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sophie_vaz 's review for:
The Bourne Identity
by Robert Ludlum
DID NOT FINISH: 29%
The main character, Jason Bourne, takes a woman, Marie, hostage. He repeatedly threatens to kill her and he is fully aware of the fact that getting her involved, regardless of what he does to her, makes her a target. He hits her, manhandles her, tells her what to do, threatens her, uses her as a human shield, etc. All around horrible treatment. When she finally escapes him, she is captured by the people who are after the “hero” of this story. She spills everything she knows thinking they are law enforcement. After they get what they want out of her, she is raped and nearly killed. But Jason saves her, getting hurt in the process. This is enough to convince her to save his life in return, which kinda makes sense, but she goes the extra mile and then some to make sure he is okay, even though nothing would have happened to her in the first place of he didn’t mess with her! She is a blatant male fantasy. The moment she appeared in the book, I knew she would be victim to male egos.
The way she is described rubs me the wrong way. When she is terrified for her life the author dedicated a paragraph to sexualizing her body. This is moments before her rape and the “hero” is describing in detail how her nipples are pressing against her satin dress as her chest rapidly rises and falls with her heavy breathing (because she’s in pain and confused and scared shitless, because of Jason😐). And beyond her looks, when she is given the opportunity to express herself and go into her background, everything described is such a cringey cliche. She was a farm girl who went to Oxford despite her parents wishes, her male classmates were impressed and surprised by her ability to out drink them in beer, she doesn’t like shopping, etc.
And then as she tenderly nurses Jason Bourne back to healthand tells him her life story, she also tells him how she could tell he was a good man and not a cold hearted killer by how he treated her when she was being held hostage by him. Excuse me lady??!! What are you on??!! And then, after all of that abuse, the icing on the cake: she sensually gets undressed and seduces him. Bro. What. Pure male power fantasy.
I’m 99% sure they will fall in “love,” she will be dragged along in many more life threatening conspiracies because of her Stockholm Syndrome, and live “happily” ever after. 🙄
Okay also regardless of the misogyny, Jason is boring and not a sympathetic character at all! I think I would finish the book if Jason was more interesting and showed more hints of being a decent guy. Or the opposite! If he had a crisis because he realized he was actually a villain, that would be such a fun twist. Another twist I would have enjoyed reading was if he targeted her because he unconsciously recognized her and she was planted there to sway him one way or another before someone else could get to him. Instead he just grabs her cuz she’s hot.
Boring. Gross. No.
The way she is described rubs me the wrong way. When she is terrified for her life the author dedicated a paragraph to sexualizing her body. This is moments before her rape and the “hero” is describing in detail how her nipples are pressing against her satin dress as her chest rapidly rises and falls with her heavy breathing (because she’s in pain and confused and scared shitless, because of Jason😐). And beyond her looks, when she is given the opportunity to express herself and go into her background, everything described is such a cringey cliche. She was a farm girl who went to Oxford despite her parents wishes, her male classmates were impressed and surprised by her ability to out drink them in beer, she doesn’t like shopping, etc.
And then as she tenderly nurses Jason Bourne back to healthand tells him her life story, she also tells him how she could tell he was a good man and not a cold hearted killer by how he treated her when she was being held hostage by him. Excuse me lady??!! What are you on??!! And then, after all of that abuse, the icing on the cake: she sensually gets undressed and seduces him. Bro. What. Pure male power fantasy.
I’m 99% sure they will fall in “love,” she will be dragged along in many more life threatening conspiracies because of her Stockholm Syndrome, and live “happily” ever after. 🙄
Okay also regardless of the misogyny, Jason is boring and not a sympathetic character at all! I think I would finish the book if Jason was more interesting and showed more hints of being a decent guy. Or the opposite! If he had a crisis because he realized he was actually a villain, that would be such a fun twist. Another twist I would have enjoyed reading was if he targeted her because he unconsciously recognized her and she was planted there to sway him one way or another before someone else could get to him. Instead he just grabs her cuz she’s hot.
Boring. Gross. No.