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A review by shmadsie
Down a Dark River by Karen Odden
3.0
[spoilers for the murderer]
3.5. This was pretty good! The only thing that really rankled me was that the motive only made sense in a bubble. I can see the appeal of it - very an eye for an eye - but, in practice, how would he not have thought of his daughter in that moment? These women are also 'good girls' who have done nothing wrong and don't deserve what's happening to them, so, sure, it's a decent, like, first thought but at some point doesn't he have to realize how impossibly stupid and unfair (because this is about justice, yeah?) that plan is? It doesn't make sense that to punish men for an awful thing they did to this girl who was just living her damn life, he decides to.... kill women who are just living their damn lives. And I get that men really just think of women as accessories to the men closest to them but when one is screaming and begging and crying I just don't think that same level of detachment exists and we're supposed to believe this man is avenging his daughter, only hurting these women to gut the men responsible for her humiliation, destitution, and death, so the line between what's right and wrong is blurred. I'm all for that and moral grayness but I don't think the morally gray bit stands up when put to the test, and instead it just becomes icky (what Corrovan did and what our murderer did). Like I said, the motive only holds up in the bubble, outside of it... it utterly breaks down.
3.5. This was pretty good! The only thing that really rankled me was that the motive only made sense in a bubble. I can see the appeal of it - very an eye for an eye - but, in practice, how would he not have thought of his daughter in that moment? These women are also 'good girls' who have done nothing wrong and don't deserve what's happening to them, so, sure, it's a decent, like, first thought but at some point doesn't he have to realize how impossibly stupid and unfair (because this is about justice, yeah?) that plan is? It doesn't make sense that to punish men for an awful thing they did to this girl who was just living her damn life, he decides to.... kill women who are just living their damn lives. And I get that men really just think of women as accessories to the men closest to them but when one is screaming and begging and crying I just don't think that same level of detachment exists and we're supposed to believe this man is avenging his daughter, only hurting these women to gut the men responsible for her humiliation, destitution, and death, so the line between what's right and wrong is blurred. I'm all for that and moral grayness but I don't think the morally gray bit stands up when put to the test, and instead it just becomes icky (what Corrovan did and what our murderer did). Like I said, the motive only holds up in the bubble, outside of it... it utterly breaks down.