Review by travelseatsreads - Downfall

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travelseatsreads 's review for:

Downfall by Inio Asano

0.25

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

First of all this is not the book I was expecting when I randomly picked it up in the library. The blurb has an interesting premise but in reality has very little to do with the graphic unsettling nature of the storyline.

I will always try to pull a positive from a book when I review but with this I simply can't.

The book follows a completely unlikeable, misogynistic protagonist who is experiencing burn out and ensuing depression. Rather than face up to any of it he is horrifically nasty to pretty much everyone besides his online followers, cheats on this wife with a multitude of sex-workers before brutally attempting to rape her to compensate for his own sense of lack of control.

Not alone is the rape scene so graphically depicted, it is completely glossed over once complete like it never happened or had no significance whatsoever. In fact it could be interpreted that the rape 'fixes' him and gives him inspiration to move on with his manga and inevitably his life. So wait it's supposed to be a positive thing?

I had considered giving this a 2 star because the drawings were quite intricate and detailed but then when I thought how the artist decided to portray the brutal rape, explicit sex scenes and the sex-workers as "ugly girls" it went back to a 1 star.

If I could give this minus stars I probably would, there really seems to be no point behind it and I've just been left thinking, why?

TWs for

Graphic Scenes of Consensual Sex and Rape, Sexual Harassment, Sex-Working, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic Relationship and Animal Death

Content Warnings