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

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

12 reviews

mikarala's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Interesting concept and exploration of gender identity. I liked the mix of mythology and historical fiction, too. Unfortunately I just found the characters kind of boring and the prose somewhat lacking. It took me a while to finish this one.

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jayinbee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-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

4.75

I really adore this series and this book was no exception, however this was the first I had listened to as opposed to reading and while the narrator did a fine job, it made it harder for me to focus on. I had a lot of ideas as to where the mystery was going and I was kind of close but didn't quite guess it which was fun. I liked that we got a bit of resolution in the time travel, will she stay or try to go, area. I am not sure if Ms. McElwain plans on continuing the series because it was a tidy ending but I hope she does just because I enjoy the stories and plots so much that she is putting forth in this series.

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corvidnothous's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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tew_11's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad

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

5.0

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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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likethepickle's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The most interesting plot I’ve read about in years, but delivered so flatly it was hard to get through. I alternated between reading a physical copy and listening to an audiobook to change it up, but the writing just lacked something for me.

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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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mikki_9's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

2.0

I loved the story, but Brandr’s character was flat to me. Everything toward the end seemed to kind of get jumbled, and Brandr’s character made even less sense. This book also covers gender, race, and colonialism in… possibly not good ways? The author’s white, but the story is about Inuit, there is a lot of talk of Omat’s gender, and some other stuff.

The story was fast-paced and never boring and I liked Omat’s character, but idk how I feel about the aforementioned issues were handled.

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emakay's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.25

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kabookworm's review

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I really liked the beginning, like really liked the beginning, but a quarter of the way through it just became a bummer. I kept going bc things will get better, right? The foreshadowing was enticing, so I figured it’d be worth it in the end.

Then new characters are introduced, and with them came transphobia, truly awful SA (not that there’s any other kind), and explicit sexual scenes that frankly I didn’t want to read or need to read. No amount of foreshadowing could convince me to continue.

I had heard really good things about this book, and I want to support stories with diverse casts, but I simply felt like garbage reading it. It’s a no from me.

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