Frank's Reviews > Iron Kissed
Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, #3)
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These books are trashy. Normally, I enjoy them anyway, they are a guilty pleasure. This third book in the Mercedes series has the weakest plot of them all. Not much really happens in it. I can forgive that, since I find the books to be near-romance novel quality. The biggest problem I have with it, other than the main character's whining about the decisions of her love life, is the author's inability to write. Oh, Briggs can compose a sentence and her grammar is fine, but the treatment she gives certain situations and topics in the book is . . . I don't want to say ham-fisted, because she crafted it well. She just didn't craft it right. The male behavior (even the behavior explained away as 'werwolf' behavior), the culminating event of the book, all should have been treated with more depth and respect and understanding. I guess I will have to give away a bit of the end of the book to better explain this. There is a rape in the book. Yes, the rape has certain supernatural characteristics in it, but it is still a rape, and still presented very much like a non-magical criminal rape. Now, maybe Briggs did do research on the subject, and maybe she did speak to rape victims before writing the book. Maybe she even (and I certainly hope not) was the victim of violence, sexual or otherwise, herself. If she was or had done any of that, I would be totally surprised. The way the main character deals with her rape in this novel, you would think Briggs didn't do any of that. It reads as if she never spoke to a rape victim before, or even watched a moderately serious movie on the subject.
This is probably my last Briggs novel. The author's inability to realistically portray the seriousness of certain events (or explain them away, such as 'he was sexually abused as a child and that's why he's a real jerk now') totally killed it for me. I enjoy the universe and mythology she has set up in these books. I would love to see some other author write a story in the same setting.
This is probably my last Briggs novel. The author's inability to realistically portray the seriousness of certain events (or explain them away, such as 'he was sexually abused as a child and that's why he's a real jerk now') totally killed it for me. I enjoy the universe and mythology she has set up in these books. I would love to see some other author write a story in the same setting.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
August 9, 2008
– Shelved
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And to other commenters or other people curious about rape in general, I don't think anyone should be forced to OUT themselves as someone who has experienced abuse or assault in order to have an opinion about rape or how a scene struck them. I think that the victim or survivor thing is an overly-simplistic false dichotomy that doesn't really deal with the slew of often-contradictory feelings that accompany being physically and emotionally violated by another person. Everyone I know carries elements of both. And being told that you either "buck up" or let it crush you seems to deny a person the right to feel hurt by hurt caused them, as if it's an unjustifiable weakness, which is just really crass.
Grrr.
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How so? What specifically about the way Briggs handled the rape made it seem unrealistic to you? And I suppose the next logical question is have you talked to a lot of rape victims or been the victim of a sexual crime yourself?
I'm genuinely curious. I'm reading the book right now and haven't gotten to that part yet, so I can't say whether I agree with you or not. I may get there and feel the same way.
But I already knew this was going to happen before I started the book, and I'm a chronic "flipper-aheader", so I have read bits and pieces of it and seems to me that the way she handles Mercy's guilt about the incident was pretty realistic. (And no, I personally have never spoken to a rape victim or been the victim of a violent crime.)
But I feel like your review makes an accusation but never backs it up or explains why you felt that way, and I'm curious to know.