A review by saeruh
Agent of Chaos by Kami Garcia
dark
fast-paced
2.0
As someone who LOVES the show and was so incredibly excited when I found out about these books chronicling the teen lives of Mulder and Scully, I was very disappointed while reading this.
The overall story itself is kinda a monster/series killer of the week in book form and was just complex enough to keep me interested and wondering who was the killer. No, what truly disappointed me was the pure sexism displayed in this novel.
About 30-40% through, the reader meets Phoebe, Fox’s best friend whom he has a bit of a friends-with-benefits relationship with. Phoebe is the ONLY female character in the entire book. From her first scene, it’s emphasized how sexy this teenager is (I suppose Garcia was trying to show Mulder’s POV but it just fell flat) and how not like other girls she is. She likes nerdy things like star trek and D and D! She hates how vain girlies who wear makeup are! Mulder’s other best friend, comic relief side character Gimble, tells Mulder how much he loves to look at her ass and she doesn’t mind one bit because she’s not like other girls you know!
I get the source material (that of the show) is not always great, is definitely not progressive by any means, and followed late 20th century society morals rather than early 21st century ones but the writing felt so incredibly lazy and down-putting to women that I considered DNFing it.
The overall story itself is kinda a monster/series killer of the week in book form and was just complex enough to keep me interested and wondering who was the killer. No, what truly disappointed me was the pure sexism displayed in this novel.
About 30-40% through, the reader meets Phoebe, Fox’s best friend whom he has a bit of a friends-with-benefits relationship with. Phoebe is the ONLY female character in the entire book. From her first scene, it’s emphasized how sexy this teenager is (I suppose Garcia was trying to show Mulder’s POV but it just fell flat) and how not like other girls she is. She likes nerdy things like star trek and D and D! She hates how vain girlies who wear makeup are! Mulder’s other best friend, comic relief side character Gimble, tells Mulder how much he loves to look at her ass and she doesn’t mind one bit because she’s not like other girls you know!
I get the source material (that of the show) is not always great, is definitely not progressive by any means, and followed late 20th century society morals rather than early 21st century ones but the writing felt so incredibly lazy and down-putting to women that I considered DNFing it.