Entry tags:
DNF because DNW
Continuing to try to write more about books ...
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor is a cute, funny book about zany time-traveling historians, with an engaging heroine and ensemble cast and clever, fun narrative voice ... that I DNF'd halfway through last night because of a rape attempt on the heroine by a trusted male friend in a particularly squicky scenario. (Followed by even more squick. See below cut.)
In general, I'm not actually that offput by rape as a narrative or backstory device. I mean, it's not my favorite thing, I am totally fine if it's left off the table as an option even in circumstances when it would be likely, but like character death, it's something that (narratively speaking) works for me in some instances and I'm willing to read past in others. It's rarely an automatic DNF. But I guess it does depend on how it goes down, and I think in this case I ran headlong into a wall of NOPE because I really wasn't expecting it, and because the way it went down was both too real-worldish for a light, fun novel about time-traveling historians, and, well, intensely squicky.
Basically, she wakes up to her male colleague trying to rape her in her sleep. She then learns that he's been recording her sleeping and himself jacking off to her while she's sleeping. THEN he tries to murder her to cover up the rape, gets killed himself in a particularly gruesome way (dismemberment by velociraptor after being stabbed in the femoral artery in raptor country), and turns out to be a traitor working for Team Bad Guy who was also undermining her and cribbing off her work.
That was. A lot.
... I think individually, and minus the squickiest aspects of the scenario (apparently I have discovered a brand new giant squick! WHO KNEW!), I would have been fine with any one of these things. Having the heroine defend herself from a rape attempt in one of the time periods they were visiting, minus the betrayal and nonconsensual use of her as wank fodder, I think wouldn't have hit me in the same way. And the general trope of One Of Us Is A Traitor is always fun. (I almost feel like part of my annoyance with this is that it's a waste of a perfectly good mole plotline, since there wasn't even a hint beforehand that there was a traitor in their midst at all.) Or one of her colleagues dying gorily -- this has already happened a time or two.
But, yeah. I put it down at that point, and I keep thinking about going back to it and just thinking, "Nope." It doesn't help that the guy who turned out to be a murdering rapist, her time-travel partner, was also the one with whom she had the most interesting and complicated relationship in the book, at least IMHO; we are now left with a bunch of nice-but-bland coworkers that she's not very close to, her sweet but not especially interesting love interest, and a mystery involving time-traveling baddies that has already had most of the mystery revealed.
Also. I mean. Characters had died earlier in the book, but not like THAT. In like a chapter we went from jokes about time-travel bureaucracy and the heroine being all "Squee! Dinosaurs!" to squicky sleeping rape attempts and the heroine picking up a guy's boot with his foot still in it and watching velociraptors play with his severed head.
If this doesn't sound like that big of a turnoff, I really do recommend the book other than that - I mean, as of about 40% into it. The narrative voice is great, the heroine is great, and the premise is fun. Just ... I DNF'd hard at that point and don't really see myself going back to it.
ETA: About that qualified recommendation ... apparently the book just keeps getting worse. See a spoilery rundown of all the reasons why at![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
musesfool's blog.
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor is a cute, funny book about zany time-traveling historians, with an engaging heroine and ensemble cast and clever, fun narrative voice ... that I DNF'd halfway through last night because of a rape attempt on the heroine by a trusted male friend in a particularly squicky scenario. (Followed by even more squick. See below cut.)
In general, I'm not actually that offput by rape as a narrative or backstory device. I mean, it's not my favorite thing, I am totally fine if it's left off the table as an option even in circumstances when it would be likely, but like character death, it's something that (narratively speaking) works for me in some instances and I'm willing to read past in others. It's rarely an automatic DNF. But I guess it does depend on how it goes down, and I think in this case I ran headlong into a wall of NOPE because I really wasn't expecting it, and because the way it went down was both too real-worldish for a light, fun novel about time-traveling historians, and, well, intensely squicky.
Basically, she wakes up to her male colleague trying to rape her in her sleep. She then learns that he's been recording her sleeping and himself jacking off to her while she's sleeping. THEN he tries to murder her to cover up the rape, gets killed himself in a particularly gruesome way (dismemberment by velociraptor after being stabbed in the femoral artery in raptor country), and turns out to be a traitor working for Team Bad Guy who was also undermining her and cribbing off her work.
That was. A lot.
... I think individually, and minus the squickiest aspects of the scenario (apparently I have discovered a brand new giant squick! WHO KNEW!), I would have been fine with any one of these things. Having the heroine defend herself from a rape attempt in one of the time periods they were visiting, minus the betrayal and nonconsensual use of her as wank fodder, I think wouldn't have hit me in the same way. And the general trope of One Of Us Is A Traitor is always fun. (I almost feel like part of my annoyance with this is that it's a waste of a perfectly good mole plotline, since there wasn't even a hint beforehand that there was a traitor in their midst at all.) Or one of her colleagues dying gorily -- this has already happened a time or two.
But, yeah. I put it down at that point, and I keep thinking about going back to it and just thinking, "Nope." It doesn't help that the guy who turned out to be a murdering rapist, her time-travel partner, was also the one with whom she had the most interesting and complicated relationship in the book, at least IMHO; we are now left with a bunch of nice-but-bland coworkers that she's not very close to, her sweet but not especially interesting love interest, and a mystery involving time-traveling baddies that has already had most of the mystery revealed.
Also. I mean. Characters had died earlier in the book, but not like THAT. In like a chapter we went from jokes about time-travel bureaucracy and the heroine being all "Squee! Dinosaurs!" to squicky sleeping rape attempts and the heroine picking up a guy's boot with his foot still in it and watching velociraptors play with his severed head.
If this doesn't sound like that big of a turnoff, I really do recommend the book other than that - I mean, as of about 40% into it. The narrative voice is great, the heroine is great, and the premise is fun. Just ... I DNF'd hard at that point and don't really see myself going back to it.
ETA: About that qualified recommendation ... apparently the book just keeps getting worse. See a spoilery rundown of all the reasons why at
musesfool's blog.
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dismemberment by velociraptor after being stabbed in the femoral artery in raptor country
The rest is so squicky it even makes a scenario like that non-fun, because it's so wildly tonally inappropriate.
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AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. D:
I'm glad it's not just me on the squick. I think I wouldn't have been nearly as offput by, for example, someone trying to assault her in one of the historical periods she went to. But that was just so bleak, especially coming from someone she liked and trusted. I did not go into a book like this expecting something like THAT!
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Pro: The premise is good and the characters seem interesting with enough mystery to intrigue. The action was gripping and I had a hard time putting the book down.
Con: the author sadistically emotionally (and sometimes physically) tortures her main character. Most of the characters actually.
I was expecting a fun mad romp through history with mayhem, but I was left feeling like crying after I finished the book.
At one point, someone who I think is supposed to be a major character dies and instead of being sad, it's just another thing that happens because the character was never developed.
Started out as a relatively interesting time traveling novel. Then changed tone with serious abuse, then went completely crazy into romance novel level sex scene.
Also, I'm laughing at this one:
The book was rolling along okayish (welcome to dinoland) and then the 'annoying' type of sex started. Now I'm no prude, I have six kids and have thus partaken at least six times myself. What was annoying was the fact that it really added nothing to the tale and seemed written in solely to titillate the reader. The nasty partner was gross enough but I don't need to know how many fingers went where. Really I don't.
... I am wildly curious what the sex act was that set her off, though not really curious enough to read the rest of the book and find out. Does the heroine do anal?? LOL. Also "I'm not a prude, I have six kids so clearly had sex at least six times" - HAHAHAHA.
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Anyway on a more serious note, I don't have a noncon squick so much as I have a "wtf why is THAT in THIS book" squick, which is when the book suddenly swerves from lighthearted to serious (or vice versa). I severely dislike this kind of thing if not signaled and this one sounds like a biggie.
ETA: to clarify, I obviously enjoy humour and drama interleaved, but it needs to not feel like being hit by a truck.
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Same!! Honestly, one of my favorite things are books/shows/movies that are both funny and serious. The switch from goofy antics to sudden life-or-death peril is great. But apparently some tonal shifts are just TOO huge and this was, uh. That.
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(I was also hoping/half-expecting Barclay would turn out to develop an adversarially friendly relationship with the heroine. I guess not! I agree that Sussmann being a traitor actually makes sense as a plot twist, and that could have gone to a lot of interesting places, but EVIL RAPIST OF PUREST EVIL was just ... what what what.)
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I think the problem for me wasn't necessarily all the dark stuff that happens, as that it wasn't written very well. And yet there are apparently 12 books in the series!
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That's doubly frustrating when combined with the waste of the perfectly decent mole plotline: I don't know the details of their relationship, but he sounds as though he would have been much more valuable to the narrative alive and traitorous and with the protagonist feeling weird about the whole thing.
In like a chapter we went from jokes about time-travel bureaucracy and the heroine being all "Squee! Dinosaurs!" to squicky sleeping rape attempts and the heroine picking up a guy's boot with his foot still in it and watching velociraptors play with his severed head.
Unless the earlier lightness was meant to put the reader off their guard for the horror, that is the kind of tonal shift it is very difficult for a narrative to survive. I have enjoyed some simultaneously dark and zany stories, but that just sounds jarring.
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Yeah, I think it's a style mismatch that the author didn't quite pull off, at least for my tastes. I do frequently enjoy that sort of thing; some of my favorite things are shows, books, or movies that can switch gears from frothy and funny to dark and tragic. When it works, it's wonderful. And clearly this did work for many people judging by the large number of five-star reviews. It just didn't work for me.
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She really needs a good editor.
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You know how some books make you feel like there's an underlying sense of humanity to it, even when they're writing about awful people doing awful things? This book was the other kind.
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(I also never really forgave Max's love interest for his asshole move later in the book; she gets a blatantly only-there-for-one-book love interest later and I liked him so much more, despite the obvious relationship hurdle of him being medieval. And then the story went out of its way to kill him off at the end of the book, even though Max had already gone back to whatsisname! Again, argh.)
... I also disliked what it did with Jack the Ripper, but I never like Jack the Ripper plots anyway.
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.... etc.
Anyway, I feel as if not reading any further in the series is a case of "bullet dodged."
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The one book of hers that I did really enjoy (and which is why I picked up this one, expecting more of the same) is The Nothing Girl, which features a magical golden talking horse that only the heroine can see (in a magical realism kind of way rather than a “and now we will reveal the secret history of magic” fantasy kind of way), a delightful gentle hero, and a lot of English class-based comedy of manners.
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