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kristi_wy 's review for:
Moonflower Murders
by Anthony Horowitz
I’m just so angry at this book. Magpie Murders was fun and clever, but besides the fact that this sequel didn’t do anything new, it was ruined by simmering homophobia. The trite and cartoonish characterization of the two gay characters that I had rolled my eyes at in the first book (just used to problematic characterization and lack of diversity from older white male writers) became downright ugly. The homophobic threads crescendo to a character having a full hate filled rant at the end. He’s a despicable person, but his rant goes unchecked, and it really feels like the author is finally getting to say it all out loud.
The regular “I don’t care if he’s gay BUT…” comments of characters added up and seemed to serve only to illustrate “reasonable” homophobia. The few gay characters are silly, mean, and evil, but most horrifyingly, a (very side) person having AIDS is used as a plot point—the fact he died from AIDS actually clues you in that he was secretly having sex with dudes. I kept reading thinking this couldn’t possibly be going where it was, but it went there.
The story was entertaining, which is why I kept reading, and I did enjoy the classic-mystery-within-modern-mystery structure (that the first book did much more interestingly), but I am mad I spent time on it now. Save yourself.
The regular “I don’t care if he’s gay BUT…” comments of characters added up and seemed to serve only to illustrate “reasonable” homophobia. The few gay characters are silly, mean, and evil, but most horrifyingly, a (very side) person having AIDS is used as a plot point—the fact he died from AIDS actually clues you in that he was secretly having sex with dudes. I kept reading thinking this couldn’t possibly be going where it was, but it went there.
The story was entertaining, which is why I kept reading, and I did enjoy the classic-mystery-within-modern-mystery structure (that the first book did much more interestingly), but I am mad I spent time on it now. Save yourself.