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A review by teodora_paslaru
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews
2.0
I'll begin this review by stating that I've seen the movie before reading the book, and I absolutely loved it. The book, on the other hand, lacks everything I loved about that movie, including the ending.
First of all, what kind of genre is this? Spy-romance-cookbook?
Jason Matthews is not a good writer. Here and there, he was acceptable, but mostly, only bad writing faced me from the pages of this book. Whole sentences without predicates, awkward sex scenes, repetitions (at some point, in the same short paragraph, the author repeats three times, This is how good they were) lack of a fluent passing of time (at the beginning of a dialog scene the characters were walking down a street, and three exchanges later, they were home, after they finished dinner, with no mention of time passing in between), and often, the author made the switch between third-person narration and first-person narration without dialog tags. And every chapter ended with a recipe (this is actually the most unimportant part of the bad aspects because it could be easily ignored). This book can easily fit a top of the worst written books I've read, together with [b:Fifty Shades of Grey|10818853|Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)|E.L. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385207843l/10818853._SX50_.jpg|15732562] and [b:The Selection|10507293|The Selection (The Selection, #1)|Kiera Cass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322103400l/10507293._SY75_.jpg|15413183].
What this book had, compared to the other two I've named, was a better story. The subject was interesting, and this made me push through. This, and my love for the movie, but as I got to the end, I discovered it was nothing like the powerful movie ending. It changed Dominika's whole character, from the powerful woman she is in the movie to... I don't know what. Maybe the book presents a more realistic situation, a person closer to reality, but I loved the Dominika is the movie so much, I feel disappointed. In the book, she spends a lot of time thinking about how much she loves Nate and how she'll like more than a work-related relationship.
Regarding the sex scenes, I want to make a mention. I don't know why the author, a man, tries to describe sex through the perspective of a woman. Bad idea, because he doesn't get it. Oh, and he talks about every female character that loves sex like she had something inside her, like it something not totally right with her. He doesn't mean it in a bad way (not necessarily), but I have news for him: women love sex. It's perfectly normal. If guys do, why women can't? Why should there be something special about them to do it? Stupid misogynistic view.
This book had been compared to [a:John le Carré|1411964|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234571122p2/1411964.jpg], but it's nothing like it. Carre is a good writer, Matthews isn't. But, besides it, the vibe of the book is different. If I am to compare him with another author of spy thrillers, I'd pick [a:Frederick Forsyth|36714|Frederick Forsyth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1595729238p2/36714.jpg], especially his novel [b:Icon|109511|Icon|Frederick Forsyth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348221081l/109511._SY75_.jpg|1859346], although it was much better written than this one. But they have similarities.
Well, at least I got through this. I doubt I'll ever read the sequel.
First of all, what kind of genre is this? Spy-romance-cookbook?
Jason Matthews is not a good writer. Here and there, he was acceptable, but mostly, only bad writing faced me from the pages of this book. Whole sentences without predicates, awkward sex scenes, repetitions (at some point, in the same short paragraph, the author repeats three times, This is how good they were) lack of a fluent passing of time (at the beginning of a dialog scene the characters were walking down a street, and three exchanges later, they were home, after they finished dinner, with no mention of time passing in between), and often, the author made the switch between third-person narration and first-person narration without dialog tags. And every chapter ended with a recipe (this is actually the most unimportant part of the bad aspects because it could be easily ignored). This book can easily fit a top of the worst written books I've read, together with [b:Fifty Shades of Grey|10818853|Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)|E.L. James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385207843l/10818853._SX50_.jpg|15732562] and [b:The Selection|10507293|The Selection (The Selection, #1)|Kiera Cass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322103400l/10507293._SY75_.jpg|15413183].
What this book had, compared to the other two I've named, was a better story. The subject was interesting, and this made me push through. This, and my love for the movie, but as I got to the end, I discovered it was nothing like the powerful movie ending. It changed Dominika's whole character, from the powerful woman she is in the movie to... I don't know what. Maybe the book presents a more realistic situation, a person closer to reality, but I loved the Dominika is the movie so much, I feel disappointed. In the book, she spends a lot of time thinking about how much she loves Nate and how she'll like more than a work-related relationship.
Regarding the sex scenes, I want to make a mention. I don't know why the author, a man, tries to describe sex through the perspective of a woman. Bad idea, because he doesn't get it. Oh, and he talks about every female character that loves sex like she had something inside her, like it something not totally right with her. He doesn't mean it in a bad way (not necessarily), but I have news for him: women love sex. It's perfectly normal. If guys do, why women can't? Why should there be something special about them to do it? Stupid misogynistic view.
This book had been compared to [a:John le Carré|1411964|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234571122p2/1411964.jpg], but it's nothing like it. Carre is a good writer, Matthews isn't. But, besides it, the vibe of the book is different. If I am to compare him with another author of spy thrillers, I'd pick [a:Frederick Forsyth|36714|Frederick Forsyth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1595729238p2/36714.jpg], especially his novel [b:Icon|109511|Icon|Frederick Forsyth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348221081l/109511._SY75_.jpg|1859346], although it was much better written than this one. But they have similarities.
Well, at least I got through this. I doubt I'll ever read the sequel.