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A review by erincopland
Better off Dead by Lee Child
3.0
This book was far too long and the plot was overly convoluted - cutting the book in half would have been an improvement. But the issue that really bothered me was that this book was in the first person POV, from Reacher's perspective.
Park of what's interesting about Reacher is that he's hard to read (pun intended). You're never quite sure what's going through his head, and that brings a pleasing element of tension to these stories. Our lack of access to his interiority adds to his air of mystery. Unfortunately, using the first person both strips away some of his mystique (apparently some of his thoughts are rah rah support the troops-style patriotism, which, as a veteran myself, gets boring in a hurry) and is also totally useless, in that it didn't add anything to the story.
As the concept of using sensitivity readers becomes more and more accepted and even expected in the publishing industry, I'd like it if veterans were included in the category of those characters needing sensitivity reads. If only so that I can avoid cringing when I read things like "You won the Purple Heart that day." Admittedly, it's the villain who says this, but he's not corrected, so for the record please note that medals are never won, only received, and that goes doubly so for the Purple Heart, which a service member only receives if they've been wounded in combat. That's not a win, that's just a really bad day.
Park of what's interesting about Reacher is that he's hard to read (pun intended). You're never quite sure what's going through his head, and that brings a pleasing element of tension to these stories. Our lack of access to his interiority adds to his air of mystery. Unfortunately, using the first person both strips away some of his mystique (apparently some of his thoughts are rah rah support the troops-style patriotism, which, as a veteran myself, gets boring in a hurry) and is also totally useless, in that it didn't add anything to the story.
As the concept of using sensitivity readers becomes more and more accepted and even expected in the publishing industry, I'd like it if veterans were included in the category of those characters needing sensitivity reads. If only so that I can avoid cringing when I read things like "You won the Purple Heart that day." Admittedly, it's the villain who says this, but he's not corrected, so for the record please note that medals are never won, only received, and that goes doubly so for the Purple Heart, which a service member only receives if they've been wounded in combat. That's not a win, that's just a really bad day.