Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Ice House by Minette Walters

1 review

quirkilybookish's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

an engaging mystery and a decent quick holiday read. turns tropes on their head and is progressive in some ways, enough so that some dated language didn’t bother me too much. still, a side effect of making everyone look suspicious means they are written quite inconsistently and none are particularly likeable. this undermines a lot of the interesting social commentary as most male characters have near constant misogynistic thoughts but are constantly lecturing each other for them. still, the women are arguably the most well developed and interesting characters, and the novel challenges a lot of sexist crime tropes so I can see why the blurbs applaud it as a progressive debut in the genre at the time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Child abuse

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Violence, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Eating disorder and Car accident

homohobia/lesbophobia:

one detective character is extremely homophobic when the three female characters are believed to be lesbians, convinced they are guilty, even assaulting one of them. he later completely changes his tune when it is established they are firmly heterosexual and the most raging feminist of the lot (whom he assaulted) falls for him. at the end of the novel he lectures another character for hatecriming them, where the overall tone is that the violence was undeserved solely because they were never truly lesbians.

all of this is said through slurs, mind you. also, it is joked that the later homophobic character is secretly gay. CSA:

one character was routinely sexually assaulted by her father as a child. it is discussed contextually but is an event of the past and the act is not written. the character is written respectfully in contrast to much crime fiction, and is quite articulate about her trauma and shows strength not expected by other characters. she is not a tragic victim or an object of overwhelming pity, nor a device solely for plot movement without her own character.