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cornsyrup's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
Read this book for a book club, and if not for the book club I would have dropped it way early on. The issue with reading a humourous book that you don't find funny is all you have is a weird and sometimes annoying book.
The book spent the first 300 pages just moseying around doing nothing before a plot kicked in. I don't mind that, I like when books take their time, the issue is that for those 300 pages only a tiny bit is really done to set the stage or let the characters grow. After a while I just go "okay I get it, the rules are arbitrary, the colour system is bullshit, we can move on now." We are not told anything about the history of the world, how anything really works, or develop the characters to be anything deeper than a shower. Again, if I found the writing amusing maybe I'd be more into it. But I didn't. So I wasn't.
Speaking of the characters... not a single one was fun to read. The main character (Eddie) was a whole nothingburger of a dude, I have no thoughts on him at all. Jane, the love interest, was the most annoying part. All she does is have a nose (that keeps being mentioned to the point it's creepy) and is violent towards the main character. I already do not like the comedy trope of a woman beating up a man (cos haha isn't it SILLY to think a WOMAN would be VIOLENT?) so I already don't find her endearing. But for some reason Eddie immediately falls for her, and out of nowhere they're kissing at the end and ready to get married. Sure. Okay.
The scene which got me from merely disliking the book to outright hating it came at the 80% mark:when Eddie is raped by Violet DeMauve and the narrative does not seem to care.
Eddie is raped. Violet comes into his room and strips in front of him and even when he says "no" she keeps pushing him to have sex with her until he does (she is way higher class, he cannot say no safely). Make no mistake: this is rape. Afterwards, Eddie does not feel like he's been assaulted, he feels guilty and like he's betrayed Jane. When Jane finds out, and he tries to defend himself, he says it was an accident and she scoffs at him as if that idea is ludicrous. Then it is found out that Eddie's father helped to orchestrate the rape for reasons of continuing the family genes.
Let me be perfectly clear: I am not against portraying sexual assault in a book. I am not against characters in the book not knowing how to react to the assault. I am not against characters in the book blaming the victim for their assault, because they are not real. But the narrative, the words making up the story, and Jasper Fforde's intentions are real and that's what has me pausing.
My issue: I have no idea if Fforde only thinks this is a wacky and strange thing to happen because it's weird to value sperm so much? Or if Fforde thinks it is grotesque and awful to force a man into sex.
The narrative treats Eddie's rape with the same dry detached style as it does stuff like Jane's comical violence: ie, it doesn't really care. Does it think that sexual assault is wacky? That the idea of a man being coerced into sex is on the same level as slapstick? I couldn't tell you
When we see characters who have been killed, the narrative treats that with gravitas. It understands that murder is awful and humans deserve better. But Eddie's rape? I've genuinely no idea if it was meant to be a non-issue, a social faux-pas, or an example of how this dystopia views sexual autonomy.
We live in a world that has a lot of harmful views on rape. That it's not rape if there's no violence. That it's not rape if people orgasm. That a woman can't rape a man. Etc etc etc. When this book has a scene and the reactions to it are not so over-the-top wacky as to be obvious satire, when they are very close to real-world attitudes towards rape, I am left wondering what Fforde's views on sexual assault are. I don't want to be left wondering that.
It left a horrible taste in my mouth.
The book spent the first 300 pages just moseying around doing nothing before a plot kicked in. I don't mind that, I like when books take their time, the issue is that for those 300 pages only a tiny bit is really done to set the stage or let the characters grow. After a while I just go "okay I get it, the rules are arbitrary, the colour system is bullshit, we can move on now." We are not told anything about the history of the world, how anything really works, or develop the characters to be anything deeper than a shower. Again, if I found the writing amusing maybe I'd be more into it. But I didn't. So I wasn't.
Speaking of the characters... not a single one was fun to read. The main character (Eddie) was a whole nothingburger of a dude, I have no thoughts on him at all. Jane, the love interest, was the most annoying part. All she does is have a nose (that keeps being mentioned to the point it's creepy) and is violent towards the main character. I already do not like the comedy trope of a woman beating up a man (cos haha isn't it SILLY to think a WOMAN would be VIOLENT?) so I already don't find her endearing. But for some reason Eddie immediately falls for her, and out of nowhere they're kissing at the end and ready to get married. Sure. Okay.
The scene which got me from merely disliking the book to outright hating it came at the 80% mark:
Eddie is raped. Violet comes into his room and strips in front of him and even when he says "no" she keeps pushing him to have sex with her until he does (she is way higher class, he cannot say no safely). Make no mistake: this is rape. Afterwards, Eddie does not feel like he's been assaulted, he feels guilty and like he's betrayed Jane. When Jane finds out, and he tries to defend himself, he says it was an accident and she scoffs at him as if that idea is ludicrous. Then it is found out that Eddie's father helped to orchestrate the rape for reasons of continuing the family genes.
Let me be perfectly clear: I am not against portraying sexual assault in a book. I am not against characters in the book not knowing how to react to the assault. I am not against characters in the book blaming the victim for their assault, because they are not real. But the narrative, the words making up the story, and Jasper Fforde's intentions are real and that's what has me pausing.
My issue: I have no idea if Fforde only thinks this is a wacky and strange thing to happen because it's weird to value sperm so much? Or if Fforde thinks it is grotesque and awful to force a man into sex.
The narrative treats Eddie's rape with the same dry detached style as it does stuff like Jane's comical violence: ie, it doesn't really care. Does it think that sexual assault is wacky? That the idea of a man being coerced into sex is on the same level as slapstick? I couldn't tell you
When we see characters who have been killed, the narrative treats that with gravitas. It understands that murder is awful and humans deserve better. But Eddie's rape? I've genuinely no idea if it was meant to be a non-issue, a social faux-pas, or an example of how this dystopia views sexual autonomy.
We live in a world that has a lot of harmful views on rape. That it's not rape if there's no violence. That it's not rape if people orgasm. That a woman can't rape a man. Etc etc etc. When this book has a scene and the reactions to it are not so over-the-top wacky as to be obvious satire, when they are very close to real-world attitudes towards rape, I am left wondering what Fforde's views on sexual assault are. I don't want to be left wondering that.
It left a horrible taste in my mouth.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
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