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A review by abitofmoxie
Save Me from Dangerous Men by S. A. Lelchuk
1.0
I got this book as a gift. The blurb sounded really interesting, so I started right away. Before the end of page 1, I had a sneaking suspicion, and by the end of page 2 I was convinced: this was definitely a man trying to write from a woman’s POV. By the end of chapter 4 I was rolling my eyes so hard I thought I’d lose them. If this is actually a female author or even had a female editor, I’ll eat my hat.
I read male authors with male editors, and books from a male perspective all the time. But THIS is a woman’s story. It is clearly meant to be a woman’s story. If a woman had been shown this before publishing, she would’ve either stopped it in its tracks, forced a male name for the author to be printed on the cover (“buyer beware”), or spent a few years trying to fix it before subjecting the unsuspecting public to this.
There was absolutely nothing about this character I could identify with in any way whatsoever. Not as a hero, nor an anti-hero, nor even just a real person I might know. This character can best be described as a male college freshman business major with a philosophy minor... but now we’re pretending for some reason that she’s a woman (or, 33 year old “girl”, as she’s often referenced by others). The main/only difference is that we are frequently treated to descriptions of her really nice a** to remind us that she is in fact supposed to be a woman. The other reminder that she’s a woman is she can make entire rooms full of men turn into drooling idiots simply by “swaying her hips”. This is a convenient deus ex machina and prevents the need for writing in any evidence of her intelligence or skill other than just stating outright that she has it. I kept hearing, “I swear guys, she’s smart. As smart as that guy in my philosophy class back in freshman year.”
I gave it 50 cringe-worthy pages before I had to put that hot garbage down for good.
Someone please take this blurb, and then write a really good story to go with it!! I’d love to read it!
I read male authors with male editors, and books from a male perspective all the time. But THIS is a woman’s story. It is clearly meant to be a woman’s story. If a woman had been shown this before publishing, she would’ve either stopped it in its tracks, forced a male name for the author to be printed on the cover (“buyer beware”), or spent a few years trying to fix it before subjecting the unsuspecting public to this.
There was absolutely nothing about this character I could identify with in any way whatsoever. Not as a hero, nor an anti-hero, nor even just a real person I might know. This character can best be described as a male college freshman business major with a philosophy minor... but now we’re pretending for some reason that she’s a woman (or, 33 year old “girl”, as she’s often referenced by others). The main/only difference is that we are frequently treated to descriptions of her really nice a** to remind us that she is in fact supposed to be a woman. The other reminder that she’s a woman is she can make entire rooms full of men turn into drooling idiots simply by “swaying her hips”. This is a convenient deus ex machina and prevents the need for writing in any evidence of her intelligence or skill other than just stating outright that she has it. I kept hearing, “I swear guys, she’s smart. As smart as that guy in my philosophy class back in freshman year.”
I gave it 50 cringe-worthy pages before I had to put that hot garbage down for good.
Someone please take this blurb, and then write a really good story to go with it!! I’d love to read it!