well behaved women

So I was reading a review of Lilith Saintcrow's Working for the Devil, just about my favorite book in the world. They didn't like it much. Okay. Among other perceived flaws, they thought Dante was a Mary Sue. Bwuh? Baffled, I read on in hopes of discovering their rationale.

It was this: she has friends.

....okay, let's go over that again. Because Dante has two old friends that like her despite her "bitchiness", she's a Mary Sue. Both of whom have no problem calling her on her shit; one of whom she has every right to be bitchy to, the other who knows and verbally acknowledges that searching for the murderer of her dead lover puts Dante on edge. It's not like these are the only sample of characters, either; Eddie doesn't seem to fond of her and he's a primary protagonist and a great guy, and Japh isn't too impressed with her on first sight. Right! Having friends makes a heroine a Mary Sue. Color me educated.

The second complaint? They couldn't understand why the hero had fallen in love with Danny. Okay, demon assassin, valued because he kills his brethren for the Prince of Hell, probably not a real appreciated fellow down there. Meets a woman who, despite being cranky and bristly and short tempered shows him respect, apologizes when her temper takes her out of turn, moves to protect him and defends him against her friends. And shares her fresh-ground non-synth coffee with him of course, always a bonus. Boy, I can't imagine why anyone would like her.

Still, that's my opinion. If they can't see it, too bad. But there's one big flaw in this.

Why should Danny fall in love with him? He stuck a gun in her face, manhandled her, forced her into Hell, compromised her hunt, insulted her. The insults were more along the lines of "WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN RECKLESS CRAZY WOMAN" and there's a lot more to his actions but since these reviewers aren't paying attention to subtleties neither will we. So I'd say Dante has a whole lot less reason to fall in love with Japh than he does to fall in love with her. Is this mentioned?

HA. Of course not! He's a man, of course she'll fall in love with him, why wasn't she fawning over him sooner irrational bitch. They also talk about how they don't believe that someone as angry as Danny could be a great martial artist, but it's pointed out several times in the book that hunting for Doreen's murderer puts her badly on edge and that's not acknowledged in the review.

I'm so goddamn tired of this attitude, constantly favoring heroes over heroines with no reason whatsoever, calling their trauma or distress 'whining' while a hero's is 'angstOMGSOHAWT'. Yeah.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, you lost every credit for intelligence I ever, ever gave you. And made me want to vomit. Nice work!