Reviews with content warning for Violence - Beware the Woman

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott

5 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

Confused about why this book’s average rating is so low. I am generally the harder critic than most, most of the time. This time, I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. Maybe I find this book too relevant in today’s political times. Maybe I’m more of a feminist than most people. Maybe it’s been a while since I read a book that I really enjoyed. Regardless, I’m sticking with my five.

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jamiee_f's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.75

I really enjoyed other Megan Abbott books and was hoping this one would hit the same. I thought this book was fine, tense and mysterious as we try to figure out if protagonist Jacy will make it out okay. However it moved a little slowly and the payoff wasn't great. I almost wish this had a supernatural element,

rather than just straight up misogyny being the big bad.

To summarize:

Jacy is recently, quickly married to Jed, and our book opens with them on a road trip to Jed's fathers remote cabin. Jacy is also pregnant, and has noticed Jed has been a little bit off lately. They arrive at Dr Ash's cabin and he is lovely and warm to the couple. The groundskeeper Mrs. Brandt is omnipresent and a little bit odd. Over the first few days, Jacy learns that Jed's mother actually died in childbirth, and Jed starts regressing at his childhood summer home. Then, jacy wakes up one day with blood on her legs. Jed and his dad rush her to the old timey town doctor who diagnosed her with placenta previa, recommends bed rest, and practically accuses her or having an abortion that caused this issue. He then also tells her father in law and husband about her condition, and Jacy catches the men having a conversation about what to do with her.

She, reasonably, is upset by this, and tries to demand privacy, but the men are all a titter with concern. They start saying they know what's best for her, and over the next few days, it becomes clear Jacy isn't really free to leave. There is no cell phone service, she has no access to the car keys, and her husband keeps leaving her home alone.

She has a tentative ally in Mrs Brandt, who straight up tells Jacy she should leave at least twice, as does her kindly ex husband. Mrs Brandt plies her with meat pies and helps her bandage her leg when she gets a bad cut. Jed finds the bloody sundress from when jacy cut her leg and ragefully assumes she's been bleeding more and hiding it. The men once again leap into action, calling in the doctor from vacation to tell this little lady what she needs to do.

Jacy tries to assert authority over her own body, but they all say she's being ridiculous. Dr Ash manipulates the conversation in such a way that Jacy reveals she had an abortion many years ago, which freaks Jed out and angers everyone. As it turns out, her cut leg has become infected, and the doctor prescribes pills and rest while Jed and his dad go off to drink. The mask is also starting to slip, with Jacy hearing Dr Ash say some gross sexist stuff while he thinks she can't hear.

Jacy has been working on a secret plan to leave with her mom over the phone, but then she calls her one more time to confirm, and if turns out her mom cancelled the secret escape flight, because dr ash called and 'explained' everything, and he let it slip that Jacy had an abortion. Her mom seems mad at her for not telling her this??? Useless. So now Jacy is all on her own to get out. She decides to stop taking her meds, with t e tacit approval of Mrs Brandt, and to act like she's going along with everything Jed says, while really doing whatever she can to GTFO.

The men are in a tizzy about hunting a mountain lion, and Jacy tries to escape while they are out hunting. Mrs Brandt told her there's a forest ranger station a mile away, and she heads for that. Unfortunately, Dr Ash comes across her in the woods and shoots at her?? So Jacy runs back to Mrs Brandt's little cabin, where we find out *gasp* Jeds mom is actually Alive and has been there the whole time. She's brain dead from the traumatic induced birth Dr Ash put her through so many years ago. Mrs Brandt reveals she was Wendy's best friend, and that Dr Ash abused his wife and tried to control her from the start. Once she got pregnant, he only cared about the child, and induced labor at 30 weeks, cutting Wendy open in a cruel way and letting her nearly die. Dr ash entrusted her care to Mrs Brandt, who out of guilt and love for her friend, set up her care in her own home rather than in a care facility.

Now Jacy knows the whole situation, and she and Mrs Brandt prepare to flee, but! Dr Ash catches them and threatens to shoot them, saying Jacy can't leave until he has his grandchild. The two women coax him in and reveal his still alive wife, at which point he decides he really has to kill them. He shoots Mrs Brandt, and tries to shoot Jacy but the gun jams. Jacy tries to fire her air pistol but can't make it work, when out of nowhere Jed appears and shoots his dad. Then, he stumbles inside to see his mom, who he grew up believing was dead.

Jacy tries to flee, to get to the car, and encounters the mountain lion and her cubs. Yikes, danger! The momma mountain lion and Jacy share a moment, before the lioness skulks away, leaving Jacy alone. Mr Brandt then drives up, grabs Jacy, and they get Mrs Brandt in the car and head to the hospital....and there it ends.

I would have loved an epilogue here!!! To have Jacy reunite with Jed, to learn how Jed reacted to killing his dad and meeting his mom?? Are there consequences for anyone? Does Mrs Brandt live? Why did Dr Ash hate women so much, what was his mother like? This book was tense and good, but I wanted more resolution and more clarity on the character motivation. It's also not clear to me why Jacy married this man so quickly--its implied she has terrible taste in men (inherited from her mother), but there's barely evidence Jed was a good enough guy to win her over. It felt a little bit like......ask one question, girly!!! Seems like he took care of her when she was sick once (which--given his background, did he make her sick that night??) and she was in it.

I think I'm struggling here because the story is just: Misogyny is the villain. Men who want to control women are the villain. Patriarchy is horror And I just feel like....yeah, I know that. It just needed a little bit more. It could have been fun to have a supernatural twist, or for Jed to be more evil and less stupid.

I think I also feel like it's a shame our main characters of Jed and Jacy were kind of dolts. Like Jed is absolutely manipulated by his father, and Jacy was somehow a 32 year old woman who married the first man that gave her an iota of kindness. Both realistic characters I guess, but not the most entertaining as protagonists.

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