Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Bat by Jo Nesbø

9 reviews

sunny3730's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This book didn’t age well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, and Murder

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

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

optimet's review against another edition

"A pair of long legs stalked past on stilettos. Andrew rolled his eyes and whistled in a very un-PC way."
There were quite gross descriptions of women even before this line, but this was the final straw. The writing would have to be very, very good to justify this level of objectification. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism

olgaob's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Sexism, Transphobia, and Murder

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

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Grief