Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Bat

I was extremely disappointed in this book. It has been on my to-read pile for awhile, and I finally got around to it because of a buddy read. The Bat suffers a bit from translation. It has that wooden feeling to it when things feel like a direct translation instead of something that becomes fluid and living in both languages. Or the original writing could just be wooden too. I do not really know. But that is the least of the issues when it comes to this novel. I cannot get past the fetishism of indigenous culture, the racism, the misogyny, the women experiencing tragedy mostly as a way to further the male lead, the inklings of homophobia peaking throughout the pages, the treatment and portrayal of sex workers and their industry, the macho maleness that is celebrated, the police's disregard for anything but solving the case, the unbelievable actions that several characters take, and the overall logic of the whole fucking thing. I know this was written in 1997, but I do not have time for this bullshit. Ugh.

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palindromereads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

katiiekhaos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I had high hopes during the beginning of this book but it felt like it lost its way a little over halfway through. It picked up again at the very end of the book but overall it was just very average with some pacing issues.
I also think there was just too many characters we are introduced to early on and expected to remember who exactly they are later on. It’s not a problem for some but a lot of these characters aren’t remarkable so they’re easy to forget, with some more character development, better names for the Australians and stronger character voices I think I would have got a lot less confused in the last 1/3 of the book.
There were also a couple plot points that as an Australian thought felt very unlikely but I’m willing to overlook it since the author isn’t Australian. Although this book isn’t going to deter me from reading any more of the Harry Hole books, it definitely isn’t putting me in a rush to read them.

Also I was really pleasantly surprised that this author really tried to show some of the issues Aboriginal Australian’s face, but that self awareness goes down the hole in when 3 out of the 4 potential suspects are all Aboriginal men. I just don’t think he needed or should have gone down that route for the story and felt a bit like a slap in the face. Especially since the only other Aboriginal man who wasn’t a suspect was a homeless alcoholic, it just felt to feed into a lot of stereotypes instead of subverting them and making it really critical of racism in an Australian context.

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