A review by gracehawk
Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S.G. Browne
2.0
*Slight spoilers?*
I enjoyed this book. The writing has a good flow and the story was interesting and fresh (which in a world of zombie related media, can be hard to do.)
HOWEVER. As a young woman a little alarm bell starts going off in my head when I’m reading a book where an older male protagonist (34 in this case) becomes interested in a much younger girl (Rita, 23). I shut this early warning down to prevent it from influencing my thoughts on the book because 23 is actually a pretty respectable age as far as this ‘hot young girl who’s mature for her age and definitely pursues me’ trope goes. I put aside the feelings I got that a big part of Rita’s purpose was to satisfy a fantasy, because again, as far as this trend goes I’ve read far worse and I appreciated the fact that she at least wasn’t a helpless young girl barely on the side of legal.
BUT BETH?!
She’s brought in so late that she can’t have any real use to the plot apart from providing the fulfilment of best friend Jerry’s book-long goal: sex. (I can’t find Jerry’s exact age, but I’m pretty sure it’s around 20. If not and this is some type of ‘Romeo and Juliet law’ thing then this is NOT made clear enough). Even then, I could ignore that... but Beth is 16. There’s literally a line (p. 237) that says: ‘True, Beth is only sixteen, but somehow I doubt anyone is going to charge Jerry with statutory rape.’ In reference to the likely outcome that the two will hookup and zombies have no legal rights and are not considered people in this world. Is this line meant to comfort me?? This just put the nail in the coffin for me and I don’t think anything will be rising again from within.
The thing that really annoys me about the Beth situation is the fact that it’s so easily avoided. Why couldn’t Beth be 18 at least? Is that really so much to ask for? The fact that she’s 16 serves the plot in no way, there’s absolutely no reason she needs to be this age, it just reflects back in a gross way on the author who made that totally unnecessary decision. I won’t be reading anything further by S. G. Browne (and no, I’m not saying that to sound intimidating or to Send A Message, I know this review is likely going into the void.) because Beth’s inclusion as (essentially) an underage sex doll makes me feel icky, and there are plenty of authors out there who don’t.
Like I said, I liked the book, and I was willing to ignore the Rita thing giving me ‘ugh of course’ vibes, but the Beth thing dropped my rating by a star. I can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or not that she was barely mentioned after the party where it was suggested they would have sex, but it gave me about 50 pages to forget about how much the situation annoyed me at least which bumped my rating up by a star.
I enjoyed this book. The writing has a good flow and the story was interesting and fresh (which in a world of zombie related media, can be hard to do.)
HOWEVER. As a young woman a little alarm bell starts going off in my head when I’m reading a book where an older male protagonist (34 in this case) becomes interested in a much younger girl (Rita, 23). I shut this early warning down to prevent it from influencing my thoughts on the book because 23 is actually a pretty respectable age as far as this ‘hot young girl who’s mature for her age and definitely pursues me’ trope goes. I put aside the feelings I got that a big part of Rita’s purpose was to satisfy a fantasy, because again, as far as this trend goes I’ve read far worse and I appreciated the fact that she at least wasn’t a helpless young girl barely on the side of legal.
BUT BETH?!
She’s brought in so late that she can’t have any real use to the plot apart from providing the fulfilment of best friend Jerry’s book-long goal: sex. (I can’t find Jerry’s exact age, but I’m pretty sure it’s around 20. If not and this is some type of ‘Romeo and Juliet law’ thing then this is NOT made clear enough). Even then, I could ignore that... but Beth is 16. There’s literally a line (p. 237) that says: ‘True, Beth is only sixteen, but somehow I doubt anyone is going to charge Jerry with statutory rape.’ In reference to the likely outcome that the two will hookup and zombies have no legal rights and are not considered people in this world. Is this line meant to comfort me?? This just put the nail in the coffin for me and I don’t think anything will be rising again from within.
The thing that really annoys me about the Beth situation is the fact that it’s so easily avoided. Why couldn’t Beth be 18 at least? Is that really so much to ask for? The fact that she’s 16 serves the plot in no way, there’s absolutely no reason she needs to be this age, it just reflects back in a gross way on the author who made that totally unnecessary decision. I won’t be reading anything further by S. G. Browne (and no, I’m not saying that to sound intimidating or to Send A Message, I know this review is likely going into the void.) because Beth’s inclusion as (essentially) an underage sex doll makes me feel icky, and there are plenty of authors out there who don’t.
Like I said, I liked the book, and I was willing to ignore the Rita thing giving me ‘ugh of course’ vibes, but the Beth thing dropped my rating by a star. I can’t decide whether it’s a good thing or not that she was barely mentioned after the party where it was suggested they would have sex, but it gave me about 50 pages to forget about how much the situation annoyed me at least which bumped my rating up by a star.