Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Ruthless People

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Ruthless People by J.J. McAvoy

9 reviews

zia_c's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

To be concise, a potential story utterly ruined.

To be wordy: The protagonists, in their delusional grandeur, are on a perpetual power trip. The male lead, a duplicitous snake, displays hypocrisy of epic proportions. "Family is everything," he declares, all the while repeatedly betraying his own. His antics, driven purely by lust, reveal him as a petulant child masquerading as a man. He’s entirely charmless and witless; he swears like an adolescent sailor—high IQ, indeed. lmao.

The female lead initially seemed promising, basking in her intelligence and martial prowess, until she inexplicably decides to shoot a pregnant woman. 🙄

I'm not some raging pro-lifer, but seriously, why do that just because you can? There are countless ways to get answers quickly. Smh.

Also, my disdain for "body betrayal syndrome" is profound and unwavering.

One would assume that such a powerful woman would be beyond the throes of lust, yet she proves otherwise. Every time she contemplates flinging herself at her soon-to-be husband, I find myself stabbing my screen with a stylus. Some boss. Tch!

Achluophobia, it seems, is her well-kept secret.

The mass slaughter of innocents never makes sense throughout the story. Are we to believe that two minor Mafia factions are more malevolent and powerful than our politicians? Nonsense! In any believable tale, meddling with a politician and his city results in retribution tenfold, even in fiction.

The female lead is a hypocrite too, and harbours a subtle misogyny. Her derisive thoughts about other women, particularly a charitable character, are infuriating. She's far from a girl's girl. I've encountered formidable female characters who never needed to denigrate others to validate their worth, especially to family. In hindsight, her solitary slap was a mercy. She needed more of that growing up. The baby, I daresay, will fare better in a slum than with parents like these.

My loathing for this tale is boundless. How I managed to finish this book is a mystery even to me.

Neal, Declan, and their wives deserve far better than the indignity of being treated as third-class citizens within their own homes. Declan, in particular, needs to get his act together.

The female lead, I fervently hope, gets a thorough thrashing from her mother. A murderer of innocents who peddles drugs to children warrants no sympathy. She eradicates families with a nonchalance that is truly abhorrent. 😒 I can’t with that. No.

This narrative is a travesty, and I lament the squandered potential. (And my precious time💔)

Content Warnings

gotbrie's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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culzean's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

vix_reads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

jencolumb0's review against another edition

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Not for me.

I don’t recreate by thinking about the horrible things that people do to one another. I also don’t care to recreate by reading about people who are so dehumanizing to . . . pretty much everyone else. Like, on page two, the central male character reduced his current hook-up to the quality of her throat. Gross.

I hung on through, like, the first five chapters but a full-on torture scene, a passing but still graphic reference to another torturous incident, and v. graphic physical fight later and I realized it wasn’t going anywhere I wanted to go and I did not care at all about any of the characters. (Like, would rather slog through more episodes of Succession because, while that show involves the same ick factor of its characters, there’s at least a lack of physical torture and some wisp of a hope of character development. Hell, I’d even rewatch Game of Thrones before finishing this book because at least the filming locations were pretty and there is also a hope of character development through most of it.)

I literally found reading the reviews of this book to be more engaging than the actual book (note that most of them are better written, with fewer typos and grammatical mistakes).

All the same, I have too many warm fuzzy things to read to bother with this exceptionally harsh (and poorly edited) novel. Next!

Content Warnings