Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

La espada del destino by Andrzej Sapkowski

27 reviews

marissab's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Gore, and Colonisation

Minor: Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

ritsuka's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Opowiadania wyniesione na zupełnie inny level w porównaniu do „Ostatniego życzenia”! Cudownie napisane, z superpasją, polotem… wprowadzają w sagę, której nie mogę się już doczekać!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Abandonment

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Medical content

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.25

loved this. enjoyed it more than the first collection of short stories, but there’s clearly bias there because this book finally introduced ciri & yennefer was much more prevalent in these stories than in the other ones. also….mermaids!

there’s more weird fantasy misogyny in this one though. I just sigh and ignore it at this point, you really can’t escape it in this genre at all 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, and Pregnancy

readbyella_'s review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual content

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Writing: 4.25⭐️/5 

Much of this novel is beautifully written. I think I saved maybe 10-20 quotes throughout the book and that was without looking too hard for gorgeous passages. I do, however, draw an issue with some of the more misogynistic passages. I understand this is a part of the worldbuilding and is often used to demonstrate the bleakness of the world in which the characters live. However, these passages are often used in lieu of more interesting worldbuilding. I don’t really see the point of passively mentioning how a maid is getting SA’d and Geralt is annoyed by it. It just felt kind of lazy, but a laziness that was pretending to be clever. 

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

As far as well-written, thought-out, and developed characters go, it doesn’t get a lot of complaints from me. I would argue that several of the female characters relied heavily on tropes/stereotypes, which was a bit tiring at times as a reader given the depth of other characters. That being said, all the main characters were extremely well-fleshed out, which I really enjoyed reading.

Plot: 4.5⭐️/5 

The short story format fit the material well. I found most of the plots just stunningly engaging and honestly really enjoyable. It was intriguing the way Sapkowski played off fairy tales in an entirely dark way. I really enjoyed it. This is what made it so confusing when he seemed to go out of his way to include a misogynistic side plot. 

Post-Reading Rating:  4.5⭐️/5

Thoroughly enjoyable. 

Who Should Read This? 

• Fans of Game of Thrones
• Fans of bleak fantasy worlds
• Fans of the Witcher show/game

CW: Sexual abuse, mentions of rape, sexual assault, murder, death

Final Rating: 4.75⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lolaslalaland's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

Unlike The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny did not start off with a bang. I actually really hated the writing and the characters and the excessive misogyny was really rubbing me the wrong way. I actually think the show did a better job with the short story than the book did. Then the second short story also bothered the hell out of me. (I think it's also good to know that the translation probably played a factor in how I felt about things being said, how things were worded, etc.) 

Anyways, I was ready to dnf this book but after those first two short stories it picked up and I began enjoying myself again. There was a lot more of Geralt and Dandelion adventuring together. I love their banter and their friendship and I also liked the monsters they were facing. I especially liked the story with Little Eye, she was the best. Of course, the Witcher universe is set in this ugly, disgusting and truly terrible world, but ultimately, as long as Geralt and Dandelion are around I will be happy. 

Also, I am so ready to continue the series after how this book ended! It really pumped me up! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

puzzle_ad's review against another edition

2.5

I liked this less than the first one. Here are some random notes that were taken while listening to it:

• It's the casual sexual assault sprinkled in there for funsies for me.
• The story about Geralt and Istredd's dick measuring contest is absolutely ridiculous and I am so happy they cut that shit out in the show.
• The mermaid singing was fucking awful to listen to in the audiobook specifically my god.
• I don't buy Yennefer and Geralts epic love story I'm sorry. This goes for the show too tbh.
• When does Ciri come in on all of this?
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It seems we said not today to the god of death

So those were overall my thoughts. Much the same as for the previous book, though this one feels much more disjointed and seems to have more random stories, which were cut from the show, understandably so. I just hate how often women are assaulted in fantasy and this series specifically I'm sorry. Did those people really need to stip Yennefer and grope at her, I really don't think so. Also seeing everything from only Geralt's POV is really hindering any character development on anyone and it definitely makes it harder to buy his epic love story with Yennefer. I am writing this review after having read Blood of Elves as well, and it definitely is much better. 

I will continue on though. I am somewhat interested in how this story will play out.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault and War

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, and Death of parent

matth's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Misogyny

A fine continuation. It’s obsessed with describing breasts. My goodness. I’m no prude and it’s not surface level sexiness that bothers me. I’m rather objecting to blatant male gazing.