The Gods of Gotham
alvin says:
now that I've finished it, I absolutely hated it. I quite liked this book for the first two thirds, both for its sympathetic protagonist and for its portrayal of New York and its newly-established police force. That is, I liked it until the last part of the book, when Timothy finds out about Mercy Underhill and solves the crimes. This part of the novel was simply batshit insane, and not in a good way. Of course these will be some values dissonance with a man from the 1800s, but that had been downplayed significantly all book, with Timothy consistently reacting in a much more humane way than could be expected from him. For him to suddenly go on a hateful, mysogynistic distribe towards the woman he supposedly loves when he finds out that she is not the perfect madonna he had so clearly placed on a pedestal is both jarring and made me instantly despise him. He seriously tells her that of course her sexuality should be all about him, after all, he LOVES her, and therefore she mu...st cater ho him and his fantasies exclusively, and then leaves her half-dressed in a hostile place. For him to later try to justify his actions as being "for her" is incredibly hypocritical and made me hate him even more. However, his treatment of Mercy is not my only problem with the ending of this book. Twenty-one children are dead and were brutally disfuígured after death. I feel like someone at least should be punished. Nonetheless, the man who paid for children's corpses to dissect and never even asked why they kept dying so conveniently just when he needed them is neither arrested nor kept from furter contact with children. According to Timothy, he does so much good as a doctor that this small matter of dissecting children's corpses without their consent and then hurriedly dumping them in a shallow grave shouldn't matter at all, and he is pitied rather than punished. The fabulously rich madam, who forcibly prostitutes small children and kills them whenever the doctor needs a new corpse, ia apparently untouchable by the law, and Timothy simply extorts the paltry sum of 350$ from her so that he can pay for Mercy to go to London (instead of using it to help her still-alive victims, because they don't deserve a new start in life, I guess). So she gets off without the smallest inconvenience to her, despite having admitted to seven murders to a policeman. Finally, the reverend who brutally murdered and slaughtered a small child and publically crucified it, all so he could throw blame for the murders on the Irish. Next to this horrific crime, trying to drown his daughter seems almost insignificant, and for her sake, Timothy lets the reverend hang himself to escape prison, and even ensures that his reputation after his death remains spotless. The ending of the book makes it out like Timothy is an amazing policeman who stands up for the weak and ensures that justice is carried out, but that's simply not true. He is no better than the others, who are trying to use the new police force for their own political ends. His goals are simply different from theirs, but he is just as despicable as them, both as a man and as a policeman.
Mischa says:
First rate historical fiction is mixed with a serial murder mystery. NYC in 1845 is deluged with immigrants being greeted with very desperate living conditions upon settling there. The "nativists" are hateful xenophobes resenting the settling of Irish and Catholics. (Nothing about Americanhistory or present day has changed on this score.) The forming of NYC's very first police department is viewed with suspicion as a Democrat government takeover. Politics affect every decision in the city. And two brothers struggle in a very complicated relationship. Faye, who wrote 'Jane Steele', is great.MoreLess
now that I've finished it, I absolutely hated it. I quite liked this book for the first two thirds, both for its sympathetic protagonist and for its portrayal of New York and its newly-established police force. That is, I liked it until the last part of the book, when Timothy finds out about Mercy Underhill and solves the crimes. This part of the novel was simply batshit insane, and not in a good way. Of course these will be some values dissonance with a man from the 1800s, but that had been downplayed significantly all book, with Timothy consistently reacting in a much more humane way than could be expected from him. For him to suddenly go on a hateful, mysogynistic distribe towards the woman he supposedly loves when he finds out that she is not the perfect madonna he had so clearly placed on a pedestal is both jarring and made me instantly despise him. He seriously tells her that of course her sexuality should be all about him, after all, he LOVES her, and therefore she mu...st cater ho him and his fantasies exclusively, and then leaves her half-dressed in a hostile place. For him to later try to justify his actions as being "for her" is incredibly hypocritical and made me hate him even more. However, his treatment of Mercy is not my only problem with the ending of this book. Twenty-one children are dead and were brutally disfuígured after death. I feel like someone at least should be punished. Nonetheless, the man who paid for children's corpses to dissect and never even asked why they kept dying so conveniently just when he needed them is neither arrested nor kept from furter contact with children. According to Timothy, he does so much good as a doctor that this small matter of dissecting children's corpses without their consent and then hurriedly dumping them in a shallow grave shouldn't matter at all, and he is pitied rather than punished. The fabulously rich madam, who forcibly prostitutes small children and kills them whenever the doctor needs a new corpse, ia apparently untouchable by the law, and Timothy simply extorts the paltry sum of 350$ from her so that he can pay for Mercy to go to London (instead of using it to help her still-alive victims, because they don't deserve a new start in life, I guess). So she gets off without the smallest inconvenience to her, despite having admitted to seven murders to a policeman. Finally, the reverend who brutally murdered and slaughtered a small child and publically crucified it, all so he could throw blame for the murders on the Irish. Next to this horrific crime, trying to drown his daughter seems almost insignificant, and for her sake, Timothy lets the reverend hang himself to escape prison, and even ensures that his reputation after his death remains spotless. The ending of the book makes it out like Timothy is an amazing policeman who stands up for the weak and ensures that justice is carried out, but that's simply not true. He is no better than the others, who are trying to use the new police force for their own political ends. His goals are simply different from theirs, but he is just as despicable as them, both as a man and as a policeman.
Mischa says:
First rate historical fiction is mixed with a serial murder mystery. NYC in 1845 is deluged with immigrants being greeted with very desperate living conditions upon settling there. The "nativists" are hateful xenophobes resenting the settling of Irish and Catholics. (Nothing about Americanhistory or present day has changed on this score.) The forming of NYC's very first police department is viewed with suspicion as a Democrat government takeover. Politics affect every decision in the city. And two brothers struggle in a very complicated relationship. Faye, who wrote 'Jane Steele', is great.MoreLess
arrow1408 6 years ago
book is lit i like the book there is soooo much action into the book hope you like the book see ya byeWrite Review:
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