Unlucky Charm

DNF @ 23%

CW: racism, exoticizing someone with a non-pale skintone, sexual assault, sexual harrassment, misogyny, slut shaming, body shaming, potential homophobia, police brutality - all discussed, some with excerpts from the book provided for explanatory purposes

File this book under “now I know why this is free.” I gave it an honest chance because the blurb caught my interest, but it quickly became an exercise in ‘hate reading’ - continuing just for the odd catharsis of being scandalized by all the problematic elements in the narrative. I’d have read the whole thing that way, because despite being mediocre and annoying it was quick. Then some strange and ridiculous court drama (legal court, not royal) came up and it was too boring to hold my interest even during a ‘hate read.’

In just the first near-quarter of this book, I encountered lowkey racism and misogyny, body shaming, slut shaming, at least two instances of sexual harassment, one attempted gang rape, vague homophobia (via iffy wording), coworker-initiated sexual harassment, and the ‘that skimpy outfit is bait for being assaulted’ mentality. And probably some other stuff I don’t care enough to remember.

Sorry, but no. I don’t want to deal with this nonsense anymore, now that there isn’t any entertainment value in riding the rollercoaster of outrage. It’s just far too much… especially after reading other reviews which mention some far more blatant racism than I’d encountered (more than one review mentioned an Asian restaurant caught serving cat meat).

As for what I personally encountered? Here’s a selection of descriptions and quotes to illustrate:

1. “Her skin had an olive tone to it, making her look exotic. He wasn't sure of her heritage. Asian? Hispanic? Native American? Something else? Something ... Beautiful, he thought to himself.”
2. “His attention shifted to a large man beside her, who had also stopped to watch the television. The guy had a clogged heart chakra, and his meridians were a mess. He was going to have a heart attack soon if he didn't stop eating all that fast food.”
3. A man with superpowers loses control and melts some electronics because he’s so obsessed with how “breathtaking” and beautiful a woman he doesn’t know is. It’s referred to as being hormonal, as if it’s totally okay and normal.
4. The horndog man mentioned above takes a moment to question what kind of woman would go into an “adult superstore” as if it’s some kind of horrible thing.
5. The main female character goes into an “adult superstore” but only for a last-minute Halloween costume. (I guess she’s never heard of Party City? And is too stupid to guess an erotically themed store won’t sell conservative-minded costumes?) She criticizes every costume option then tops it off with deciding that no woman would ever shop there unless they were single and/or desperate and surely only men shopped there to buy things for the women in their lives to wear. (Body-confident, kinky, and/or queer women? Never heard of such things!)
6. Despite picking a costume that covered most of her skin - a tight Catwoman sort of bodysuit with thigh-high boots and a cat ear headband - she and everyone around her act as if this costume is the sluttiest, most whore-worthy thing ever. (More on that later, it’s bad enough to get its own point.)
7. “She turned a corner and ran headlong into a group of large, loud men, decked out in the latest pimptacular fashions. Baggy pants, hoodies, fancy shoes and gold chains everywhere. […] They stopped what they were doing and stared at her, their eyes bulging at her racy costume.” She’s in a “bad area” of Chicago. The racist undertones are strong.
8. Twenty men surround the MC and sexually harass (and make it clear they plan to gang rape) her, and it’s all because they can’t stop ogling the costume she’s wearing.
9. The allegedly well-trained female MC is fighting off her assailants in River Tam level combat… and then gets saved by her creepy admirer from earlier, negating how well she was somehow doing and making her less of a badass heroine and more of a rescued damsel.
10. Immediately after rescuing MC from an attempted gang rape, the creepy guy informs her that he just couldn’t stop himself from saving her because she’s so beautiful. You read that right.
11. MC is found roughed up and in a Halloween costume on Halloween. Her colleague, another cop who’s a man, finds her and doesn’t even ask what happened or make the obvious connection that she was assaulted. He jumps right to shaming and taunting her, calling her attractive, and asking if she’s working undercover dressed as a prostitute.
12. The male colleague for some reason insists on taking MC downtown for questioning as if she’s the bad guy and makes mention of having a female cop strip search her. It’s stated that it’s clear in his expression that he’d prefer to do the strip searching in private himself. Also, when one of the subdued attackers calls MC “too hot to handle” the cop agrees. Aloud.
13. The cop continues to press how slutty he thinks MC’s costume is, to the point he tells her he wants to strip her out of it. Her reaction is to just accept it because that’s how men are. Seriously.
14. A victim of police brutality decides to hide the myriad of bruises and marks not from fear but because it wounds his pride to admit he was injured. So he doesn’t tell anyone, even though he’s convinced they’d be punished if called out, and instead takes satisfaction in feeling superior to them. Because fuck other victims he could help (or prevent from being victimized), I guess.
15. This happens in front of reporters and nothing is said or done about it: The deputy escorting Hugh prodded a police baton into his back and snarled at him. "Make one more smart ass move and I swear I'll bust your skull in you sissy Brit."

Fifteen problematic, gross, and/or just plain poorly written things - and that is just the ones bad enough to be noteworthy - in 23 percent. That’s possibly a new record! But not the kind of record that means anything positive.

The only reason I’m not putting this one on the “so bad I deleted it” shelf is because I might want to keep it around for when I want to rant with my friends about some of the gross narrative elements we’ve found in things we’ve read.