Thriller. Trigger Warning for discussion of rape.Let's review: 1. "He identifies and removes only the organ he wants. Nothing more. And what he wants is the womb." [...] "He hates women," she said. "He cuts out the one thing that makes them women." (p.60)2. Ignoring the water bottle and the disgusting object it contained... (p.67) 3. "'She thought: "It's my fault. I shouldn't have been so careless." But that's how it is with women.' She looked directly at Moore. 'We blame ourselves for everything, even when it's the man who does the fucking.'" (p.126)4. Above all, he did not want her to think him condescending. More than any woman he'd ever met, she commanded his respect. (p.136)5. Hair was so very personal. A woman wears it, sleeps with it. It carries fragrance and color and texture. A woman's very essence. No wonder Catherine had been horrified to learn that a man she did not know possessed such an intimate part of her. (p.195)6. "He only assaults women who act like victims." (p.247)1. So a womb is the thing that makes a woman! Glad we solved that.2. This is Rizzoli thinking and the "disgusting object" is actually a tampon. I'm assuming it's unused because how would a bunch of men get a used tampon, let alone shove it into a bottle of mineral water, but how could a clean tampon be considered disgusting unless you hate women and/or female bodies?3. Fucking! A word with excellent shock value! HOWEVER, fucking is sex. Rape is not sex. Sorry, but you're only perpetuating the misconception that rape is just a kind of unhappy sex. Also nice is how this character (angry, possibly man-hating, woman) is saying that all women blame themselves for being raped. 4. Oh no, it's not condescending at all to be given respect for being a particular kind of woman, rather than simply a human being. You have to respect the ladies in a different way than you respect men. Because otherwise that might lead to gender equality.5. Yes, Thomas, that's why Catherine was horrified to find out that HER RAPIST HAD CUT A LOCK OF HER HAIR AS A KEEPSAKE. Because hair smells good, and is infused with womanly essences. NOT BECAUSE IT'S COMPLETELY INVASIVE AND CREEPY AS FUCK.And that final quote. Do I even have to explain that no woman acts like a victim? The problem with this book is that it revolves around a murderer who hunts, terrorizes, dismembers, and kills women. So let's assume he hates women, or at least harbors a lot of rage toward them. Then there are the male psychologists who are attempting to understand him, and thus, in a professional setting, use words like "bitch," for instance. Are they trying to mimic what they see as the thought patterns of the suspect or do they routinely refer to women as bitches? It's not clear. There's little to no framing language or verbal hedging that allows us to make that distinction. The male detectives are trying to track and identify the subject, but they don't let that stop them from enjoying a good rape joke at the crime scene; meanwhile Saint Thomas (he of the dead wife) feels vaguely unhappy about it but doesn't do anything to stop them. Even Rizzoli, who is female herself, seems to dislike, suspect, and resent women almost as much as her male colleagues do.I can't separate the narrative from the authorial intent. All I know is that it sucks, okay? It's full of rape, casual misogyny, and an almost subliminal devotion to the idea that women are VICTIMS VICTIMS VICTIMS. Also, according to this, the sole thing that makes a person female is the uterus or -- god help me -- womb as they insist on calling it half the time. Again, that's probably just what the detectives see as the suspect's mindset, but the conflation of uterus and womb is problematic on any level. Not everybody's uterus is a womb.After all that it seems petty to complain about the stilted introspection, the purple prose, the lengthy italicized sections where the murderer talks about his craft in the most pretentious language imaginable, or the fact that I didn't like any of the characters, but I'm still going to complain. Rizzoli might grow on me, though, so that leaves me with the difficult decision of whether to give Gerritsen another try. This is a mediocre book about a terrible subject made worse by clumsy writing about rape, VICTIMS (not, let's be clear, survivors), and being female in a male world. Um, not recommended for anyone. I've read a lot of trashy thrillers in my time and I will shrug off a lot of iffy things in the interest of mindless entertainment, but this set my mind into angry overdrive. Not relaxing at all.
I may not watch the Rizzoli and Isles TV series, but I do watch CSI: Las Vegas.And one thing that stays into my mind while reading the Surgeon is that, this is like Crime Scene Investigation paperback style without any hot lab technician! Aw man.What we have is an insecure female Detective, a surgeon who is haunted by a fuckward killer, a male detective who I still don't know how to categorize and a brilliant psycho who has by far, the most interesting narration in the whole book.Not trying to be a bitch...Oh alright! I'm being a bitch. But I have so much expectations with this book that I practically took a day off from work just to finish it.So let's start what makes this book rub me the wrong way. Jane Rizzoli: The detective with insecurities. Sweetie, we all suffer from insecurities,but good God, can't you honestly just get over it?! The tough chick act only works for a few chapters before it got annoying. I get it that has to be all tough and macho because she works in a place where the testosterone level is higher than the fucking Everest, but I keep on getting irritated when she whines to herself that she deserves some respect, she deserves to be given credit for what she earns, she deserves this and that and IT'S GETTING ON MY NERVES! Here's the tip detective. You can't demand to your co-workers to respect you for being a female detective, when you get even annoyed by your gender.Show them that you can be a woman and be tough, rather than deny feminism and act all manly just to be recognized as brave.P.S: You better watch Game of Thrones. Tyrion has a wonderful quote that you should learn.The relationship between Rizzoli and Moore: Totally non-existent for me, but the book keeps on insisting that they have one. We already established the fact that Rizzoli has some self- issues to work with. What I also don't understand is the, "friendship" of Rizzoli and Moore.First five chapters:She hates him because she thinks he's there to take the case from her, seeing she's a woman and incapable of handling a case.Keyword: HATEChapter six to twenty or so:They become friends of sort.There's been no swapping of saliva or any form of body fluids have been mentioned. Just that, Rizzoli started seeing Moore as her best friend, seeing he's quote " different from the other male"unquote. She may also start getting possessive.Keyword: POSSESSIVELast chapters:She hated Moore again because he fell for Cordell and he proved to be just another male who fells for woman who has tits and ass. She had also explained that she's jealous because Moore is having a romantic relationship with the victim, in which she saw as unprofessional.They're friends, but she acts like she's Moore's unlucky wife...Gah.Keyword: JEALOUSHere's also another con for the book.The medical terms and explanationI know that the author just want to explain the scenes more properly by throwing in medical words and procedure but, for some simple-minded people like me, too much scientific and medical words is a guarantee to make me bored. There are moments in the book where the suspense is killing me then the author would put a lengthy explanation about what the doctors/ police are saying, thus deflating the moment.I may be comparing this novel to some Sidney Sheldon books, where it's fast paced and the author just gave you enough facts to make you understand the context and yet at the same time, let you die of suspense.Some people get high by reading medical words. I get turned off by it. This book is not bad.If you want icky scenes where blood and guts are available, good plot and awesome facts, then this book is for you. Despite my review, it' s still a good book in which I can recommend to some of my friends.But if we have the same taste of books and same feelings to annoying MC, then let's just sit in the sidewalk and watch the reactions of those who reads this book.
What do You think about The Surgeon (2015)?
The Surgeon is a brilliantly written medical thriller, that will have you gripped and terrified from page one until you finish the novel. As a avid reader of mystery, suspense thrillers, this novel delivered so much more. It was all a game. The Surgeon fed on terror. He attacked women who were victims. He was always in control. The victims had been tied down, raped and gutted. Three women had been raped but only one victim had reported her rape to the police. All three had sought medical attention in different places. The Surgeon had been attracted to their pain.The story begins with a successful physician named Catherine Cordell who was nearly murdered a few years back in Savannah but lived to tell the tale because she blew her attacker away before he could finish the job. With her attacker's death, the string of grotesque torture-murders ends in Savannah, but then resurfaces in Boston. Which is just where Cordell now resides. The new murderer, nicknamed "The Surgeon", moves through Boston like air carrying out his sick fantasies that are identical to the string of murders in Savannah. You'd think it was the same killer, but how could it be? Follow this talented author as she masterfully leads her characters to solving the puzzle of The Surgeon, a terrifying tale like none you've ever read before. You will never leave your window open at night again!
—Sue
4,5 estrelasO Cirurgião foi a minha estreia com a autora Tess Gerritsen. Decidi lê-lo não só devido às óptimas críticas que ouvi, mas também porque estava disponível na “minha” biblioteca e ainda bem que o fiz!Este livro é o primeiro de uma série que já foi adaptada para a televisão e que provavelmente alguns de vocês já conhecem/viram - Rizzoli & Isles. Eu nunca vi, por isso comecei o livro às cegas. A acção decorre em Boston, na qual um homem anda a assassinar mulheres. Estes crimes são peculiares porque o assassino não se limita a assassiná-las: ele entra na casa das vítimas durante a noite, deixa-as inconscientes, despe-as, amarra-as à cama com fita isoladora, espera que as vítimas acordem e depois dá inicio ao seu trabalho... um trabalho nojento e repugnante, que me arrepiou todos os pelinhos do corpo! E que trabalho é esse, perguntam vocês? Ele abre as mulheres, retira-lhes o útero, deixa-as a sofrer e depois corta-lhes a garganta. Depois de terem a gargantas cortadas, as vítimas ainda vivem mais uns minutos, afogando-se no seu próprio sangue. Arrepiante não?O que também é arrepiante é que estes crimes apresentam semelhanças gritantes com outros crimes acontecidos há mais de dois anos, os quais culminaram na morte do criminoso e na sobrevivência da sua última vítima, a doutora Catherine Cordell. Então quem anda a perpetrar estes crimes horrendos? E porque escolheu precisamente aquelas mulheres, mulheres que não só não se conheciam, como se moviam em círculos diferentes?No inicio fiquei um pouco preocupada. Uma vez que Catherine é cirugiã, trabalha num hospital (“dahh, óbvio!”, dizem vocês) e uma das cenas iniciais passa-se no hospital em que Catherine está a tentar salvar uma vida e há imensos termos técnicos. Pois bem, eu estudo Gestão, não Medicina e aqueles termos para mim eram chinês! Ao lê-los só pensei:Depois entrei no ritmo do livro, e embora ainda tenha havido termos técnicos já não eram tão frequentes nem tão condensados, o que me permitiu descontrair e apreciar a leitura.O livro aborda um tema tabu da sociadade: a violação. Gostei bastante da abordagem que a autora deu a este tema. Ela representou o que eu penso ser uma imagem bem real das mulheres que passam por este trauma e da maneira como vêem o mundo e as pessoas que as rodeiam. Houve uma frase que uma personagem disse que me ficou gravada na memória que foi mais ou menos assim “Os homens vêem as mulheres violadas como mercadoria estragada”. Sim, penso que alguns homens são capazes de pensar assim, mas felizmente existem outros que conseguem ver para além da superfície. Conseguem ver a mulher e respeitá-la por ter sido forte o suficiente para superar um trauma tão brutal quanto a violação, tal como Moore e Falco. Fiquei deveras feliz com a relação entre Moore e Catherine, achei-os perfeitos um para o outro.Outra coisa que gostei foi o POV do criminoso. É algo que sempre me atraiu e julgo que sempre me atrairá: “ver” a mente dele a funcionar, como ele planeia, o que o motiva, o que ele extrai dos seus crimes. E o Cirurgião tem uma mente brilhante pelo que senti imenso prazer em ler as suas cenas.A detective principal, Rizzoli, no ínicio não gostei muito dela. No fim já gostei mais um pedacinho, mas não é das minhas protagonistas preferidas. Apesar de ser inteligente, focada, determinada e forte, ela também é insegura, amarga e um pouco vingativa. Talvez mude de opinião nos próximos livros.Após todo este testamento (e peço desculpa desde já pela extensão da review), resta-me dizer Tess Gerritsen é certamente uma autora a ter em consideração.
—Cata
This is a hard book to review; I wanted to give it 3 Stars but its effect made me bump it up to 4. I started it on Saturday and finished it on Sunday; when I went to bed on Saturday it stayed with me and gave me vivid, horrible dreams. Most books don't have that effect.Before going into my review, this isn't the Rizzoli & Isles of TNT's show (which I love); if anything this is what R&I would be on FX or HBO. It's gritty and dark and what a true "crime thriller" is meant to be. Overall, the narrative isn't wonderful. It is a good thriller and a page-turner. I needed to know what happened next. And, in the end, I wasn't disappointed with the story. However, there are a lot of issues I had this with book. First, as some of the other people mentioned, Rizzoli isn't a sympathetic character. I found her brash and annoying. She has a chip on her shoulder that the male detectives don't respect her, but throughout the book I didn't see her act in anyway to warrant respect. She ignored protocol, she went off on her own and kept leads because she wanted the credit, and she lashed out at her partner multiple times. She was a miserable person. One point Rizzoli is home with her family and her brother is in town and she thinks about how they don't respect her, but they respect him. She thinks something along the lines of as a Marine he only played at war, while as a police officer she was living it. This is insulting to soldiers and to police offers -- this shouldn't be a reflection of our police force. It also felt at times as though Gerritsen was writing about an outdated attitude towards females in the police force; which is insulting as a woman reading. I found everyone's attitudes frustrating. The POV was confusing. I still don't know if this was meant to be a book based on Rizzoli or her partner Moore. It seemed to flip midway through the book. We follow Moore to Savannah, where we learn a key piece of evidence, and suddenly when he returns the rest of the book exclusively follows Rizzoli. Gerritsen also flips at the end of each chapter and shows us the villain's thoughts -- but never explains why or what this is. Is it just random musings? It gives us insight into the criminal but it felt out of place. Unless we knew more. The writing is also a bit too much. The medical and technical explanations were well done, if a bit much at time. There was a tendency to be repetitive and to tell the reader something, then show it. I'd say with that there was at least a quarter of the book that could have been cut off. Will I read the next one? Eventually. I'm curious to see the introduction of Dr. Isles, but I'm not rushing out to read it and will probably allow a few books before I read that.
—Cat
