Avery’s Reviews > The Girl in His Shadow > Status Update

And characters keep saying Nora is this “I’m not like other girls” kinda girl but all I’m seeing is her fold at like. A look from a guy. Girl can you lock the fuck in and do the medicine? Also a bit of internalized misogyny on her half and I’m not sure if it was intentional or not

The characters also seem so inconsistent. Like on one page Gibson tells us (that’s another issue, SO MUCH telling instead of showing and just generally treating the reader like an idiot) that Croft is a selfless man lacking ego, and then the next page has Croft essentially bragging about how none of his apprentices are at all unqualified. Like bro which is it??

The romance is pissing me off. Like if someone set Grey’s Anatomy in the 1800s. They’re so petty and ridiculous about stuff, it INFURIATES ME. And I’m so annoyed by it I’m finding little mistakes that I’d otherwise ignore, like American spelling being used for words like colour and rumours and the word clout being used in a way that would not pop up for another 25 years. I’m so excited to be done

I’m so mad I need to write more. I picked up this book for a historical fiction novel about a woman in medicine. NOT to hear about a random man I don’t give a fuck about get annoyed by this girl and a housekeeper. Good lord I’m so mad I’ve booked this and the sequel 😭 going from The Help to this is jarring and in a VERY BAD WAY

(I’m not finished) and now I gotta hear about how “Fetid odors lingered in the streets, insinuating their way into the house.” THATS NOT WHAT INSINUATING MEANS. ALSO WHY ARE WE SPELLING IT ODOR, THIS IS SET IN BRITAIN. Anyways the thing that might irk me most is the male POV. I can excuse it for the prologue but I’ve read 40 pages of this fucking book and about 6 of them have been from Nora’s perspective.

The rhythm is fucking grating. I need this author to PUT DOWN THE COMMAS. I mean look at this; “Francis Beady, a stationer, was gone already, buried in quicklime a week ago, but the wife, Margaret, ignored grief with an iron will.” It’s a slog to read, esp because the prose is overly flowery which makes it extra frustrating. I’m already being hypnotized by how repetitive the prose is and I also gotta hear