly expected this but some of the descriptions of the women were a bit leery.
cw for rape
Towards the end, a bit character ends up having part of his penis bitten off after trying to force himself onto someone and we're expected to sympathise with him. Nah mate, you got what you deserved for forcing yourself on someone.

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karenreadsbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

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sirswanny's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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fionamatilda's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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quil's review against another edition

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2.5

Would have been entertaining if the main character didn’t sexualize every woman in the story. I was tired of hearing about all the erections and breasts pressing against him by the end. There was also a very tasteless and harmful comment the main character makes about a character’s appearance offhand that knocked the rating even further down for me. He arrived at someone’s house and says the door was answered by

a “plump, round faced woman” who had developed a good personality “because the alternative was suicide.”

I had to rewind a couple times to make sure I heard it right.
The audiobook narrator was really talented, otherwise I might not have finished the book.

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