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lis98 's review for:
Die Flüsse von London
by Ben Aaronovitch
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I am so angry and disappointed. I have very little good to say about this book. I enjoyed the story and the humor a lot that's why I'm giving it two stars. I really love British humor, the setting in London and magical crime stories. This book should've been made for me.
HOWEVER the discrimination and insensitivity makes me sick. First of all the misogyny. I can’t believe the main character wanted to fucking MOTORBOAT a woman first thing he met her. Generally he can’t not sexualize and objectify every single female character to a staggering degree. It’s disgusting. This is like a male fantasy fulfillment story. What I rarely find people in their reviews saying is how this book is also really racist. I was very confused by this since the main character is mixed and a lot of bipoc characters show up. It’s not as blatantly obvious as the sexism but not subtle either. He makes a lot of very off putting comments like the one about African women only having children to make them do the house work for them. I also found the comments about gay people very insensitive. I researched the author and apparently he is supposedly liberal and campaigning for diversity in literature which makes this so confusing. Does this change in later books? Did the author comment on this writing decisions? I know that it came out 2011 but I don’t think this is just a case of badly aged jokes.
The main character with every single part of his personality is acting like such a cliché jock kind of guy. And so one-dimensional. The female characters are completely objectified and have no personality whatsoever.
I read this bc I wanted a better written Dresden Files so I don’t have to swim through all the sexism and bad writing until that series got better but Rivers of London is so much worse. The writing is actually good from a technical standpoint and can be quite funny, I'll give him that. I read that the second installment of the series involves Peter having a lot of sex and people said the misogyny is even worse so I will not continue the series.
HOWEVER the discrimination and insensitivity makes me sick. First of all the misogyny. I can’t believe the main character wanted to fucking MOTORBOAT a woman first thing he met her. Generally he can’t not sexualize and objectify every single female character to a staggering degree. It’s disgusting. This is like a male fantasy fulfillment story. What I rarely find people in their reviews saying is how this book is also really racist. I was very confused by this since the main character is mixed and a lot of bipoc characters show up. It’s not as blatantly obvious as the sexism but not subtle either. He makes a lot of very off putting comments like the one about African women only having children to make them do the house work for them. I also found the comments about gay people very insensitive. I researched the author and apparently he is supposedly liberal and campaigning for diversity in literature which makes this so confusing. Does this change in later books? Did the author comment on this writing decisions? I know that it came out 2011 but I don’t think this is just a case of badly aged jokes.
The main character with every single part of his personality is acting like such a cliché jock kind of guy. And so one-dimensional. The female characters are completely objectified and have no personality whatsoever.
I read this bc I wanted a better written Dresden Files so I don’t have to swim through all the sexism and bad writing until that series got better but Rivers of London is so much worse. The writing is actually good from a technical standpoint and can be quite funny, I'll give him that. I read that the second installment of the series involves Peter having a lot of sex and people said the misogyny is even worse so I will not continue the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Excrement, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Classism
Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia