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A review by sallysimply
Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
2.5
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book!
On the one hand, I am a sucker for an outlandish, twisty romp. I do not need it to be even remotely realistic, I just need it to be entertaining. On the other hand, I am still confused about the motivations and actions of most of the characters in this story, which made the whole thing hard to get on board with right from the start.
Bad Men is positioned as the story of a feminist serial killer, but it's hard to find anything particularly feminist about her. Sure, Saffy targets "bad men," but we know almost nothing about why she does that, how she chooses who she goes after, and even how frequently she's doing this. She doesn't seem to care about anybody other than herself and her sister, so it comes across as a bit of an afterthought that she's killing these men in the first place. As a character, she feels quite thin; I wish we knew more about her and her backstory, beyond the abuse in her childhood and a couple of opportune moments with those initial men she killed.
Again, this might not be something that bothers me much if I'm just here for a good time, but it becomes important to the story because I could not, for the life of me, really understand or buy why she's so obsessed with the male protagonist. The synopsis says she needs a boyfriend -- why? And why him?And why would this person who seems to think through everything get caught eventually over something so small and dumb? This is so central to the book's entire existence that I couldn't help but keep thinking about it.
Those gripes aside, it's certainly a fun, quick, turn-off-your-brain type of read. I saw many of the twists and reveals coming, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment. It's so fast-paced that you can easily get through it in a single sitting.
On the one hand, I am a sucker for an outlandish, twisty romp. I do not need it to be even remotely realistic, I just need it to be entertaining. On the other hand, I am still confused about the motivations and actions of most of the characters in this story, which made the whole thing hard to get on board with right from the start.
Bad Men is positioned as the story of a feminist serial killer, but it's hard to find anything particularly feminist about her. Sure, Saffy targets "bad men," but we know almost nothing about why she does that, how she chooses who she goes after, and even how frequently she's doing this. She doesn't seem to care about anybody other than herself and her sister, so it comes across as a bit of an afterthought that she's killing these men in the first place. As a character, she feels quite thin; I wish we knew more about her and her backstory, beyond the abuse in her childhood and a couple of opportune moments with those initial men she killed.
Again, this might not be something that bothers me much if I'm just here for a good time, but it becomes important to the story because I could not, for the life of me, really understand or buy why she's so obsessed with the male protagonist. The synopsis says she needs a boyfriend -- why? And why him?
Those gripes aside, it's certainly a fun, quick, turn-off-your-brain type of read. I saw many of the twists and reveals coming, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment. It's so fast-paced that you can easily get through it in a single sitting.