Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Wolf in the Whale

The beginning is extremely slow and a lot of it felt like you could shorten the length a bit. The really interesting parts happen at the end and despite being the main character I didn't really feel a connection to Omat or sad at any death in the book. The way Norse and Inuit mythology was woven together felt really thought out and I enjoyed it immensely. Overall I enjoyed this book despite it's flaws, it's 5 in the morning and this is the best review I can write right now, goodnight.

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daethule's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was a dark pleasure to read. SO well written with believable, multifaceted characters. I truly felt like I was reading a true story, like I was listening to Omat tell the story of her life. She felt so real that I was genuinely repulsed and horrified by Issuk's actions against her, like I would be for a real-life friend.
I don't know how accurate a portrayal this is of ancient Inuit culture, but I like to imagine it's very close and I learned a lot about a culture I knew almost nothing of beforehand. I loved the first part so much, I almost wish the whole book would've stuck to the Inuit family and social dynamics that made up the first 200 pages, instead of haring off on a Viking adventure. I kind of feel like things took a downward turn after the Vikings showed up (a phrase which I imagine has been uttered by many societies over the centuries). But only a little. And only because I've read way more about Norse gods and Vikings, and I wanted to read about Inuit now. It was still a great adventure. And it ended on such a high note.
Just a genuinely well-crafted story all around. I'll definitely be revisiting this one in the future.

Content Warnings

maeverose's review against another edition

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TL;DR: The cis white author of this book should’ve stayed in her lane. This book is full of gratuitous violence against the trans main character, women and Inuit people. I found it offensive and triggering and DNF’d after 12 chapters.

I should start by saying that I am not Inuit but I am non binary. I also want to include content warnings for rape, transphobia, incest and misogyny for this review. This review contains spoilers.

The transphobia

A lot of reviews from people who read the whole book seem to suggest that Omat actually ‘becomes a woman’ later in the story, but based on the beginning he is clearly transmasc/ a trans man, so if the author did decide to throw all that out the window and say ‘actually they’re a woman now’, that’s already transphobic. It just would be such an odd choice for an ally of the trans community to have this character go through an explicitly trans experience only to say ‘no actually they were wrong’, and make them a woman after all… I was extremely uncomfortable with the way Omat’s gender identity was handled in this book. So obviously written by someone who doesn’t understand non-cis gender identities. Just going off what I read, Omat was born afab but from the beginning identifies as and is raised as a boy. Omat’s family says they will accept him as a boy until he gets a period. When another group of Inuit join them, the leader of this group rips Omat’s shirt, revealing his breasts. He then proceeds to talk to Omat as if he’s a woman and threatens to rape him (and from what I read in other people’s reviews, he does rape him later). None of Omat’s tribe defend or protect him in this scene. Kiasik, Omat’s cousin, suddenly starts treating him as a woman as well after this. Omat is understandably very upset and (context for this next part: he’s a shaman) goes into a trance to fly to the moon and speak to the Moon Man for help. The Moon Man then essentially rapes Omat, causing him to get his period, effectively ‘detransitioning’ him in the process…….. Knowing a cis woman wrote that, I feel sick. If a trans person wrote that to process trauma thats one thing, but a cis person has absolutely no right to write something like that. That’s an extremely sensitive topic and one the author has no experience with. It was not handled with care and should not have been included. The author also constantly conflates biological sex with gender, saying Omat has a ‘woman’s body’, referring to his body as ‘woman’s flesh’ (which is just gross anyway). I initially brushed it off because I thought maybe she was trying to write from the mindset of the time period. But lots of native cultures around the world (including Inuit) acknowledge and celebrate non binary genders, so that doesn’t make sense. To me it felt like the author used this book to vent her transphobia in a way that cis people will think she’s being progressive by including a trans main character. I wish I could unread it.

The incest

This one I was not prepared for. In this book the Inuit have rules they have to follow in order to not be cursed by the gods. One of these is to never have sex with a blood relative. Omat, when he notices the father of one woman in their tribe clearly planning on sleeping with her, tells the story of the sun and moon (the story involved the moon raping the sun - his sister - over and over) in order to subtly remind the father to back off. But then later on in the book, Omat and his cousin Kiasik clearly have feelings for each other, Kiasik getting erections and even relieving himself around Omat. And Omat being flustered by his erection in one scene. There was literally no reason to include either of those things in the book. It was uncomfortable to read, served no purpose in the story, and made zero sense given the rules they established.

Misogyny

From very early on in this book it’s clear that this Inuit tribe has very misogynistic gender roles within their culture. It’s often reiterated throughout the book that the men, even including Omat, see women as weak and inferior, their main role being to eventually become mothers. A quick google search will tell you that Inuit women are given equal power and respect as men. Granted, I don’t know if the same was true when this book takes place, but you can tell this was written from a euro-centric viewpoint.

Gratuitous violence

It’s such a big pet peeve of mine when authors who write adult fantasy (especially historical) feel the need to add ridiculous amounts of unnecessary violence (nearly always against women and marginalized peoples) for the sake of making it ‘historically accurate’ and ‘gritty’. I read 160 pages of this 500+ page book and was already triggered and exhausted by the violence, and from what I’ve read in other people’s reviews I hadn’t even gotten to the worst of it. I don’t find it enjoyable to read such extreme unnecessary violence. I read fiction for escapism. For fun. This isn’t fun. It’s not trying to say anything, either. It’s not having a discussion on misogyny, transphobia or racism. It’s just trauma porn. It’s just to set the time period. Call me sensitive but these are serious topics that people have actual trauma from. I don’t feel it was handled with care.

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_annika__'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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