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eleanorefiore's review
slow-paced
1.0
This book wasn't my cup of tea, but what brought the rating down was the intolerable amount of misogyny and bias in the text. I left this book throughly disgusted and angry. I'm going to go into a couple of examples. This might be a little disjointed, but I will show excerpts from the novel if anyone is interested.
— "Slut", "bitch", and "whore" are used freely when talking about women. Almost every man used one of these words to talk about a women or women as a whole. And no one pushes back against it – not even the two women who were the main characters.
— At one point a barkeep is flirty with Elyn while bringing her more drinks and then she goes over to the bar and flirts back. That's completely fine! But then he has the audacity to point to a group of women and say:
— "Slut", "bitch", and "whore" are used freely when talking about women. Almost every man used one of these words to talk about a women or women as a whole. And no one pushes back against it – not even the two women who were the main characters.
— At one point a barkeep is flirty with Elyn while bringing her more drinks and then she goes over to the bar and flirts back. That's completely fine! But then he has the audacity to point to a group of women and say:
"Good," he whispered in a conspiring tone. "I'd hate to see you grow up like them." He jerked his head toward a group of three middle-aged women behind him, all of them laughing a little too loud and acting a little too friendly with another group of men sitting at the same table. The women were dressed in a vulgar attempt to reveal certain body parts, as if this would compensate for their lost youth. and the similarly aging men were looking at them with an undisguised, selfish lust.
In the Wake of Gods, page 154
Notice how this paragraph treats men and women differently. The women are demonized for wanting to sleep with men and flirting with them (the same thing the MC is doing right now?).
And the sentence "The women were dressed in a vulgar attempt to reveal certain body parts, as if this would compensate for their lost youth" makes me want to throw up. It's so goddamn ugly.
Another quote:
"You just want to get back to some whores," Walt said with a smile. Edward offered a dignified shrug.
"A man has his needs, and they certainly ain't filled by sleeping on frozen rock every night!"
"Well, it's been so long for me that a frozen rock is starting to look pretty good."
Both men laughed at the collegial sharing of desire that was a hallmark of male friendship.
In the Wake of Gods, page 183/184
A man wants to sleep with a woman and uses degrading descriptors? He's showing a collegial hallmark of male friendship.
A woman wants to sleep with a man who's also interested? She's a whore and trying to compensate for her youth.
The same text that condones this kind of dehumanizing talk also condemns women for agreeing to have sex with the men who...want...to have sex? If the men are interested and so are the women, then why are the women being treated like shit?
I don't mind reading about sexism in my books, but I DO mind when it's just a natural part of the text that isn't challenged (even by the WOMEN who lead the story).
Additional Notes:
— Uses "Strange, almond-shaped eyes" to describe an East Asian-coded female character.
— Elyn has no personality, drive, or interests. She's just there to react, and be told what to do by men and various side characters. In one scene, she'll said something akin to "I'm done keeping secrets. I don't want to anymore and I won't." and then she won't do a damn thing about it until prompted. Her best friend is exactly the same.
— Elyn's "best friend" has no purpose. In our first introduction, Elyn introduces her as being soooo pretty...much prettier than me :( and she wishes she got the same attention. And nothing else. And then she's written out of the novel and appears at the end and does absolutely nothing.
Elyn acts like they're so close . . . but she hasn't been there the whole novel? And when she was there, Elyn did nothing but push her away, dismiss her, or ignore her. So I don't buy it.
— Elyn gets SA-ed multiple times and it's pushed aside for no reason. The encounters border on mild and graphic depending on your line in the sand. Personally, it made me physically uncomfortable and ill to read. The first time it happens, her "friend" sees it and when Jason wants to step up to defend Elyn, she gives Elyn a "knowing look" and says not to worry about it.
What the actual hell was this supposed to convey? Because what I saw was that her friend doesn't give a fuck about her wellbeing, and that SA should be brushed under the rug? The book doesn't ever give an explanation as to why Elyn doesn't do anything about it, or why she doesn't defend herself, or why her friend dismissed it and then acted like they agreed on it.
For all the above reasons, I'm not finishing the series and I've banned this author and this publishing house form my reading list.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence
The SA is either graphic or mild depending on your tolerance. Personally, I was left physically uncomfortable and ill at the scenes and how other characters reacted.
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