Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

29 reviews

diana_raquel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

"Cleverness is a type of strength, and they won't accept a woman who's stronger than they are. Their pride won't allow it, and their pride is the thing they hold dearest."

 Mystery thrillers are not my cup of tea. My reading tastes tend to be directed toward classics, fantasy, and contemporary. However, I loved the previous book of Turton.

After The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I had an idea of what I would find in this book: a murder mystery full of details that wouldn't make sense until the final chapter, with an influence of speculative fiction.  Well, I didn't get my speculative fiction influence. And that's okay. What I got was so much better. What I got was a murder mystery (somewhat) historical full of details that only made sense in the final chapters. 

This was a really good book, with a solid structure. The characters were well developed and you never really know what they're thinking and what they might do next, which only made the narrative more compelling. And, as usual, my theories were all wrong, but then only made the narrative more interesting. 

I think that the only thing that I wasn't a fan of was the pacing in the early chapters. They seem to be dragging and dragging. I understand the need to set the scene and the characters in a murder mystery but I think that this part could be done in fewer stages/pages.

Overall, I liked it and recommend it to murder mysteries lovers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape, Slavery, and Infidelity

katelarson's review

slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Torture, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual harassment

kaylaclark200's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Rape

bc288's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Death

arce's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Very good book, at every point of the story I kept wondering what would most likely happen next, sometimes I was right, and it still managed to surprise me.
The explanation is not farfetched and seems reasonable, but I am not completely satisfied with the ending.

Sammy/Hugo doesn't seem to feel anything? Gives me strong psychopath vibes...
Also, what happenes with the other passengers on the island? Do they sail to Amsterdam afterwards?
And I'm definitely not a fan of Sara's solution. I liked neither of the options, but don't have any better on my mind. Vigilante justice is not the right way. Creesjie and Sammy/Hugo shouldn't go without punishment.

I would be interested in the more horror endings Stuart Turton mentioned in the interview at the end of the audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Excrement, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Genocide, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Rape, War, and Pregnancy

tallbox's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Colonisation, Child death, and Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy

shinsoukoku's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Child abuse, Vomit, Child death, War, Animal death, Confinement, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

set in the medieval era, there is a brief scene of sara having to fulfill her "obligations" with her abusive husband and multiple threats of assault leading up to a character suggesting they, the men, use the women of the ship as they wish, willing or not.

aviery's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent, Excrement, and Vomit

maiagaia's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

Like The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, this book has extremely engaging, compulsively readable prose. I tore through both in only a few days despite their length. The issue is that both have really bad endings. Like book-ruining bad.
The Devil and the Dark Water commits what is, to me, a cardinal sin: a POV character lied to the reader with their own thoughts.

Creesjie is the POV character when she finds the governor general's body. She panics and cries and is frightened in the dark. We find out later that she planned the whole thing and planted a fake murder weapon in the middle of that scene. But we don't see it because it would ruin the mystery. And that's the only reason. It makes zero sense.

There are also multiple instances of chapters ending with a random description of something that the character didn't see. These chapters are written in 3rd person limited, so the random omnipotence is clunky.
The reveal of the twist was bad enough , but the final scene was the expired whipped cream on this shit sundae. We have two well-developed, stubborn characters who do a total about face in the last five pages.

Arent and Sara are both set up as having strict, particular views on morality, yet at the end, they are suddenly willing to look past the hundreds of deaths Creesjie and Pipps caused??? I could maybe buy it if given more time, but 5 pages is NOT enough.

 
At this point, I'm not sure I'll be reading from this author again. He has a wonderful writing style, but the endings are just unforgivable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War, Vomit, Slavery, Child death, Colonisation, and Confinement

calliereece's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Yes. Read it. Now.

If you haven't read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I also highly recommend that novel but it may be slightly more confusing than this one. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Rape