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A review by mo_mentan
The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
2.0
*2.5
this was so disappointing. from the beginning, it was just too slow. the bickering was still fun and amelia was still agreat character, but not only emerson is a blatant misogynist in this one, amelia shows so much internalised misogyny as well, and so does the narrative. there is no real reason, nothing that shows the reader why lady baskerville is so very unlikeable, but amelia dislikes her because she is very feminine and different from herself (seriously there's nothing else to it). she shames her for her beauty and the way she dresses. in the end we are told she has always been unfaithful, nothing before that suggested she was anything but a little flirty and maybe not too fond of her late husband. also amelia is incredibly fatphobic towards madam whatwashername.
there seemed to be so many unnecessary characters that might have been interesting but were not given any real spotlight (karl, mary, o'connell). i was so sure mary would be the murderer because no one ever suspected her, but she was just exactly as boring as she seemed. i missed evilyn.
the tomb was also a disappointment, but the tutanchamun thing was a nice touch.
i liked o'conell and karl was funny in a way, but i didn't want mary to end up with him.
bastet was great, i hope we see more of her.
speaking of bastet, i can see that ramses might become an interesting character and i liked the way we learnt more about his parents through him. he certainly is very overdone in a way, but that's the whole point. amelia seemed quite happy to give him away, which irritated me, but then that's probably my internalised misogyny showing :)
then, even worse than in the last one, there was soooo much racism and colonialist viewpoints. i cannot say whether the honour killing was accurately put, but the way the british colonizers were framed as the good force preventing harm to poor muslim women was certainly abominable, and the way many men of colour are villainised in this narrative is as well. the mummies are stolen in the end and taken to the uk and that is somehow framed as a great thing. lady baskervilles maid is an addict and amelia says nothing to help any of the servants if they are berrated, no, she even does it herself. most of the poc don't even have names,and they certainly don't have characters. if the bechdel test was about poc, this book would fail it. not that poc characters don't talk about anything but relationships, we never hear them talk among themselves at all.
furthermore, i would have liked to learn more about egyptology and the historic archeological practice.
the mystery wasn't great and didn't make much sense to me, and i felt that much nicer hints could have been placed so easily.
all in all, incredibly disappointed, but i still somehow enjoyed listening to it (which sure has a lot to do with the incredible rendering of the text by barbara rosenblat) and i do hope it will get better. also, i'm curious what will happen to the charcters that i have learnt to love, so i will certianly go on reading this series.
this was so disappointing. from the beginning, it was just too slow. the bickering was still fun and amelia was still agreat character, but not only emerson is a blatant misogynist in this one, amelia shows so much internalised misogyny as well, and so does the narrative. there is no real reason, nothing that shows the reader why lady baskerville is so very unlikeable, but amelia dislikes her because she is very feminine and different from herself (seriously there's nothing else to it). she shames her for her beauty and the way she dresses. in the end we are told she has always been unfaithful, nothing before that suggested she was anything but a little flirty and maybe not too fond of her late husband. also amelia is incredibly fatphobic towards madam whatwashername.
there seemed to be so many unnecessary characters that might have been interesting but were not given any real spotlight (karl, mary, o'connell). i was so sure mary would be the murderer because no one ever suspected her, but she was just exactly as boring as she seemed. i missed evilyn.
the tomb was also a disappointment, but the tutanchamun thing was a nice touch.
i liked o'conell and karl was funny in a way, but i didn't want mary to end up with him.
bastet was great, i hope we see more of her.
speaking of bastet, i can see that ramses might become an interesting character and i liked the way we learnt more about his parents through him. he certainly is very overdone in a way, but that's the whole point. amelia seemed quite happy to give him away, which irritated me, but then that's probably my internalised misogyny showing :)
then, even worse than in the last one, there was soooo much racism and colonialist viewpoints. i cannot say whether the honour killing was accurately put, but the way the british colonizers were framed as the good force preventing harm to poor muslim women was certainly abominable, and the way many men of colour are villainised in this narrative is as well. the mummies are stolen in the end and taken to the uk and that is somehow framed as a great thing. lady baskervilles maid is an addict and amelia says nothing to help any of the servants if they are berrated, no, she even does it herself. most of the poc don't even have names,and they certainly don't have characters. if the bechdel test was about poc, this book would fail it. not that poc characters don't talk about anything but relationships, we never hear them talk among themselves at all.
furthermore, i would have liked to learn more about egyptology and the historic archeological practice.
the mystery wasn't great and didn't make much sense to me, and i felt that much nicer hints could have been placed so easily.
all in all, incredibly disappointed, but i still somehow enjoyed listening to it (which sure has a lot to do with the incredible rendering of the text by barbara rosenblat) and i do hope it will get better. also, i'm curious what will happen to the charcters that i have learnt to love, so i will certianly go on reading this series.