Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

6 reviews

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

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoy Gaiman's stories most of the time, but misogyny slips out here and there when he's trying to be gritty. Ruins my enjoyment. I catch myself wishing a woman had written them instead.

I also find the "troubles" bit in the middle difficult to understand--doesn't seem to further Odin's/Loki's purposes that are central to the story. No real reason to kill some of the gods who were killed. If there had been some established enmity between them and Odin or Loki, sure, but I didn't see anything. 

Encapsulating both these complaints: Balquis' character seems to exist completely for proposes that don't further the narrative: adding a sex(ist) scene and dying during the "troubles" part. I could be convinced there's narrative value there, but I'm not seeing it at the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Death of parent, Slavery, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Sexual content, Sexism, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Abandonment, War, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Vomit, Car accident, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Rape

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Animal death, War, Slavery, Medical content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Body horror, and Gun violence

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death of parent, Infertility, and Confinement

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Hate crime, Child death, Murder, Sexism, and Xenophobia

thestorydoer's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.25

American Gods is a book whose meticulously crafted through unique world building and vivid imagery, it's also enjoyable to read the many monotonous moments of the book. 
It begins very strongly with a lot of mystery and excitement, and ends even stronger, raising the whole book up another level, but the middle feels quite tedious at times. It favours the inclusion of its world of ancient gods in modern times over traditional forms of drama. This makes the read an incredibly slow one. And at 800 pages, it's definitely not for people who struggle to read slowly paced books. 
But the world is so incredibly well thought out, it almost doesn't matter as it doubles down on its worldbuilding storytelling, the author trusting his ability to create a world so good, it surpassed regular dramatic tension. Not to say there aren't tense moments, because there are, just very far and few between pages. Again, this makes the story a pleasurable but monotonous read.

Although, what is it with good authors and uncomfortable sexual references? This book often has mentions of rape and pedophelia in multiple moments. Some work in its context, others feel needlessly included. The book also has a fixation on sex, which is fair? But I was personally not a fan of just how fixated it was. It never goes into explicit detail but it is implied multiple times throughout the book. 

Overall, it was worth the read because of its world and it's faults can be very easily overlooked.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, and Sexism