A review by maurganne
Shibumi by Trevanian

2.0

I love a good assassin story. This one is basically the stunted sexual fantasies of a middle aged white man who probably has a katana, an unhealthy addiction to Reddit, and the strong conviction that he was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is nothing subtle or deep about this book. Everyone is one dimensional- they are all exactly who they appear to be, all of their motives are as transparent as glass but explained into the ground anyway, and the author never misses an opportunity to describe the sexual availability of every woman in the book. Hint: they are ALL available to the protagonist. Every single one. Sometimes they're given to him by his male colleagues. Sometimes they throw themselves on him. Sometimes they're "punished" by his "level IV" lovemaking that ruins them for any other man. Seriously. It's just embarrassing. This book is embarrassing. And that's before we even get to the racial issues and the super-cringey classism. Pass on this one if you like character development, protagonists who aren't insufferable snobs, or women.