None of these reviews are pointing out the horror this book is - it is the fictional tale of a narcissistic, misogynist and his hatred of women. Check all the trigger warnings, abuse & murder of women. 

It’s genuinely horrifying - the misogynistic language throughout - the unabashed hatred of women, and the pathetic and yet all too familiar objective gaze of men and quest for privilege and power over others is what this story is about.

I would never recommend this because trigger warnings abound. But I think if reading - it needs to be in conversation and dialogue. I don’t know what the author’s intent is - and I’m not sure, given when it was written, how it would be received. If the intent was to shed light on the horrors women face from men in a patriarchal society - it does that, in a roundabout way. If it’s to just tell a sick story that involves murder of women by a hateful man, it also does that too - which is why I think, don’t read this in isolation. 

It’s essentially a twisted incel post on Reddit. I found myself saying over and over - when will men stop centering themselves as if they are owed the entire world and stop taking their anger and rage at not getting what they think they want out on women. 

The rates of violence against women, femincide continue to be huge across the globe. It’s terrifying to be a woman in the world and fiction like this needs to be more openly discussed. I’m genuinely shocked at reviews here - a lot have no mention of the content. Talk about it! If you love it - say why! Just the good writing? It’s not Kafka, come on. 

These books scare the crap out of me - cause without conversation and dialogue - I have no clue what people are taking away from it. I highly recommend checking out Townes’ The cultural production of evil for more thoughts on that. 

I want to be very clear here - it shouldn’t be banned, people should be able to write and share their stories. And I think this does an excellent job of a character study of how incels in particularly reason their way into destructive thoughts and sometimes dangerous behavior. 

My concern here is about how we as readers engage with stories like these. Passively taking it in and just going about our day? I want better for us - I need better for us because this is real ish people are dealing with daily, real lives being destroyed due to violence. This is political and personal. 

I read this right after reading Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 - and it really highlighted the how important these stories are to confronting sexism and the systems that reproduce it and endanger all of us (all genders) as a result (even the MC here is suffering). 

I don’t know how to rate this - as I said, any recommendation should come with extreme caution. 

If any man in your life says this is their favorite book, RUN.