Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

8 reviews

trying_ceratops's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

I ended up liking this book by the end but the docked stars are for the pace of the book and the fact I’ve tried to read this 3-4 times before unsuccessfully and finally pushed through this time. The mythology is neat, there’s definitely some misogyny, and the character development is the main character is well done but takes forever. The middle felt like a nothing happened.  All that said, that should show how good the rest of the story is to get it up to 3.5. I know people who love this book and would argue its merits until they’re blue in the face, but I probably won’t re-read it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, and War

Moderate: Police brutality, Violence, Murder, Misogyny, Cursing, Gore, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

peggy_racham's review against another edition

3.25

Perhaps I wasn't the right audiance for this book. Its was strange and strangely slow at times

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Violence

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Infidelity, Grief, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Abandonment, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Colonisation, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Cultural appropriation, Pregnancy, Suicide, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, and War

justmys's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Blood, Sexual content, Body horror, Vomit, Gore, Excrement, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Cancer, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

anniefwrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this. I think that Neil Gaiman is the master of mood--he can create ambience and tension like no other writer I know of. And I really loved the twists and turns that occur in the last few chapters of the book. It felt like finally solving a puzzle, which is such a satisfying feeling, but I wish there were more moments like that throughout because I often felt a bit adrift and confused with all of the different settings and characters and the sort of removed perspective of Shadow guiding the way. I think it's also a product of its time--I really didn't vibe with the valorization of police or the sort of flat female characters, who were often mere bodies of sexual desire for male characters. The masculinity of the book could sometimes be grating for me as a female reader, like how so many men just... pee in random places for no discernable reason. It felt like it was a book designed with a male reader in mind, and I was just looking in at times. I also wonder what this book would have been like if written by an Indigenous author; though Gaiman does go into the Native aspects of the mythology of America, I think it could have gone further.  But I do think that it's a really unique story, that the individual locales within each section of the book were really vivid, and that the ending was strong and exciting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, War, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Blood, Car accident, Colonisation, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Kidnapping

444christina's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Racism

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.0

This book was really weird, and though I liked it, I'm not sure I would recommend it. I also don't think I would have liked it as much if I hadn't been listening to the audiobook; I may have given up if I were reading a physical copy. 

For most of this book, I couldn't really tell you what it was about, or what the main plot was. Not that that's always a bad thing, but still. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Pedophilia

Anti-Romani slur (g slur) Predatory relationship between older man and young girl who may be underage Body horror to do with corpses, maggots, etc

talypollywaly's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

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

2.75

 

This book was incredibly obnoxious to me. The author's repeated references to young women in a sexual manner made it incredibly uncomfortable for me to read and I only ended up only finishing it for a book club.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny