Review by gingerantics - The Surgeon

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gingerantics 's review for:

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

3.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I liked it - sort of, and only in relation to my enjoyment of the TV show - and will continue the series, but I’m hoping the books get better from here or I won’t be continuing for long. For being the Rizzoli and Isles series, Isles wasn’t even in it. She wasn’t even mentioned. This one was actually kind of painful. There was a ridiculous amount of sexism that is not present in the show. Meat is “men’s food” and a daughter’s career - Jane’s career - is less important than either of her “good looking brothers.” Frankie is a huge jerk in this one, and can’t be bothered to help either his mother or his sister in the kitchen, and Jane was yelled at for having to rush back to work in the middle of a case because Frankie is home from war and he should be her priority. Worse yet, Jane was openly sexually harassed by another detective when he put one of her tampons in her bottle of water. One character even had all white furniture specifically because it was “pure” and “virginal.” Supposedly this was written in 2001, but that one made me question if it was actually written in 1901. It was just deplorable. I know the show came from the books, but so far the show is WAY better.

I get that this book is a product of its time, but the repeated bashing over the head of the reader that the uterus is what makes a woman a woman is stomach churning. So women who had to have hysterectomies weren’t actually women anymore? You would think a medical doctor would be less clueless about the harm that did even back then.

It doesn’t take long to remember this was written over 20 years ago, and the reminders never stop coming. From medical charting being done by hand, the explanations of what chat rooms are, what CODIS and VICAP are, to referring to a character as not quite as attractive as Mel Gibson but still good looking, the dated references just keep on coming. That Mel Gibson reference did NOT age well at all. It even refers to AOL accounts being used in office settings (which I never knew was a thing seeing how expensive it was). There was also a black guy with a cop’s boot on his neck and no one batting an eyelash. I nearly stopped at that point.

The narrator was HORRIBLE. She doesn’t know how to pronounce the first victim’s name, Ortiz (and apparently no one else involved in the production of the audiobook knew either). She also couldn’t pronounce basil, saline, epinephrine, or synapses. All of these words came up multiple times, and considering the author is a medical doctor, you’d think you’d get someone who could say these basic words, but no. Considering this version of the audiobook was recorded in 2020, it’s just ridiculous.

Content Warnings