Well That Turned Sexist!

I had an odd experience I’ve never had before reading this book: I recommended it to someone enthusiastically when I was 50% through it, then the next day when I finished it I took back my recommendation with equal enthusiasm and with so much vigor that they immediately removed the book from their wish list.

Spoilers will be contained in the review after this point, so read at your own risk:

That’s because the book definitely does a good job of making you want to know what happens next, but if you think about it at all when you’re not actively reading it you realize how many issues there are with it. We’re meant to believe that every female character in it is incredibly gullible and stupid. Yes, there are people everywhere who will be easily manipulated by psychopaths, but both main characters barely have a second thought about the bright red flags presented by this dude, and that’s just not realistic.

Then, the writing seems to think it redeems that issue by having both women be manipulative monsters themselves, and I mean manipulative to the point where they are cartoonishly evil. Every MRAs worst nightmare is included for one woman: false rape accusations, false harassment accusations, “oops” pregnancies, the whole nine yards. Worse, the book then turns around and tries to paint the man who throughout the book has been emotional, physically, and sexually abusive as the real victim here. The anxiety on display here is nothing but sexist anxiety about women ruining the lives of men, but the book doesn’t even bother to make the men involved innocent.

I genuinely don’t get why this book has so much love.