Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

La larga marcha by Stephen King, Richard Bachman

7 reviews

justagremlin's review against another edition

You know I said I didn't DNF books much, but I REALLY do not like Stephen King writing characters that are children. I was only like 20% in and I had seen enough. The concept is interesting so it makes me sad that I couldn't finish it. But seriously within the first PAGE. THE. VERY. FIRST. PAGE. We're commenting on the main character's mom's tits. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And this is just the first of many times we get "Men Writing Women Syndrome." And it's just very very very very icky to read and gross and bad and I can't even write grammatically correct sentences anymore. Also, I can't speak on the rest of the book obviously but it was getting a bit repetitive. 

They walk. They banter. Sex reference. Someone gets shot.
They walk. They banter. Sex reference. Someone gets shot.
They walk. They banter. Sex reference. Someone gets shot.
They walk. They banter. Sex reference. Someone gets shot.

Again I can't speak on the rest of the novel, I only stopped 20% in.

Recommend to: If you think the concept is neat and can suffer through "men writing women syndrome"

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, and Torture

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Gun Violence/Torture

The walk is nonstop and it is literally torture for the participants, if you fall behind you are shot after three warnings.

Misogyny, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Content

These characters are so horny all the time, and this book as a case of men writing women syndrome, frequent mentions of boobs, sex, and boners and its really icky and gross and bad to read

Racism/Racial Slurs

In the second chapter, the contestant that dies is black and all the characters are racist to the black character.

eliz_m_rhodes's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual assault

samagra's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

this book is way too long. could be easily cut in half

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, and Blood

voicenextdoor's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

twocents's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-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

5.0

The death game trope is one of my favorite tropes in media, because nothing else forces characters to really explore what matters to them quite like it. Sure, horror inspires terror and maybe you could say that those flashes reveal something, but sheer terror can't be the main driving force for you to compete in a death game for hours, or more typically, days or weeks. You find out what matters when people need a reason to deliberately drag themselves through such suffering. In The Hunger Games, Katniss has Prim. In Alice in Borderland, Arisu has his friends. In Squid Game, Gihun has a deep desire to feel like a less worthless human being.

The Long Walk is interesting in that it's the only death game I've read whose participants are pure volunteers. (I mean, you could argue that the Squid Game participants "volunteered" after round 1, but when the contestants are literally desperately signing away their organs for money and you're dangling billions in their face, I'm not sure that's a true volunteer scenario.)

The Long Walkers have to sign up by passing a physical test and mental evaluation. They aren't thrown into this by sheer happenstance, and sucks to be you if you're disabled! They're hand selected by the military for people they think will be able to actually compete and do well. The Walkers are allowed to back out, consequence free, all the way up until the day before the Walk starts. 100 Walkers are selected AND 100 backups are selected and even wait at the starting line in case someone drops out.

The Walk itself is heavily promoted and advertised. People line up to watch it in person, it's televised, and status updates are communicated over the radio. The results are public record. People go into this knowing they have 99% odds of dying, and even if they win, they know from past winners that they will likely be so physically damaged that the rest of their life is not likely to be a very long time.

So what compels them?

One of the Walkers admits that he's there on a lark. He was going to the movies when he saw one of the annual testing centers, passed the physical exams, and on the mental eval, wrote something like (paraphrased), "I want to participate because I'm a worthless S.O.B. I'll spend my victory winnings on hookers." He didn't back out and no one even pressured him too, because everyone felt like it was a huge joke being played on him. Who would select him of all people?

The story itself is really just the characters walking and the thoughts that come to mind while they're basically slowly killing themselves. They talk about women, spending their winnings, telling tall tales, their lives, and even ask each other repeatedly, "why are you here?" And most of them can't answer it. Not honestly. By the time they are ground down into being willing to admit what drove them there and what drives them forward, the people who are left have been slowly losing their minds to the point that it's hard to know if they're answering truthfully or not. If they even know themselves if they answer truthfully or not. You can even sort of track their descent into madness through how quickly Garraty revises events; he replays key moments over and over in his head, and one of the last big key moments, he's revising what happened just a few pages later, and you know he's way past being a reliable narrator.

It's such a deeply unsettling story because the pain inflicted is something you can imagine, your body slowly falling apart and you're trying to fall apart the slowest, while your mind is unraveling to try to protect you. The stupid shit you would reflect on that happened in your life. Not even in an insightful way about regrets and moving forward, but in a growing realization that that was it. That's what your life was.

"Garraty wondered how would it be, to lie in the biggest, dustiest library silence of all, dreaming endless, thoughtless dreams behind gummed-down eyelids, dressed forever in your Sunday suit. No worries about money, success, fear, joy, pain, sorrow, sex or love. Absolute zero. ...

"How would that be? Just how would that be?"

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Excrement

lizziertaft's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Classism

lunaloewenherz's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

2.0

I skipped a 100 pages cause I was getting tired of all the sexist comments in the book. But I did wanted to know how it ends.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment