Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Bat by Jo Nesbø

9 reviews

yetanothernastya's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Barely made it through the book. I decided to pick it up because I have heard many people praise Jo Nesbø’s later books. This one, however, is a weird one, at some point it was so bad it was good, but overall I would not recommend this book. Every character is a caricature. Women are either fat, annoying and undesirable by the main character or sexy, young, and cheerful. They are also very “written by men”, I laughed so hard at some intimate scenes, it felt like a teenager was commissioned to try and imagine how adults date. There was so much racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism within the first 30 books, I almost DNF the book. The story itself was kinda boring and not well told or developed. The choice of a killer and their motives also made me go “this is definitely written by a white dude in the 90s”. Honestly, skip this one and read the ones in the series that are actually good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Colonisation, and Classism

h3ykatrina's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

e11en's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Readable, but it was all a bit ick. The Australian characters were farcical and all of the lengthy exposition on Australian politics and history felt very forced and preachy. I did not like the ending or the ‘big reveal’. There are also a few scenes where someone kicks a dog and it’s treated like just a funny act(?!) but honestly that made me more uncomfortable than the gruesome murder scenes. And although I’m sure the book is actually quite progressive considering it was published in 1997, there are a lot of ways in which it hasn’t aged well. Lots of casual fatphobia, for instance. There is also a lot of homophobia and racism although I’m sure it’s all largely representative of this time in history. And the use of some offensive terms that are considerably outdated. 
I’ve really enjoyed Nesbo’s writing in the past. I’m open to trying another Harry Hole in time, but this one was *not it*. Give it a miss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

sosua_z's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

slimepuppy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Despite the blatant homophobia, transmisogyny and fatphobia, this book could have been way more fun - except when it finally begins to pick up the pace, the story grinds to a halt as the main character spirals, taking all the moderate fun time the reader was having with him down the drain.

Not terrible, but it took too long to get actually intersting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Rape, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs and Injury/Injury detail

capra's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, and Colonisation

ekmook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I don’t even know where to begin with how deeply offensive and problematic this entire book was…even for 1997.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

blackmetalblackheart's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I was extremely disappointed in this book. It has been on my to-read pile for awhile, and I finally got around to it because of a buddy read. The Bat suffers a bit from translation. It has that wooden feeling to it when things feel like a direct translation instead of something that becomes fluid and living in both languages. Or the original writing could just be wooden too. I do not really know. But that is the least of the issues when it comes to this novel. I cannot get past the fetishism of indigenous culture, the racism, the misogyny, the women experiencing tragedy mostly as a way to further the male lead, the inklings of homophobia peaking throughout the pages, the treatment and portrayal of sex workers and their industry, the macho maleness that is celebrated, the police's disregard for anything but solving the case, the unbelievable actions that several characters take, and the overall logic of the whole fucking thing. I know this was written in 1997, but I do not have time for this bullshit. Ugh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Rape, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Police brutality, and Kidnapping

Minor: Fatphobia and Homophobia

natreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is the first time reading a crime novel like this. I imagined a crime novel to read like this, and it does.

When I watched the 2017 film The Snowman, I didn't know it was based on a book. As soon as I found out it was (and that it was #7) I knew I had to start the series. 

Now, would I read more of the Harry Hole series? Yes, but I'm not itching to read it. When I do another book order, I will make sure to grab the next one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Rape