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A review by marik0n
The Villa by Ruth Kelly, Ruth Kelly
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
I was really ready to give this book 5 stars, but sadly I couldn't. Ina nutshell, it is absolutely gripping until the last 3/4, but its greater flaw is not the mild ending. I think its biggest problem and the reason it isn't a bestseller is how problematic its depiction of the female characters is.
Laura, the FMC is making all the wrong decisions when it comes to men. She has an affair with her boss, who is married with three sons and 17 years her senior. Even though she understands that he is playing her she acts spasmodic and runs circles around herself going from adoring him to being fed up with him. Don't get me started on her whole relationship with her ex, it was so tiring reading all this nagging about a relationship that ended on bad terms three years ago. Don't get me started on the fact that she is almost instantly turned on by every man she talks to and she has sex with a practical stranger moments after having a panic attack. No real woman would act this way and that really takes away a big part of the quality of the book for me.
Laura (and all the other female characters) feels like caricatures of women written by a man. All this internalised misogyny, self hate and inferiority complex can be tiring and kind of annoying to be honest. This was a major turn off for me. I strongly believe that if the female characters were more wholesome and multileveled this book would be much more popular.
The other four females present in this book -three contestants and the producer- are two dimension stereotypes of what men want to present women as. The older women who is trying to stay young and relevant for the mazle gaze, her younger version, the proud and the evil master mind who isn't a mastermind after all.
One thing I really enjoyed was the constant foreshadowing through the conversations between the producer and the detective. That really kept me hooked and I think that the whole idea was genius.
The ending was anticlimactic and overall kind of disappointing. However, I'm giving this book 2.25 stars because it mostly gave what it promised and it was indeed a page turner.
Laura, the FMC is making all the wrong decisions when it comes to men. She has an affair with her boss, who is married with three sons and 17 years her senior. Even though she understands that he is playing her she acts spasmodic and runs circles around herself going from adoring him to being fed up with him. Don't get me started on her whole relationship with her ex, it was so tiring reading all this nagging about a relationship that ended on bad terms three years ago. Don't get me started on the fact that she is almost instantly turned on by every man she talks to and she has sex with a practical stranger moments after having a panic attack. No real woman would act this way and that really takes away a big part of the quality of the book for me.
Laura (and all the other female characters) feels like caricatures of women written by a man. All this internalised misogyny, self hate and inferiority complex can be tiring and kind of annoying to be honest. This was a major turn off for me. I strongly believe that if the female characters were more wholesome and multileveled this book would be much more popular.
The other four females present in this book -three contestants and the producer- are two dimension stereotypes of what men want to present women as. The older women who is trying to stay young and relevant for the mazle gaze, her younger version, the proud and the evil master mind who isn't a mastermind after all.
One thing I really enjoyed was the constant foreshadowing through the conversations between the producer and the detective. That really kept me hooked and I think that the whole idea was genius.
The ending was anticlimactic and overall kind of disappointing. However, I'm giving this book 2.25 stars because it mostly gave what it promised and it was indeed a page turner.