PositiveThe Newtown Review of Books (AUS)Bates’s pithy mixture of thoroughly researched facts, opinion and personal experience updates Susan Faludi’s Backlash for the digital age by exploring the horrifying ways men are organising online to oppose, belittle and arrest fourth-generation MeToo feminism. Men Who Hate Women provides a confronting, deeply shocking insight into this ugly and frightening world of misogyny—‘the manosphere’—and its perfect fit with social media platforms that support extremist politics with such ease ... The strength of Bates’s position lies in the way she is able to understand how easy it can be for lonely, vulnerable, uninformed men to get sucked into one of the rabbit holes that lead to the manosphere ... Bates’s argument is not without flaws—her failure to link the ballooning growth of extremism with the devastating effects of globalisation on lower-middle-class white men who lost jobs during the last two decades and have joined forces with the traditional right, is an oversight because it is important when considering the remedy. But overall, Men Who Hate Women is a convincing read.
Emma Donoghue
MixedNewtown Review of Books (AUS)The novel is dotted with fascinating details about Nice, its history and countless references to French culture, and this factual material is mostly well worked into the narrative. And yet, while the novel represents a return to Donoghue’s enormously successful earlier concerns, Akin fails to deliver in terms of psychological tension. The story’s most compelling elements remain buried deep in the subplot, and the present where the plot is set has too little in the way of dramatic stakes to compensate and keep the reader turning the pages ... The novel has its heart in the right place, the plight of children growing up in poverty is an indisputably worthy subject for a contemporary novel ... Donoghue’s fine ear for dialogue makes for entertaining reading, and despite lacking a little tension along the way, Akin delivers a heart-warming, satisfying ending.
