Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn

1 review

beetitnerds's review against another edition

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

3.0

This book was extremely not for me, which I recognize, and why I'm giving it a 3-star rating instead of a 2, just in case I'm overly harsh.

I find the book meanspirited in tone, which is hard to grapple with since one of the main characters is, in my opinion, deeply relatable. Stevie's story is much more grounded than Rosie's, and I think many more people will be able to relate to him. It's for this reason the conclusion to his story disappoints me:
I don't think the downer, punishment ending he gets for being a child trying his best is warranted or, honestly, even realistic. To me, it's not even a matter of living in a crapsack world, the story seems to be actively punishing him for existing. If the answer is that trying your best isn't good enough and nothing you do will ever amount to anything, then that's just not a satisfying ending to his arc. If the answer is that he was imagining it all and he's that much of an unreliable narrator, then it wasn't clear enough in the text. If the answer is his family is willing to put away a 10 yr old after seeing him act in self defense with their own eyes and after hearing him endlessly try to tell them something is wrong...then that's not satisfying either. Or, it wasn't wrapped up well enough to make it satisfying.


I feel Rosie's chapters adds nothing to the story. It doesn't expand the mystery is an interesting or satisfying way (and in fact, I found Rosie got in the way of the mystery, considering I immediately drew a connection it took her canonically 30 years to piece together). I think the purpose of Rosie's chapters were to add an aspect of specifically gendered horror
by way of The Omen and like, commenting on the deep horror of being a single mom and childbirth in general.
This is a topic that I personally hate to read about, but also a topic I think adds nothing to the story.

My biggest criticism of the book is the really pessimistic and judgemental view of women it takes. There are essentially four named women in the book (out of an admittedly small cast), and all of them, notably, only exist in relation to the (terrible) men and boys in their lives.
Dunc's girlfriend basically only exists for us to have a scene of her happily getting fingered next to a child. Stevie's mom exists to get beat up, fingered next to her child, and/or let her children get beat up too. Rosie spends her entire time obsessed with her husband before and after his death, then covering for her clearly-a-demon son. Mandy entire identity is having a dead husband and then a kidnapped son. And that one old woman spends her time asking policemen to aresst a 10 year old.
I don't mean to be dismissive, but when there's clearly gendered violence happening in a story I prefer it to serve a greater purpose. There doesn't seem to serve a greater purpose here, it just feels like the conclusion we're meant to reach is that women are always going to be obsessed with their lovers/let terrible men "get away with" terrible behavior. I don't think this is what the author intended, but I'm struggling to find another interpretation.
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