A review by briannadasilva
Sin City, Vol. 1: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
I had complicated feelings about this one.
On one hand, from a purely artistic/craft side, this is excellent. The art is so unique and stylistic, and the writing is sharp and paced really well. As someone interested in writing for the comic form at some point, it would be worth returning to this and studying it on a minute, granular level.
On the other hand, I just didn't enjoy the story. And it's a me thing; it's not the book. That's why I don't want to give it a star rating one way or another.
The story and character tropes in here feel very much like a raw, primal, visceral hetero male fantasy. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but as a lesbian female I just could not relate to it. The way the female characters—especially the one lesbian female character—were portrayed was also really off-putting. Women are being fridged left and right; they have very little voice in the story, but serve mostly as sexy props to motivate the antihero into action.
Again... unlike what some feminists might argue, I don't really think this is inherently wrong. I can understand why a certain kind of reader would be entertained by this. And I imagine there are probably equivalent raw, primal, visceral lesbian fantasies that I would enjoy the hell out of, but a hetero guy might feel equally put off by. Lol. It's possible. I gotta allow that possibility, just to be fair.
But yeah, the story didn't resonate with me, and I found it impossible to truly root for the protagonist. He's an antihero for sure; he has positive traits like courage and tenacity, and some vulnerabilities that give him depth and dimension. But he's also a terrible person. He delights in sadistically torturing the bad guys. I don't care if they're bad guys; taking violence that far is never justifiable, and anyone who does that is a monster in my books. He's kind of homophobic too. I really found it difficult to like him...
...up until the end, when the story takes an interesting turn that actually made me like it and the protagonist a little more. SPOILER WARNING but basically he becomes a self-sacrificial character, and ultimately faces death with the same kind of grit and nonchalant courage we've seen him embody throughout the book. It made me respect him... a little.
So, yeah. Complicated feelings. Objectively good writing and good art. But ultimately I'm not the right reader for it.
On one hand, from a purely artistic/craft side, this is excellent. The art is so unique and stylistic, and the writing is sharp and paced really well. As someone interested in writing for the comic form at some point, it would be worth returning to this and studying it on a minute, granular level.
On the other hand, I just didn't enjoy the story. And it's a me thing; it's not the book. That's why I don't want to give it a star rating one way or another.
The story and character tropes in here feel very much like a raw, primal, visceral hetero male fantasy. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but as a lesbian female I just could not relate to it. The way the female characters—especially the one lesbian female character—were portrayed was also really off-putting. Women are being fridged left and right; they have very little voice in the story, but serve mostly as sexy props to motivate the antihero into action.
Again... unlike what some feminists might argue, I don't really think this is inherently wrong. I can understand why a certain kind of reader would be entertained by this. And I imagine there are probably equivalent raw, primal, visceral lesbian fantasies that I would enjoy the hell out of, but a hetero guy might feel equally put off by. Lol. It's possible. I gotta allow that possibility, just to be fair.
But yeah, the story didn't resonate with me, and I found it impossible to truly root for the protagonist. He's an antihero for sure; he has positive traits like courage and tenacity, and some vulnerabilities that give him depth and dimension. But he's also a terrible person. He delights in sadistically torturing the bad guys. I don't care if they're bad guys; taking violence that far is never justifiable, and anyone who does that is a monster in my books. He's kind of homophobic too. I really found it difficult to like him...
...up until the end, when the story takes an interesting turn that actually made me like it and the protagonist a little more. SPOILER WARNING but basically he becomes a self-sacrificial character, and ultimately faces death with the same kind of grit and nonchalant courage we've seen him embody throughout the book. It made me respect him... a little.
So, yeah. Complicated feelings. Objectively good writing and good art. But ultimately I'm not the right reader for it.