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A review by antoniaj2514
Grace by Alex Pheby
2.0
*TRIGGER WARNING FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT*
I rarely write reviews, but felt the need to express how much I loathed this misogynistic novel.
We begin with Donald, our protagonist, who is an awkward and bullied young man who comes across a mythical Selkie - a creature that can take the form of a human by shedding its seal skin. Of course, his reaction is to forcibly separate her from her family by hiding her skin, rape her, and kidnap her to take home.
She is named Maihri, and that is about the last thing we learn about this woman who serves as a silent and convenient plot device, literally voiceless throughout the book, with all the qualities of a good little wife such as not speaking, helping out whenever a more developed character needs anything, and submitting to her rapist husband and bearing him children. This is made all the more disturbing in that she is also frequently depicted as childlike and innocent.
Everybody comes to accept her as she is so useful to all the busybodies and abusive louts who make up the local town, but she is entirely passive throughout the novel, serving only as the trigger for the much more important character development of Donald, who by the end of the novel has become so brave and wonderful that everyone is falling over themselves to tell him so. He really does develop through the book, I found it particularly moving when he was struggling to not rape his wife again but managed not to, as it showed real growth.
It turns out the sealskin was stolen by his mother, who was a fairly well developed and strong female character so obviously must have secretly done something awful, hiding the skin away so Maihri could do the right thing and carry her forced pregnancy, and of course Donald is going to return it, oh yes, but was just waiting a few more months until the weather was right. His Auntie agrees, it's all Mum's fault.
Luckily, when Maihri finds the sealskin and returns to the ocean, she leaves her children behind for Donald, simultaneously compliant and an evil abandoning mother. She disappears into nothing just as she lived in this novel, with more development and redemption being given to the character of the local bully who tries to sexually assault Mairhi and rapes and beats his wife, with the whole town allowing it to happen and in fact, Donald and his mother telling the wife it's sort of her fault and doing everything they can to give her husband a second chance. Male characters in the book are seen as decent, hardworking and worthy, female characters are generally irritating, abrasive and talk too much, with childbirth their only role in the plot.
All in all, I'm honestly shocked that something like this could be published. I thought we were far beyond this sort of attitude towards women even in fiction. I understand fiction set in different times and am not opposed to portrayals of difficult topics, I could understand if the novel was meant to be critical of the events it portrays but it isn't, it offers them up as some beautiful and moving story where the men get everything they want at the expense of women, and that's a good thing.
I rarely write reviews, but felt the need to express how much I loathed this misogynistic novel.
We begin with Donald, our protagonist, who is an awkward and bullied young man who comes across a mythical Selkie - a creature that can take the form of a human by shedding its seal skin. Of course, his reaction is to forcibly separate her from her family by hiding her skin, rape her, and kidnap her to take home.
She is named Maihri, and that is about the last thing we learn about this woman who serves as a silent and convenient plot device, literally voiceless throughout the book, with all the qualities of a good little wife such as not speaking, helping out whenever a more developed character needs anything, and submitting to her rapist husband and bearing him children. This is made all the more disturbing in that she is also frequently depicted as childlike and innocent.
Everybody comes to accept her as she is so useful to all the busybodies and abusive louts who make up the local town, but she is entirely passive throughout the novel, serving only as the trigger for the much more important character development of Donald, who by the end of the novel has become so brave and wonderful that everyone is falling over themselves to tell him so. He really does develop through the book, I found it particularly moving when he was struggling to not rape his wife again but managed not to, as it showed real growth.
It turns out the sealskin was stolen by his mother, who was a fairly well developed and strong female character so obviously must have secretly done something awful, hiding the skin away so Maihri could do the right thing and carry her forced pregnancy, and of course Donald is going to return it, oh yes, but was just waiting a few more months until the weather was right. His Auntie agrees, it's all Mum's fault.
Luckily, when Maihri finds the sealskin and returns to the ocean, she leaves her children behind for Donald, simultaneously compliant and an evil abandoning mother. She disappears into nothing just as she lived in this novel, with more development and redemption being given to the character of the local bully who tries to sexually assault Mairhi and rapes and beats his wife, with the whole town allowing it to happen and in fact, Donald and his mother telling the wife it's sort of her fault and doing everything they can to give her husband a second chance. Male characters in the book are seen as decent, hardworking and worthy, female characters are generally irritating, abrasive and talk too much, with childbirth their only role in the plot.
All in all, I'm honestly shocked that something like this could be published. I thought we were far beyond this sort of attitude towards women even in fiction. I understand fiction set in different times and am not opposed to portrayals of difficult topics, I could understand if the novel was meant to be critical of the events it portrays but it isn't, it offers them up as some beautiful and moving story where the men get everything they want at the expense of women, and that's a good thing.