Dr. John A. King reviews The Fog by Brooke Hardwick, praising its Irish setting and twist but criticizing its reliance on gendered tropes: male characters as abusers, all female characters as victims. He advises skipping it because commentary overshadows character work.
So here you are, your 1-minute book review this morning, The Fog by Brooke Hardwick. So I'm going to rate it on the brilliant to bollock meter first, and then I'm going to explain why, tell you what I love about it, etc. So this book, The Fog by Brooke Hardwick, I'm going to give it a full bollock, and here's why. So the things I like about it, I thought the setting was good. Being to Ireland, it was very, very real atmosphere, and the writing was very, very good. Twist at the end was, you know, was it predictable? No, but it was good. Some of the descriptions of Celtic culture, very good. Reasonable. So what I didn't like and what it— why it got the full 100 on the bollock, it's a bit of a trope book. It's one of those books where every male protagonist, except for some cliché Scots guy, is one of those narcissistic, psychopathic members of the patriarchy, all that bullshit and carry-on. And every female is a strong, independent, smart, intelligent victim. So if you're a smart, intelligent female, How the hell does 100% of the female characters be bloody victims? So for me, it's full trope. It's more concerned with some sort of commentary as opposed to characters. It doesn't focus on the art. It wants to make some sort of point, which is a non-existent point. And unfortunately, it's a habit that a lot of female writers are in at the moment. It's like, All men are bastards, we're all victims, which is total bullshit. So there you go, The Fog on the Meter, full bollocks. Don't waste your time, read something else. Cheers. Cheers.
