Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Gambito de dama

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Gambito de dama by Walter Tevis

53 reviews

alyssapusateri's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

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aguattery's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It was good but I probably wouldn't read it again. If I didn't have the visuals from tv show I would have had a pretty difficult time following it.

I did like that the author was able to almost write this like a thriller. Each game has me at the edge of my seat. It was also a bit of an emotional roller coaster with some really high high and some really low lows.

Also it's not listed high in the trigger warnings so there are racial slurs.

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carolyngrace's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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lucys_library's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

5.0

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alexiconic's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

2.5

To read, understand, enjoy this book, it really helps if you understand chess better than I do. Not necessarily the game, but how a tournament works, what the rules are in competitive chess. The strongest elements of this book are those tournaments, which manage to make a chess game more interesting and action-packed than I ever imagined it could be. Unfortunately, I sometimes felt I did not have enough love for chess or enough understanding to give it the love it deserves. It is clear that a lot of the book is about chess and that makes sense, I wish I knew it better to assess if that was good. Without that knowledge, I have no idea why the Sicilian is better than the Queens Gambit or what the (enter any chess strategy) entails.

What let’s the book down for me, is pretty much everything around the chess. Relationships with other characters were told, not necessarily shown. We realize Beth likes people because that’s what we read, we do not experience with her what she enjoys in these relationships because most of the side characters do not get as much roundness as Beth does. She does not have much character growth, which makes it hard to understand how the plot is progressing: suddenly she’s not 8 years old but 13, not 15 but 19. Not sure if this is due to the audio version missing some contextual clues or due to the writing, though.

I also wish we’d see Beth lose or learn more. At the end of the book, we get some hints to this as she studies with Benny (until she outgrows him) and receives help through a phone call in her final game, but it isn’t given a chance to develop. This is a real shame. So is the fact that her substance abuse is… kind of underdeveloped and understated. Besides a few weeks in a bad spiral, it receives little attention: Beth can just “decide” she will no longer use. Of course, that’s fine, but it is introduced as though this is a great flaw that was meant to take center stage and have quite an impact. It really barely did.

Finally, there were several quite problematic instances in the book. And a few moments where it was clear this was a book with a female main character that was written by a man who just didn’t quite get it, which always bothers me in books.

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kavarnistka's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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wrensreads's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Utterly brilliant writing and such a gripping narrative. I found myself unable to escape Beth’s head even when I wasn’t reading. As a fan of the Netflix show, the book was even better (as is often the case). Unfortunately the harmful racial stereotypes applied to Jolene’s character made this fall short of 5 stars for me.

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