Dear Author (Oh, and SJARL marker)

[neadods]

Dear Author,

I try not to judge books by their covers, but I'm damn well going to judge a title like The Merry Misogynist. Really? REALLY?? The overwhelming number of cozy readers are women and you're seriously trying to entice them with THAT title? I don't give a shit what it's about; I wouldn't be caught dead with that title in my possession, nor could I seriously recommend it to anyone else no matter how well it's written... which frankly, I doubt it could be, because any halfway competent author or publishing house should have sent up a forest of red flags on that one.

Signed,

People like you are why I left the mystery reviewing biz

Comments

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

This one's not really a cosy if the others in the series are anything to go by (I've got this one in Mount TBR). I can think of better titles, but it fits with the setting -- 1970s Laos and an elderly and rather eccentric coroner.

I'm bothered more by serial killer books and the rampant misogyny in those.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

One of the things I promised myself when I got out was that I would never read "fem jep" again - the ones where only females are in jeopardy. That and torture porn, especially as they so often go together. (Talk about misogyny!)

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Don't even get me started on that! I have a lengthy list of authors I won't read (some of them female ones, which is immensely depressing).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

My list of "never read"s grew exponentially when I started reviewing.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

My husband and I used to watch a TV series on forensics-- reports of actual cases-- partly because a friend who's interested in forensics asked us to tape it for her.

After a while I started referring to the series as The Lesbian Hour because of the high percentage of cases involving women killed by their husbands or sexual partners. (I hesitate to say "boyfriends".) Watching for long would make almost any straight woman consider turning, for her own safety.

In fairness, these were all cases that had been solved, and having an obvious suspect would make that easier, hence perhaps the prevalence of this kind of case on the series. Still, rather creepy.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I could do a whole essay about how many people still see women as property to be disposed of as they wish...