strange and random happenstance

This family saga taking place during the first few years of World War II is ostensibly about "the ways in which English life changed during the war years, particularly for women" but is really about how awful men are to women. I can't actually believe at one time I viewed this nostalgically as a comfort watch when women are being date raped, having a rape-related pregnancy, having said rape-related baby die, having crucial medical information withheld, and just suffering all the microaggressions women have come to expect on a daily basis. I don't know if I just had my head in the sand the last time I watched this or it was sadly what I, as a woman, just expected. I hadn't been educated enough to see the world around me for what it should be not what it was. Even Hugh Bonneville as the least offensive male Cazalet isn't without sin. Though nothing compares to Stephen Dillane's Edward Cazalet. To put in mildly, his behavior as Stannis Baratheon on Game of Thrones, where he literally takes his daughter Shireen and, you know, burns her alive as a sacrifice for the Lord of Light, is more humane and understandable than his detestable actions as Edward Cazalet. Let me enumerate. Where shall I start? I think I'll start with the least offensive and work my way to the ones that made me so uncomfortable I could barely stand to watch the show. So that means we start with his wife, Villy. Villy, at the age of forty-two has found herself pregnant again. She goes to her doctor and honestly tells him she doesn't think she can handle having another child, to which the doctor says, too bad, Edward will want this child and if you try to do anything stupid I'm coming after you and when is your husband free to play golf? Yes, married women had to normally defer to their husbands in regard to their sexual health, but the fact that the doctor thought he and her husband understood her body more than her just enraged be, especially given the double standard that is about to come up. Because obviously a letch like Edward isn't keeping it in his pants when he's out in the world. First there's a quickly discarded mistress that goes off from whence she came once Anna Chancellor's Diana arrives on the scene. Her and Edward have a yearslong relationship, in fact she has just given birth to Edward's bastard when Villy finds out she's pregnant. But the cherry on the top of the cake, AND the double standard, is when Diana gets pregnant a second time and because of how things stand with her husband she asks Edward to help her get an abortion. Which he is willing to do! Mainly because he's moved on from her with a young girl at the air force base he's stationed at. Though being a controlling and philadering husband isn't the worst of his sins. That would be his feelings towards his daughter, Louise. She's a happy, carefree girl who becomes withdrawn when, after her father takes her out to celebrate her birthday with dinner and a show he sexually assaults her. This won't be the only time. Every time the two of them are in the same scene you feel like he's hunting her. I felt physically ill watching this. It's no wonder the show ends with her marrying an older man, she had to escape. She had to get away from a man whom, as she bluntly said, treats her as his daughter or as his whore as it suits him. I'm queasy just thinking about this. Can we, I don't know, tie Edward up on a nice pyre and light it? We can say it's for the Lord of Light even though it's just for all the women, mothers, wives, daughters, who have been wronged. Who have not been able to do something about it. Let's do it for them. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abortion, Anna Chancellor, Edward Cazalet, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Game of Thrones, Hugh Bonneville, Pedophile, Philanderer, Sexual Assault, Stannis Baratheon, Stephen Dillane, The Cazalets, Women, Women's Rights, WWII

This one is going to be a hard one to write about. I was a fan of Neil Gaiman. I saw him speak twice and got to meet him at one of those events. He seemed perfectly lovely and dedicated to his fans. As we've since learned by the allegations that first broke on Tortoise Media this was all a front. A way for the spider to lure in the flies. The fallout was deservedly harsh, projects were scrapped left and right. The Sandman was almost completely wrapped when the news about Gaiman broke. Therefore production continued. What was to be done with the show could be decided later. After all Anansi Boys was completely finished when it was permanently shelved. Amazon got a nice tax write-off and got to appear as if they're supporting the victims when it was really all about the bottom line. But the thing is, The Sandman has a life of it's own. The fanbase is all-encompassing. Netflix knew that the clamor Amazon was experiencing over Good Omens was nothing to what they would face if this season never saw the light of day. Plus the team were claiming, whether honestly or to cover their asses, that the series had always been planned as two seasons and Gaiman wasn't really involved. Though I do question that second statement after reading some interviews. So season two of the show dropped in July with no fanfare and minimal press coverage. And I honestly didn't know if I'd be able to watch it. While having previously been a fan of Gaiman I had never been a fan of The Sandman comics. And oh how I tried. But I'd get about six books in, up to Brief Lives, and just throw in the towel. I never got any further and at least now I never have to force myself to finish this series. I am done with it. As for the adaptation, I did feel the need to tune in. The show worked for me where the comics did not. The rough edges and the excessive rapes had been sanded away. And at least we now know why Gaiman included so many rapes. Which actually made parts of this season a painful experience, and not just because of the autotuning of Ruairi O'Connor as Orpheus. When Nada confronts Dream about his treatment of her you are horrified thinking about how the man who wrote this put women in this same situation over and over again. And why bring back the rapist author, Richard Madoc as played by Arthur Darvill? Did they want to hit us over the head with the fact that Gaiman basically wrote his sick fantasies into this series? That Richard Madoc was his avatar in this fictional world. I mean, if Gaiman hadn't been such a good showman we should have seen what was right in front of us all along. Oh, the irony of the second series being about reconciliation and redemption after the first one was about reclamation and revenge. Because he denies it all. There will be no reconciliation for him. No redemption. And there can be no separation of art and the artist, he made sure of that. A part of me even wondered if originally Gaiman was supposed to be there at Dream's funeral next to Madoc. Thankfully that didn't happen. And even if their creator will forever be in torment, at least his creations were given a fresh start. They were released out into the world. They were set free. Hopefully not to ever be caught in their creators net again. Forever connected by somehow liberated.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amazon, Anansi Boys, And the Emmy Goes To, Arthur Darvill, Avatar, Brief Lives, Comics, Dream, Good Omens, Neil Gaiman, Netflix, Orpheus, Rape, Richard Maddoc, Ruairi O'Connor, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, The Sandman, Tortoise Media

Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 272 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Roz Parker has something to celebrate. She's taken early retirement from the Met and is traveling home to Scotland to welcome her first grandchild. Though her daughter has gone into labor six weeks early. Which means she's broken her promise to her daughter. Again. But really, she had to tie up that last case. She's not one to leave a job unfinished. One thing Roz has always dreamed of doing is taking the sleeper train to Fort William. A dream that everyone at her station knew about, so they pitched in to buy her a first class ticket as part of her leaving present. Despite the seasonal, if problematic, weather, Roz's train hasn't been cancelled and she'll be home for Christmas and hopefully before the birth of her grandchild. To stave off panic she starts to manipulate her Mirror Cube, like the Rubik's Cube she mastered, but harder. Her solitude is broken into by a young couple arguing; Grant and Meg. Grant is what most would consider handsome and Meg is an influencer who won a singing contest with the song "In No Time." And she's not gone unnoticed by the fellow passengers. But Roz sees what her fellow passengers in the first class lounge don't, the bruise on Meg's upper arm. There's the students trying to get on the quiz show Geek Street. The family with the baby, their teenagers having been the ones who noticed Meg. Then there's Ember, a romantic, actually bringing a copy of Murder on the Orient Express with her. And Tony and his mother Mary who don't have tickets to the first class lounge, but seeing as it's Christmas, Roz gives Mary her seat, much to Grant's objections. Given the ructions in the lounge it's with a sense of relief that the passengers board the train. One might even say a festive air returns. But this isn't going to be a smooth ride. It's not just the weather threatening them, but the dynamics between the guests is combustible and there's a killer amongst them. And Roz's panic is rising, her own memories linked to her daughter's birth are surfacing, trauma sticking to trauma. When Roz makes it to the club car things really start to kick off, and that's before the train derails. And Meg is found dead. But hers won't be the only corpse on this train. Roz will be lucky to survive, let alone meet her grandchild.

Holy hell, this book should have been called Trauma Train. Having read Alexandra Benedict's previous holiday themed mystery, The Christmas Murder Game, I know that, despite appearances, these aren't cozy mysteries. And while you could say that Midsomer Murders is a cozy series despite a high death count, that's done with a light touch. There is no light touch here. It's blunt force trauma. Which leads me to mention that if you ever want a good laugh, read some of the reviews of this book from people who judged it by it's cover, they got a way different ride than they expected. I was luckily prepared. Though in all seriousness, did they really consider Trauma Train as a possible title? It would have been perfect! The holidays are hard on many people. Just the sight of a Christmas tree or a carol heard on the radio can send them into a deep depression that won't lift until the last of the snow has melted. I know many people like this. Add to that family stress and strain. Complicated relationships between family that's forced together and you can see why many people do as I do and spend the holidays reading about family gatherings where there's quite a cull. In my mind, one of the relationships that has the most strain put on it is between mothers and daughters. If you have issues with your daughter or your mother or sadly both, this book needs a big old trigger warning for you. In fact Trigger Warning Train, another good title. Because despite fraught family relationships, Benedict then piles on the PTSD, the sexual assaults, the psychological abuse, the domestic abuse, the pregnancy fears. The horror just keeps being piled on. Yes, you can say, at least the main abuser gets what they deserve so there's some sort of collective sigh of relief, but really, there isn't. Which means that this book could, quite conceivably, ruin your love of holiday murder mysteries. My solution was to read something else as fast as I could as a palate cleanser and seek psychological counseling. In fact, everyone in this book needs psychological counseling. They need psychiatrists, psychologists, and maybe a few exorcists. Also, I think primal scream therapy would do nicely. It's better than a Rubik's Cube and Scottish Tablet. But to each their own.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexandra Benedict, Murder Most Foul, Murder on the Christmas Express, Pregnancy, PTSD, Roz Parker, Rubik's Cube, Scotland, Sexual Assault, Sleeper Train, The Christmas Murder Game, Trauma Train, Trigger Warning

Unnatural Creatures Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman
Published by: HarperCollins
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Beasts both natural and unnatural are all around us. What if there was a spot. It starts out on you tablecloth. Which is most vexing. But then it moves. It grows. And it's coming for you! But a spot as some sort of creature is definitely "unnatural." Wasps on the other hand... Everyone has had an experience with wasps. They bring terror with their painful stings. There nests seem nothing put paper, but what if that paper was something special. What if that paper was highly detailed maps of the surrounding area? Then they'd be an even bigger threat. A threat to the safety of humans. And maybe a threat to other insects too. A Griffin is a creature beloved by fantasy readers, but this griffin seeks a friend. But instead of the friend showing others that the Griffin isn't a monster he is tarred with the same brush. Which leads us back to a more recognized creature, snakes. Ozioma, despite being shunned from her community must help them with her unique powers with snakes. The creatures go back and forth from the mundane to the magical. Who doesn't want to learn about a tontine involving a sunbird? Though the sunbird might object when it learns what's on the menu. Did you know that dragons can be invisible? And that werewolves, even when seeming polite, might be very very dangerous. Then there's the Cockatoucan. A bird whose whims and whimsy become reality. And can a tree really be a beast? Also, what happens when in the future beasts are forgotten? Could a person from the future mistake a unicorn for a horse? Well, they are quite similar except for the whole horn... There are also different lands, lands of color! Back in the real world though magic can be everywhere, even at the National History Museum with a platypus turning into a mermaid. The manticore though is more worrying. As are werewolves that don't "have" to change... Because denying what you are is never a good idea. Humans themselves can even view themselves as monsters, even if they don't turn into a wolf at the full moon. Backpedaling to the monsters that might be more artifacts, what about bicycles? Bicycles could become sentient right? And the most deadly beast of all is death... Stories and creatures creepy and deadly, with small children being killed and timelines being messed up. If only someone would wrangle the creatures... But then again, there would need to be a consistent definition wouldn't there? And it might include you!

There comes a time when you realize that an author you like and respect might, just might, have shit taste in books. I remember seeing Erin Morgenstern speak with such fervor about The Secret History by Donna Tartt that as soon as I got home from Erin's event I ordered a copy to read immediately. The Secret History isn't one of my favorite books. I wouldn't even say I liked it just a little. I adore The Night Circus, and the opposite could be said for The Secret History. Now let's take another case study; Patrick Rothfuss. I love Pat, I can't wait for him to one day in the distant future finish Doors of Stone, I mean he's got a stronger chance of finishing than George R.R. Martin does at this point, but Pat, we need to have a talk about your taste in books. In particular comics. You have bad taste. Or at least taste that doesn't align with mine. It's so bad that if you recommend it I know to avoid it like the plague. So, in that regards, you are very very useful. Though we do appear to agree on The Chronicles of Narnia, but I call that a rare nostalgic outlier. Which brings me to the fact that this book is a selection of short stories chosen by Neil Gaiman, an author who, until recently, I respected. And he didn't lose my respect because of his selection of short stories, I'm not that critical of someone's taste in books, and I read this book long ago, he lost my respect due to the recent sexual assault allegations. The media isn't covering this case much but from everything I've read I believe the victims. Because we should always believe the victims. Especially when they have the receipts. So writing this review now is colored by this new knowledge. Someone I respected no longer deserves that respect, no longer deserves the odes I and others have written on this very blog. So I'll try to review this as impartially as I can, which, if I'm honest, isn't much at all. But it's just work he chose and only one he wrote, so I won't tar the other authors with the same brush. For all I know they were or are very nice people. But then again I thought the same of Neil Gaiman. And there's actually only one story I found worth the purchase price. Though one good story can make a book work. It just so happened it was the first story in the book so everything else paled in comparison to "●." Gahan Wilson's story is totally the inspiration for the Doctor Who episode "Blink," and is very British, scary, and interesting, with an abrupt and shocking ending. All the rest? Not so much.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Diana Wynne Jones, E. Lily Yu, E. Nesbit, Erin Morgenstern, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gahan Wilson, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Peter S. Beagle, Sexual Assault, Short Stories, Unnatural Creatures

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Published by: Avid Reader Press / Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 9th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Maggie thought she was in love. She thought he loved her too. But it was an unequal relationship. He was her teacher. He slowly worked his way into her life so that he was all she had and then one day she texted him and his wife saw. That ended everything. In fact it felt like her life ended. A few years later she sees his face smiling on the news. He has been named teacher of the year in North Dakota. She realizes it is time to go public, because as her therapist has told her, she couldn't have been the first. Yet Maggie's past calls everything she says into question and the love of her life will get away with the damage he's inflicted. Linna just wants her husband to touch her. A kiss, a caress, anything. She's decided that if this continues for three months she will leave him. Of course he doesn't know that she has a dream, that she will get back together with her high school sweetheart whom she's been having an affair with. Aidan and her broke up in high school because she was raped by three classmates one night and forever branded a whore. Her entire life she has felt the void left by Aidan leaving. And here he is, back in her life, or at least her car, whenever his needs need to be met. She knows it's a one way relationship, but to be touched, to be cared for, even in this small way, was more than she ever got from her husband. Sloane looks to have the perfect life. A husband with whom she runs a successful restaurant, beautiful children, and looks that don't betray her age. She and her husband love each other completely, only he takes sexual satisfaction from watching his wife sleep with other men and women, occasionally participating. All these women would do anything for love. They would degrade themselves, they would hurt themselves, they would even, perhaps, kill themselves.

Three Women is a puerile and prurient book, like a small child that can not yet form full sentences but randomly yells out "fuck" for the reaction they get from adults. This is not in the least a book about female desire but a book about women molested and controlled by men. One can only assume that all the glorious reviews were written by men who long to dominate women and hope that this debasement is truly the secret desire of all women. I have shocking news for them; it's not. I keep coming back to the fact that Taddeo supposedly worked on this book for eight years and in this time she gained no depth on her subjects. These women could have been handled tactfully, their body image issues and abuse dealt with in a thoughtful manner, instead it's just who they are on the surface, not who they were made to become, and the abuse, while there, also fuels their desire. But why? WHY!?! These women are nothing more than paper dolls. They are one dimensional cliches that I strongly suspect don't even really exist with their love of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. In fact Sloane might very well be nothing more than an amalgam of Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. And the fact that Gossip Girl handled bulimia better than this book and that even Twilight is better written should give you a hint as to how bad this book is. As you read about Lina massaging the fondant from a Cadbury Creme Egg into Aidan's scrotum you will feel your brain cells dying.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blair Waldorf, Bulimia, Cadbury Creme Egg, Fifty Shades of Grey, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gossip Girl, Infidelity, Lisa Taddeo, Rape, Serena van der Woodsen, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Three Women, Twilight

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 20th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 208 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Janet lived for sixteen short years. Her family went away on holiday without her because she was being punished because of her behavior and she was gutted like a rabbit at the foot of the stairs. Stabbed by a family retainer for being a "whore." But as everyone said, it's what she deserved. She never was normal. She liked books too much and boys barely at all, an extra irony given why she had a falling out with her parents before the holiday and what her murderer thought of her. Her mother despaired of her. All she wanted was the perfect daughter, someone to chat and gossip with, but instead she got Janet. A girl who couldn't be bothered to wear a simple white dress to the hunt ball and instead insisted on a purple gown that was a bit too grown up. But then, she got what she deserved. And Janet didn't see her death coming. She loved life. The castle that was home to her family and the eighty odd boys her father taught during term time, Auchnasaugh, she loved more than anywhere else in the world. The castle wasn't just a castle, it was her castle, her home, and somehow, when they moved there, it's almost as though her wish to be a princess had come true. She explored every room and turret and turn of the stair until it was her domain completely. The countryside she explored on foot and hoof. Watching the changing of the seasons. Rejoicing in the flora and fauna that was a part of her world. Learning about mycology from her eccentric relative Lila. She spent every minute she was indoors in her room sitting perfectly straight in a chair reading. She loved poetry, she loved the sounds certain words made, but she learned early on not to share this with anyone. Her brother thought it stupid, her younger sisters weren't anything like her, and as for when she finally went to school, her classmates thought her a joke. Who actually wants to learn Greek and worship their gods? Learning is a burden and everything else is what life is about. But not for Janet. Janet was different and therefore she got what she deserved. Because girls shouldn't want to decorate their rooms to reflect the work of Edgar Allan Poe, they should want mirrors and makeup and not have jackdaws making homes in their dollhouses. But at least her family was ride of her. At least she got what she deserved.

One can see why people superficially compare the heroine of this book traditionally to Merricat Blackwood and more contemporaneously to Flavia De Luce, but they're missing a key detail, we actually got to deeply connect with those two heroines while I know the barest hints of who Janet really is. Her story is told at a remove. We don't get to know her at all and I WANT to know about the girl who had been dying to quote Nina from The Segull to her mother and claim that she was "in mourning for [her] life." This is someone who I think I could be friends with. Instead I know that she likes Greek and hates math. I know as much about her after reading this book as I would a perfunctory job interview with her. Her entire brief life is here and yet I am as ignorant as when I started this short yet excruciatingly long book. But the worst part is I don't know if Elspeth Barker loved Janet and all her eccentricities or wanted to make an example of her, after all, she got what she deserved. It's said over and over again. She was a sixteen-year-old who was murdered and she deserved it!?! For what? For being different? Because that's what this book says again and again, if you're not normal, if you're not feminine, if you're not towing the expected line in regard to traditional gender rolls, you deserve death or the insane asylum. And yes, her eccentric relative Lila does go to the insane asylum, driven there by Janet's mother. Oh, and let's not forget the number of sexual assaults that Janet fends off. I'm sure if she hadn't been so resourceful she would have "gotten what she deserved." This book was being touted everywhere as a rediscovered classic. Who says it's a classic? Just because there are superficial inklings of the Mitfords or Dodie Smith or Shirley Jackson does that mean we are to embrace this simply odoriferous mess of victim blaming? Who said, this book is what people need to read now? No, in a post #metoo world this is the exact kind of book we should be holding up and saying NO MORE! No more to just accepting that women deserve to be victimized by their family and by the opposite sex just for existing. This book was first published in 1991 and a lot has changed in the world since then, and yet I feel like a woman author should have known better even then because it feels so dated. This tripe needs to be called out. And not just for abhorrent treatment of females but for lack of character development, lack of plot, and if anyone says the language and turn of phrase is beautiful, yeah, occasionally, but is that when Janet's describing her dream funeral or a friend of the family is showing her his cock before she pushes him into the hogweed?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: #MeToo, Auchnasaugh, Castle, Dodie Smith, Edgar Allan Poe, Elspeth Barker, Flavia De Luce, Gender Roles, Merricat, Mitfords, Murder, O Caledonia, Poetry, Scotland, Sexual Assault, Shirley Jackson, The Seagull

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
Published by: HQN Books
Publication Date: 1951
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Gervase Frant had the temerity to survive the Napoleonic Wars. This was a blow to his stepmother and in particular her hopes for his younger half-brother Martin, whom she has reared as if he were going to be the Earl, in spite of primogeniture. To add insult to lack of injury, for a full year after he ascended to be the Earl of St. Erth he wandered around the continent instead of returning to Stanyon to take up his duties. He flippantly claims it was to avoid wearing mourning, but his dandified ways bely the solider he is underneath his perfectly tailored clothes from Weston's. Though one thing is clear, he's going to have an uphill battle with the denizens of Stanyon Castle. He has avoided his "home" as much as he could throughout his life, spending holidays with his maternal grandmother, but now he must face his family and their guests; Mr. Clowne, the chaplain is an unknown quantity, and Miss Morville, a kind neighbor who is acting as companion to Gervase's stepmother, seems to have her head on her shoulders. In fact it's only Theo, his cousin, who has acted as steward for the family, who Gervase is excited to see. Theo is reliable, dependable, and a true friend. There is a tenuous peace that proceeds Gervas's return. A peace that is shattered when he helps out a becoming neighbor, Miss Marianne Bolderwood. Martin only has eyes for her and now Marianne only has eyes for St. Erth. This is not a sustainable situation, and soon things come to a head. As in there are attempts on St. Erth's life. The first attempt could have been imagined, the second could have been written off as an accident waiting to happen, the third attempt was only unsuccessful due to Miss Morville and her swift actions. The attacks are gaining in severity and it is clear that someone wants Gervase dead. But could Martin really be this clever? To get ride of a romantic rival AND ascend to Earl all in one convenient death? Only time will tell, and hopefully Gervase will be around to see how things play out.

The Quiet Gentleman is perhaps the closest to Austen any of Heyer's books I've read this year has come. Though told from a male point of view. In fact I find it rather interesting that all her books that I've read have a masculine viewpoint. That will be something to mull over and look for as I read more of her books. Though my experience with Heyer is she's very hit or miss. I've not found one I love, but I've found some I've loathed, and this one I really like in spite of itself. The Quiet Gentleman has so much going for it but then there's Martin and Marianne. I have major problems with the two of them. Twice Martin forces his attentions on Marianne and both times she comes away shocked and believing Martin's unwanted attention was her fault. A belief that those around her don't contradict and in fact encourage her to just shake off and act normal around Martin. Well, acting normal around Martin led to her being accosted a second time! She was the vicitim. This wasn't her fault AT ALL! I mean, yes, this book was written in the fifties, so victim blaming was at it's height, but dear me it made me angry and uncomfortable. Marianne is a vivacious free spirit and this somehow was her leading Martin on? She was naive, unworldly, and cossetted, how could she expect a man she'd known almost her whole life to just make passionate love to her and force his advances on her? Now it should be made clear he just said things to her that she didn't want to hear and kissed her. But this is still an assault. Especially given the time period. And Marianne blames herself. She blames herself for being a flirt, for being pretty, the light goes out of her and her behavior to everyone changes. She was traumatized and no one really helped her. Yes, there's so much of the book that is just like Austen and is fun matchmaking, but there's this dark underbelly of victim blaming that forever changes a young girl that for the life of me I can not in good conscience fully embrace this book. Especially the denouement which is all about Martin's rehabilitation in the eyes of his cousin. Treat everyone, especially women, with the respect you yourself expect. No exceptions.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Attempted Murder, Georgette Heyer, Gervase Frant, Jane Austen, Martin Frant, Miss Marianne Bolderwood, Napoleonic War, POV, Regency Romp, Sexual Assault, Stanyon, The Quiet Gentleman, Victim Blaming

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: October 8th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Alex Stern has been given an opportunity she never thought she'd get. At the age of twenty she is the going to be a freshman at Yale with a full ride. But how did she even get to New Haven? She had thrown her life away, living among the dregs and the drug dealers. Then she miraculously survived a gruesome multiple homicide that claimed the life of her best friend and her boyfriend of which she was a prime suspect. While recuperating in the hospital she was approached by Dean Sandow. He wants her to tell him about the Grays. It turns out Alex has been able to see ghosts her entire life. Her "job" will be to join the Ninth House, Lethe, it is a regulatory house for the other eight secret societies at Yale, Skull and Bones being the only one that the general populace believes exists. She accepts Dean Sandow's offer and is eastward bound. To a girl christened Galaxy by her hippie mother just the prospect of Yale's cafeteria is a dream come true, but being thrust into the world of the elite could take some getting used to. Take Darlington for example. He is there to mentor her and shepherd her in her duties to the other houses because once he graduates she will take over his duties. Darlington is the epitome of a Yale student. Like the members of the other houses, he is a golden boy raised by the right family with expectations. While the two of them are exact opposites, when Darlington disappears Alex realizes that she might be in way over her head. Now Alex has two major mysteries in her life, Darlington, and whatever happened that day when Hellie and Len died. And then she lands in the middle of a third when she starts investigating a murder that happened near the outskirts of campus. Her investigation brings up no untoward evidence until a Gray attacks her. Only once before has a ghost been able to touch her, and that was when she was almost raped by one on a school field trip. Oddly enough another Gray saves her and she realizes that something far deeper is at play at Yale. She will get to the bottom of it and find Darlington, though it might just kill her.

I find the worst thing in the world is when a book you've been waiting for with baited breath turns out not to even be worth the breath to discuss it. I mean, just thinking about writing this review is making me tired. I slogged my way to the bitter end of this dreck, I guess given how many people love this book I can rise to the occasion to explain why they are so so wrong. So, secret magical societies at Yale right? Should be magical yeah? Nope, it's just horrid. And what's interesting is that people who've liked it kind of agree with me once I start to innumerate my issues. So let's start! My problems, and they are nearly innumerable, can be summed up with the dismissive way rape culture is handled in this book. Leigh Bardugo seemed to want to include issues that are topical to colleges within her fantastical framework, IE rape culture, but instead she just pays it lip service. Magic is literally used to rape Alex's roommate Mercy and instead of handling this in a mature and helpful manner, Alex thinks up something so immature that I can barely even discuss it. I mean, ugh, seriously, this is a viable solution? Because her roommate's rape goes viral Alex decides to make the rapist Blake the star of his own viral shit eating video. She literally uses magic to make Blake eat shit and records it. And then her roommate is just fine because, well, no one remembers the girl who was raped when there's someone eating shit! Um no. This isn't how trauma and survival work. I am literally so mad thinking about this that I have to stop writing this for awhile. I'm back but still mad. I have literally been trying months to finish this review and every time I get angry so I try to pretend I'm just not bothered to exert any effort. But the truth is I'm just so bothered I just can't. How did the creator of the Grishaverse write this!?! Since I started this review and since now when I'm typing this I re-read the Grishaverse in it's entirety, and it handles abuse so thoughtfully and yet here!?! And don't get me started on the fact that the best character is just not there. Or that the ending is lame. Or that this series is taking away valuable time when Leigh could be writing another series! Ugh!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alex Stern, Darlington, Ghosts, Going Gothic, Going Viral, Grays, Grishaverse, Leigh Bardugo, Lethe, Murder, New Haven, Ninth House, Rape, Rape Culture, Secret Societies, Sexual Assault, Skull and Bone, Survivor, Yale