Goodreads feminist reviews - Tolkien illustrated books: Fall of Gondolin and Unfinished Tales

Fig. 1 - Tuor arrives at Gondolin, by Alan Lee (illustration for The Fall of Gondolin)

 Another Tolkien post, more illustrated book reviews ✨! These were originally separate reviews on Goodreads, but I decided to make a couple of individual longer posts to talk about some of the illustrated Tolkien books published in the last few years: In the latest post I talked lengthily about Beren and Lúthien (which should be frankly rather titled Lúthien and Beren, but ah well, see the post for a lengthy rant about all that xD), and in this post I'll be now commenting on The Fall of Gondolin from the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series, and the newly illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales from 2020, which I got as a gift after finally defending my Astrophysics PhD thesis 😃. 

As a Tolkien collector, I wanted to have all three of these books mainly because of the new illustrations by Alan Lee (alongside John Howe and Ted Nasmith for the latest edition of Unfinished Tales), but in these reviews I'm also going to talk about the pros and cons of these books regarding their material, organization, format and commentary, and how worth it they are, in my opinion, either as reading material for a Tolkienite in general, as source material for a Tolkienite scholar, or as an additional book for a Tolkien book collector. Random feminist ramblings will also feature, as per the norm of this blog xD, and there will be an specific focus on these reviews regarding the representation and portrayal of female characters, as usual.

• 2) The Fall of Gondolin

 Book: The Fall of Gondolin (2018), by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee.  The second of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series edited by Christopher Tolkien (I-III) and Brian Sibley (IV), and illustrated by Alan Lee.

4/5. Goodreads review also here. 

- Is buying this book worth it? My opinion on content and format: 

As with Beren and Lúthien, this is a compilation of Tolkien works already published in books such as The Book of Lost Tales II or Unfinished Tales, with some added commentary, this time revolving around the story of Tuor, Idril and the Fall of Gondolin, and accompanied by a series of new drawings and watercolour plates by Alan Lee.

I liked this one better than Beren and Lúthien, both regarding format, organization and the content material (I love my namesake Lúthien to bits, but find some problematic issues from a feminist pov regarding the romantic plot, see my other review for more). Format-wise, Beren and Lúthien personally disappointed me quite a lot, as I explained at length in my other review - Instead of an organized compendium of all the versions of the tale of Lúthien and Beren in chronological order, alongside some notes and commentary talking about the evolution of the tale and its different versions, the book basically consisted of a hazaphardly organized selection of excerpts of different versions, already published in former books, with minimal commentary and a lack of organization overall, at least compared to what I was expecting from the book. 

The Fall of Gondolin also didn't include any new material except for some new commentary and notes, and I suspect that many Tolkienites - with me as an example of this 😅 - would have chosen to pay the arguably hefty sum of some 20 pounds (hardcover edition) mainly because of the new illustrations by Alan Lee. If you are a Tolkien book collector and/or like Alan Lee, I would say this book is definitely worth it, and I personally actually liked the graphite drawings and watercolour plates that Lee made for this book better than most of the ones in Beren and Lúthien, overall, although both sets were quite beautiful.

Some may consider this book to be a bit of a rip-off of reorganized existing material so that the Tolkien Estate could keep riding the wave of Tolkien book sells 🙃 (especially in light of the success garnered by The Children of Húrin, the first book in this 'Tales of Middle-earth' series), and frankly, they would have a point. However, I personally consider the Fall of Gondolin to be a book that's way more worth it than Beren and Lúthien, and that's because this is more in the line of what I wished Beren and Lúthien to be, regarding content and general organization: It's a compendium of pretty much all the material published in former books recounting the tale of the fall of Gondolin (minus the Silmarillion version), and including all unabridged versions of it, in chronological order. The commentary was, in my opinion, not particularly adding much to the notes and commentary already published in former books, but even so, I greatly appreciated the fact that this book did contain complete and unabridged versions of the tale of Gondolin, and followed a coherent order throughout, thus serving a compendium purpose as a separate book.

Yay for a book that's actually a reasonably well-organized actual compendium of existing material!

So, while there's no new material, I would say that this book makes way more sense on its own than Beren and Lúthien because of the way it's organized and the material it offers. Not only would the book interest Tolkien collectors and Alan Lee fans, but having a book that's a compendium of just Gondolin content, organized and unabridged, can also be markedly useful for Tolkien scholars and fans alike, be it because you just want to read a book focused on Gondolin tales, or because you're researching on this topic of the Tolkien universe and it's handy to have most Gondolin material all in one volume, instead of having to leaf through Book of Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales, and so on. So I was personally quite happy with it, especially in comparison to the former one. 

But still, lately most new Tolkien books (Nature of Middle-earth excepted) tend to be compilations or new editions containing already existing-material with some new illustrations, and they are not exactly cheap.  A new edition with new format and/or illustrations is also the only reason Tolkienite collectors do need sometimes and that's perfectly fine (a good faction of my Tolkien books are in my possession solely because of my penchant for collecting xD), but there's that to consider as well.

- ✨The illustrations. How are women portrayed in them?: 

In this book we have a series of graphite drawings and colour plates that I found quite beautiful, showing different scenes from the tale, from 'Gondolin' (Fig. 1 at the top of this post, also shown as the book cover), to 'Swanhaven' (Fig. 2), 'Tuor Strikes a Note on His Harp' (Fig. 3), 'Ulmo Appears before Tuor' (Fig. 4), and 'Glorfindel and the Balrog' (Fig. 5):

Fig. 2 - 'Swanhaven'

Fig. 3 - 'Tuor Strikes a Note on His Harp' 

 

Fig. 4 - 'Ulmo Appears before Tuor'

Fig. 5 - 'Glorfindel and the Balrog'

 But what about the female depictions in these illustrations, the main focus of this blog being feminism and the depiction of female characters in history and fandoms? In the former post about Lúthien and Beren I analysed Lee's illustrations regarding how Lúthien was portrayed (and then followed with a lengthy analysis and rant about how Lúthien is described in the material per se xD), so what about Idril, and the other women mentioned in the tales of Gondolin? 

 Well - Out of a total of 24 watercolours and graphite drawings, there's 2 watercolour plates and 3 graphite drawings depicting women in this book, a rather low number of female depictions 😕: The main one depicts Idril during the siege of Gondolin ('The King's Tower Falls', Fig. 6), and we also have another watercolour plate ('Turgon Strengthens the Watch', Fig. 7) where a golden-haired Elven woman with a child in her arms (potentially also Idril, with Eärendil) appears as a small figure dressed in green with her back to us, standing on the walls of Gondolin.

Fig. 6 - 'The King's Tower Falls'. Idril is depicted dressed in mail and girt with a sword belt, but also in the more traditional setting of the scene where she is entreating her husband Tuor not to put himself in danger to try to rescue her father Turgon.

Fig. 7 - 'Turgon Strengthens the Watch'. A golden-haired female Elf dressed in green, holding a small child in her arms, is standing as a small figure on the battlements. She is quite possibly Idril with Eärendil, discussing with Tuor her forebodings about an attack on Gondolin, and her plans to create a secret escape passageway.

 The graphite drawings depict other women mentioned briefly in these tales - Aredhel (the mother of Maeglin, and formerly named Isfin) stands in the foreground looking over her shoulder while being stalked (ew) by rapey Eöl 😒 in Fig. 8 ('Isfin and Eöl'). Then we have a heavily veiled Rían (the mother of Tuor) in Fig. 9 ('Rían Searches the Hill of the Slain'). Her face completely obscured, she is shown in a traditional female role found in many mythologies, mourning the death of her husband after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and preparing for her own suicide out of grief-stricken love 😬. And finally, there's Elwing, Eärendil's wife, welcoming a group of survivors from Gondolin in Fig. 10 ('Elwing Receives the Survivors of Gondolin').

Fig. 8 - 'Isfin and Eöl'. Aredhel (Isfin) is looking (probably warily) over her shoulder as she commits the audacity of walking alone in a forest while being a woman, thus provoking Dark Elf Eöl into forcibly imprisoning and marrying her.

Fig. 9  - 'Rían Searches the Hill of the Slain'. Rían, wrapped in a mantle with her face completely obscured by hood and shawl, follows the oft found trope of the grief-stricken model wife whose reason for existing (and plot) ends the moment her husband dies in battle. In many tales, even her traditional role as a mother won't overrule the romantic ideal of a woman dying for love.

Fig. 10 - 'Elwing Receives the Survivors of Gondolin'. Elwing, the granddaughter of Lúthien, meets a group of survivors from Gondolin at the Havens of Sirion. 

 

✨A bit more about the depiction of Idril as a warrior: 

 

Fig. 11 - Idril as described during the siege of Gondolin, clad in mail and wielding a sword, by WollemiSiss (left, account deactivated on DeviantArt) and Kamehame (right)

  "And there in his house upon the walls Idril arrays herself in mail, and seeks Eärendel.(...) and then she fared about gathering womenfolk and wanderers and speeding them down the tunnel, and smiting marauders with her small band; nor might they dissuade her from bearing a sword." (Book of Lost Tales II, HoME II)

I personally really liked that Lee depicted Idril clad in mail in the scene of Fig. 6 (above) 👌⚔️, as that's how she's described in more than one version of The Fall of Gondolin: During the siege, Idril decides to dress herself in mail and bear a sword instead of staying out of the fray or escaping straightaway through the tunnel she herself devised to ensure the survival of as many Gondolindrim as possible. Being highly intelligent and perceptive, and possessing an enhanced gift of premonition, it was Idril who predicted the attack on Gondolin and then devised the strategy to construct an escape tunnel, advising her husband Tuor to oversee the construction secretly. During the battle, she defended herself and her son Eärendil against the attack of rapey stalker Maeglin (like father, like son 🙃), and after that, Idril chose to stay behind for as long as possible to gather up civilians and guide them under protection of her and her armed band into the escape tunnel - smiting enemies with force if necessary. 

What's even better is that Idril is not just the example of a woman who takes up a sword to defend herself in a battle situation without having any prior experience of physical prowess. Apart from being an expert dancer, Idril is described as being brave and very tall, 'nigh of warrior stature', and she is also compared to Galadriel's impressive amazon disposition and stature of near 2 meters (1.95 m), so her inclination to dress herself in armour, bear arms and use them during the siege seems to refer to at least some prior sword(wo)manship experience and training, similarly to Galadriel's athletic feats and physical prowess:

“Wise-hearted even beyond the measure of the daughters of [Elvenessë] was the daughter of the king (...) Very fair and tall was she, well nigh of warrior's stature, and her hair was a fountain of gold. Idril was she named, and called Celebrindal, Silver-foot, for the whiteness of her foot; and she walked and danced ever unshod in the white ways and green lawns of Gondolin.” (The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME IV) 

Fig. 12 - Idril as a warrior by Egalmoth

In conclusion, Idril rocks

 However, I also feel that it's interesting to comment on the fact that in Lee's watercolour plate Idril is also portrayed in one of the more traditionally-aligned scenes of the siege where she makes an appearance - Turgon's palace going up in flames, Idril is distraught, upon which Tuor, also distraught at the sight of Idril's pain, says he will try to save her father (something that is clearly impossible, judging by the level of destruction), and Idril, still weeping, holds on to him begging him not to go. Even though this scene doesn't ring any significant red flags in the relationship dynamic if we look at it without taking into account any societally established role in regards to gender - it's actually also touching and a good sign that Tuor feels empathy towards her wife's grief and tries to do something about it straight away - it's also a scene that can keep normalizing traditional gender roles and attitudes, in contrast to other more subversive scenes where Idril takes part, and that thought also came to mind when looking at the choice of painting for Idril. Here, both Idril and Tuor have been taking active part in the battle (Tuor more so than Idril before this point, granted) and both are dressed for it, but in this scene all this can become anecdotic if the main focus turns mainly to the vulnerability of the female character in contrast to the sudden chivalrous impulse of the male character to go into the frey recklessly to try to alleviate her emotionally distraught state. This painting is still among my favourites of the Gondolin set, and maybe I'm reading too much into a sole painting and a sole scene, but that is more or less the train of thought that came to mind xD

 

In this particular scene, Idril additionally refers to Tuor as 'My Lord! My Lord!' when begging him not to go into danger  - a feudal and more patriarchal take on a dynamic that is usually shown as one of the healthiest and more egalitarian ones in Tolkien's universe, in spite of the given heteronormative marriage system and the societal gender roles it's established in. This is a bit of a low bar for what a healthy dynamic between a man and a woman should be, but throughout the story, Tuor seems to admire her wife's intelligence and listen to her advice, and Idril is later shown in an active role getting many civilians to safety without Tuor actively dissuading her of being an active participant.

 Like I similarly noted while discussing Lúthien's usual depictions in Tolkien artwork, as well as her portrayal in Tolkien's works, in my former post, there's nothing inherently wrong with a female character that shows fear, grief or vulnerability, like Idril does in this specific scene, or with a woman who enjoys activities which have been traditionally considered as 'feminine', such as dancing, as both Lúthien and Idril enjoy. And if a woman actively finds happiness in a relationship with a man and/or having children, all the better for her. It's not individual instances that are often a problem as much as the patterns and trends that we do find in the media all too often. 

 And thus, I feel like it's hardly coincidental that most Tolkien artists, be they official artists or fanartists, choose (consciously or not) to portray women such as Lúthien, Galadriel and Idril in roles and scenes that tend to align with more traditional gender roles and views, rather than go fully and more often for their more subversive inclinations, personality and actions as regards to society's expectations: Thus, Lúthien is most of the time depicted as the beautiful woman who dances alluringly and as the love interest of Beren, rather than as the demigoddess who wields magic so powerful she can topple down fortresses of Dark Lords just by singing; and Galadriel is often portrayed as the ethereal, mystical and beautiful ruler of Lothlórien, rather more often than her other many aspects as an amazonian athlete, a daring adventuress, a dedicated stateswoman, or a powerful magic wielder who can also tear down Dol Guldur with her Ring. 

Fortunately, I'm sure that the portrayal of many of these less-known aspects of Galadriel in the new series The Rings of Power will help to redress this! I hope this will also help to normalize the badass traits of Tolkien women such as Galadriel and Tar-Míriel more, because to be honest, it's been tiring how so many supposed Tolkien fans have been insisting on how warrior and adventuress Galadriel is an invention of Amazon's series (which would also have been totally fine - I love me some Tar-Míriel full on warlike aspect, hell yeah! 😄), when it's actually also 100% canon in Tolkien's works, so 🤣.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Rings of Power

In this light, I'm both happy about the fact that Alan Lee chose to portray Idril in mail during the siege, and also a bit disappointed that he chose a scene that's much more traditionally aligned than say, the very cool image of Idril protecting Gondolindrim fleeing through the escape tunnel with her band, or even Idril defending herself against Maeglin fighting 'like a tigress' against him (I say 'even' because this is still a scene depicting sexual harassment and misogynistic violence, and it would have to be handled well for it to work as a critical or empowering work 😬). Although she is also often portrayed primarily as a beautiful Elven woman, a dancer and/or a wife and mother, in the realm of fanart we also do have a handful of very cool depictions of Idril as a warrior, such as Figs. 11 and 12 above, for example. Bonus dash of self-promotion (xD), I myself did a drawing back in c. 2012 showing Idril with her sword (Fig. 13 below; albeit also with an encumbering dress, let's say this is from before she changed into the mail 😅. I adore to see women in realistic, practical armour, but long dresses are another aesthetic of mine, and well xD).

Fig. 13 - Itarildë Ondolindello: My drawing of Idril during the siege of Gondolin, when she took up a sword (her sword, probably, and the Jackson films definitely suggest this, seeing as Arwen's sword is actually Idril's) to defend herself and other civilians in the city. Not quite realistic, seeing as in the book she dressed herself in mail, and a long dress with long sleeves and a long train would be incredibly encumbering and hardly battle-friendly, but that's an aesthetic that was going strong throughout the 2000s and early 2010s for me xD. I'm definitely saying this is a scene from before she changed into the mail xD

So yeah. I just think that it's a shame that official artists especially often don't seem to fully explore and take advantage of the veritable goldmine that is badass Tolkien women doing badass stuff in epic scenes with such an amazing graphic potential (I would personally love to see something like the awesome depiction in Fig. 12 in the style of Lee, Howe or Nasmith, for example).  Like, more than one professional Tolkien artist has tackled Glorfindel defending the Gondolindrim civilians in the tunnel from the Balrog as an epic battle scene, and rightly so, it's an epic scene, but Idril dressed in armour battling Orcs while helping people flee from the battle sounds pretty epic and heroic as well, and still, it's the kind of scene that is still massively underrepresented in the world of Tolkienite art, and especially among official art.

• 3) Unfinished Tales

Book: Unfinished Tales (2020), by JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. A new edition with illustrations by Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith. 

5/5. Goodreads review also here. 

I wanted to end this post with a brief review of the latest illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales, which I've been wanting to add to my collection for a while, and it was finally gifted to me when I got my Astrophysics PhD back in May 😊. I had my eye on this new edition both because Unfinished Tales is one of my favourite Tolkien books, and also because I tend to like to collect new editions of Tolkien books, especially when they're illustrated hardcovers. The only edition that I formerly had of Unfinished Tales was a very dog-eared paperback (not literally dog-eared, but the covers and spine are pretty worn from so much reading and revising for research xD), so this was a welcome addition in that respect as well. 

While this is also a pricey book, and more so than Beren and Lúthien and Fall of Gondolin, I personally feel that it is completely worth it as an illustrated edition, especially for Tolkien collectors. Also, the book is exactly what it promises to be, in contrast to some of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series such as Beren and Lúthien 😬 (not a compendium at all). Fall of Gondolin does fulfill the intention of being a compendium with pretty much all Gondolin material, but I still believe that this series is riding the wave of The Children of Húrin (an important publication which offered new material, new organization, and new illustrations), and so the final product of Gondolin might have been disappointing to some people who hyped it more before publication, as well. This edition of Unfinished Tales, however, is exactly what it advertises to be: A new edition of an already published book, with no new material or addenda, and with the addition of a series of new illustrations by three of the most important Tolkien artists: Alan Lee, John Howe and Ted Nasmith. As well as the illustrations, this edition features thick pages, a fabric marker and a full colour map as the endpaper, and it's a very beautiful book overall, a good choice for Tolkien collectors and fans in general.

Regarding these illustrations, which include both full-page colour plates and graphite drawings, I also wanted to comment on the female representation, as usual. Even though all illustrations are gorgeous (I'm showing a selection below, Figs. 15 to 21), I was personally disappointed to see that out of them all, only two depicted women 😕: a sleeping Nimrodel by Alan Lee, in a colour plate (Fig. 13), and Galadriel alongside Celeborn in another colour plate by Ted Nasmith (Fig. 14). The content material of the tales included in this book also include several other women, such as Morwen, Nienor, Idril, Erendis, Tar-Ancálimë and all the Queens of Númenor, and so I was frankly baffled to see that not even Erendis or Tar-Ancálimë, who feature heavily in the Númenor section and of whom we don't really have all that much official Tolkien art - if any? Only fanart comes to mind right now :S  -, had made the cut 😬. Hopefully this will also be redressed in the upcoming fourth book of the illustrated 'Tales of Middle-earth' series, The Fall of Númenor.

Fig. 13 - Nimrodel (detail), by Alan Lee, depicted sleeping and missing her encounter with Amroth while he is shown tragically drowning in the top part of the full colour plate.

Fig. 14 - Galadriel, in the foreground, and Celeborn in Lake Evendim, by Ted Nasmith (bonus note, Celeborn's fringe is very amusing to me xD).

 I was especially looking forward to seeing some new art of Galadriel to illustrate the chapter of the 'History of Galadriel and Celeborn', and we did get a new Ted Nasmith colour plate depicting both Galadriel and Celeborn (Fig. 14) at Lake Evendim, which is additionally a part of Galadriel's life which is hardly ever featured in Tolkien art. I was also looking forward to maybe some new Galadriel art by Alan Lee or John Howe too because there's never enough Galadriel art, but ah well xD. I do like the new Galadriel colour plate that this book features, but I also want to mention that I still think it's a shame that the opportunity was again passed up to depict Galadriel in some of her many subversive traits described especifically in Unfinished Tales, from her amazon disposition and athletic feats in Valinor, to her participation in the fight of Alqualondë, to her friendship with the Dwarves of Moria, or her work against Sauron in Eregion. 

As I've already mentioned in the case of both Lúthien and Idril in these two posts, I believe that many artists choose (consciously or not) to depict these Tolkien women in their more traditional roles and scenes, giving up the chance to fully exploit the many subversive and badass aspects of their characterization and their more epic scenes, which would push them towards a bit of a more equal standing with all the epic portrayals of male Tolkien heroes in the official Tolkien art published in these books (but still not really, also bearing in mind that we have way fewer female characters than male ones to start with) . 

 

Although I loved this edition, it's frankly disheartening to see the lack of interest in actually depicting Tolkien women, disregardless of the trait or scene chosen for them, in this particular selection 😕.

A selection of the illustrations: 

 

Fig. 15 - Colour map of Beleriand, endpaper

Fig. 16 - Meeting of Gandalf and Thorin (Alan Lee)

 

 

Fig. 17 - Nazgûl, 'The Hunt for the Ring' (John Howe)

Fig. 18 - 'Beleg Approaches Amon Rudh' (John Howe)

Fig. 19 - 'Amon Rûdh' (Ted Nasmith)

Fig. 20 - 'The Blue Wizards Journeying East' (Ted Nasmith)

Fig. 21 - Isildur on the Gladden Fields (Alan Lee)

Goodreads feminist reviews - Tolkien illustrated books: Beren and Lúthien

Cover of Beren and Lúthien, by Alan Lee.

A new Tolkien post for today ✨! These were originally separate reviews on Goodreads, but I decided to make a couple of individual longer posts to talk about some of the illustrated Tolkien books published in the last few years: In this post I'll be talking about Beren and Lúthien (which should be frankly rather titled Lúthien and Beren, but ah well), and in the next post I'll be commenting on The Fall of Gondolin from the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series, and the newly illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales from 2020, which I got as a gift after finally defending my Astrophysics PhD thesis. 

As a Tolkien collector, I wanted to have all three of these books mainly because of the new illustrations by Alan Lee (alongside John Howe and Ted Nasmith for the latest edition of Unfinished Tales), but in these reviews I'm also going to gauge the pros and cons of these books regarding their material, organization, format and commentary, and how worth it they are, in my opinion, either as reading material for a Tolkienite in general, as source material for a Tolkienite scholar, or as an additional book for a Tolkien book collector. Random feminist ramblings will also feature, of course, and there will be an specific focus on these reviews regarding the representation and portrayal of female characters, as usual.

• 1) Beren and Lúthien

Book: Beren and Lúthien (2017), by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee.  The second of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series edited by Christopher Tolkien (volumes I-III) and Brian Sibley (volume IV, pending publication).

 

3/5. Goodreads review also here. 

- Is buying this book worth it? My opinion on content and format:

To be honest, when I thumbed through this book I felt like it was kind of a rip-off, and, as much as I like Lúthien (not Beren that much, really, or the romance, but more on that below xD), I personally don't quite get the aim of this book, apart from the fact that it contains a series of new illustrations by Alan Lee, and thus it's another book that Tolkien fans can add to their collection (and that the Tolkien State can easily profit from with minimal work, I guess. There I said it 🙃 xD). 

The thing that differentiates this second volume of the 'Tales of Middle-earth' series from its predecessor, The Children of Húrin, similarly edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee, is that the rendition of Children of Húrin was a new and expanded one, containing a sizeable amount of new material and commentaries, as well as gorgeous illustrations by Lee. But in Beren and Lúthien (which I was initially pretty hyped about when I heard about its publication because my namesake Lúthien is one of my favourite Tolkien women), all texts found in the book were already published in former books, such as The Book of Lost Tales II, The Lays of Beleriand and other books in the History of Middle-earth series, with minimal or no changes, just a new organization. 

However, even so, the idea of a book containing a compendium of all versions of the tale of Lúthien and Beren, alongside updated and expanded commentary, and brand-new illustrations by Alan Lee, does sound pretty amazing and very much worthwhile for Tolkien scholars and fans alike, right? For me, such a book sounds very enticing because it would mean I would have pretty much all material regarding the evolution of the story of Lúthien in one book, something helpful to use as source for my Tolkien women-related personal projects, for example. But the main problem with this book for me is that an organized compendium it is not.

 The material included in this book is instead often heavily abridged, featuring selections and excerpts from different versions of the tale of Lúthien, but neither in their entirety (one version was presented in their entirety, and most were not, which seemed odd), nor quite in chronological order of publication, nor in o rather in order regarding the events of the story per se (confusing in the chosen inconsistency). 

While the early version of The Book of Lost Tales II is presented in full, whihle no other version is, which seemed odd and strangely inconsistent. the Lay of Leithian from Lays of Beleriand appears only as excerpts and sections that often focus more on tangencial characters and storylines, like Gorlim or the mention of Fingolfin's death, rather than on Lúthien and Beren's story and quest per se, although the selection did include at least part of the sections featuring Lúthien's confrontations with Sauron and Morgoth. The final version from Quenta Silmarillion is mentioned in commentary, but no selections of text appear, and then there are some short excerpts from various books of the History of Middle-earth. The overall format was quite confusing to me, both in the decision to show some versions complete and others simply as excerpts (excerpts which also appear in different sections of the book, interwoven with other versions), as also in the way that the book seems to not quite decide whether it wants to tackle the different versions in chronological order, or rather offer selections from different versions following the events of the tale. And it ended up doing neither in a consistent way.

Furthermore, I felt like the commentary in this book didn't add a lot of new information either, and I didn't find it very engaging or informative, as I was expecting something more in-depth about the tale, the characters and/or the evolution of the different existing versions, Children of Húrin style. That alone would have made this book rather more worth it, but to me it fell very short both regarding content, format, organization, and the quality of the commentary. When I bought the book, I already knew this was no Children of Húrin and so wasn't expecting to find a lot of new material, but I did expect a better format and more engaging commentary, and the book did not deliver those for me. So frankly, I don't think it's fair to ask for (the original price of) 20 pounds for a not that well-organized, abridged, selected remix of existing material 😕. 

Alan Lee's watercolour painting of Lúthien dancing in the forest of Neldoreth, from LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring.

- How is Lúthien portrayed in this book? Text selections and illustrations: 

Still, I didn't want to give this book less than 3 stars on Goodreads because it has Lúthien in it. However, the way the texts are selected, there isn't as much emphasis as there should be about Lúthien's power and overall badassery, in my opinion. Both the text and the illustrations (more on that below) tend to focus instead on the more traditional aspects of her character, societally: Her beauty, her romantic plot, her dancing skills and her singing (but not so much her singing Songs of Power that topple down the fortresses of Dark Lords! 😐). Then again, that's what I'm always thinking practically every time I encounter something Lúthien-related. Most emphasis is often on the romance and her beauty and dancing, not on her power, magic and epic confrontations against Sauron, Carcharoth and Morgoth, which for me are the absolute highlight of Lúthien's character ✨✊. 

✨ILLUSTRATIONS✨

Alan Lee's illustrations were easily my favourite part from this book - and the main reason why I got it, apart from the inclusion of Lúthien -, although I also ended up a bit disappointed about the selection of illustrations for this book as well, as I had overrated the hype of the excellent combo that Alan Lee+Lúthien would make, especially considering that I adore his watercolour painting of Lúthien from The Fellowship of the Ring (see above). 

Firstly, quite a lot of the selection of illustrations for this book - including at least four colour plates - choose to depict male Elves, wolves, ravens and the like (not even Beren) instead of Lúthien. Lúthien does appear in six colour-plates and three graphite drawings. But, somehow bafflingly, in three of these six colour-plates, she is drawn small and hard to distinguish, with the main focus given to the scenery around her or to other characters. And in six out of the nine depictions of her, she is shown in the traditional mode mentioned above: Dancing - both in a graphite sketch (Fig. 1, below), and in a colour plate (Fig. 2) which focuses more on the forest of Neldoreth than in Lúthien herself, shown quite difficult to distinguish -; cowering in Tevildo's palace (Fig. 3) (and yes, she shows continuous agency in getting in there in the first place, but she was portrayed in a less badass manner in that particular version with Tevildo compared to the final one with Sauron); thrown to the ground in the very background (again, very hard to distinguish) after the attack of Celegorm and Curufin (Fig. 4); looking after wounded Beren (Fig. 5); and on the main illustration from the cover (Figs. 6a and 6b), where Lúthien does take center stage, but is also shown sitting sidesaddle on Huan (I've personally always imagined practical, intelligent Lúthien to ride Huan astride instead of sidesaddle, similarly to Ted Nasmith's illustrations), and holding hands with Beren, focusing on her role as romantic interest. 

Fig. 1: Graphite drawing - Lúthien dancing in Neldoreth with Daeron playing the pipes. Beren being creepy eavesdropping somewhere. Is stalking and invading women's personal spaces unsolicited romantic? Hardly.

Fig. 2: Watercolour plate - Lúthien dancing among the hemlocks in the forest of Neldoreth. Lúthien is painted small and hard to distinguish (I think that if she were dressed in her frequent azure and flax blues she would be easier to spot), alongside Daeron at the harp. The main focus is on the forest glade itself.

Fig. 3: Watercolour plate - Lúthien, discovered in spite of her shadowy cloak, cowers from Tevildo, Prince of Cats, the predecessor of Sauron.

Fig. 4: Celegorm and Curufin, creeps extraordinaire, shoot Beren after trying to kidnap Lúthien. Lúthien is with Beren and Huan in the background, hardly visible, the focus being on Celegorm and Curufin riding away after their attack.

Fig. 5: Graphite sketch - Lúthien uses her healing skills and magic to cure Beren

Fig. 6a: Cover of Beren and Lúthien (earlier version than the final painting shown in the actual cover), with Lúthien riding Huan sidesaddle and holding hands with Beren.

While there's obviously nothing inherently wrong in being beautiful, enjoying dancing, possessing healing abilities or engaging in a romantic relationship (although I tend to draw the line at problematic relationships 🙃), it's often telling how it's the more traditionally feminine attributes and characteristics of Lúthien the ones which are depicted and highlighted the most often both in the text selections and in art. This is particularly baffling to me in Lúthien's case because she literally has goddess-level magic powers (she and her mother Melian - an actual Maia, technically a goddess - are the most powerful enchantressses and magic-users in Beleriand, and the fact that Lúthien bests both Sauron and Morgoth means that yes, she's more powerful than both of them as well). Lúthien also often puts to use her 'traditionally feminine' skillset to create magic that is incredibly powerful both in the offensive and defensive areas, and is characterized in a subversive way as someone who wears flowing dresses and likes dancing and singing, *and* (not 'but') she is also incredibly courageous, capable, powerful, and continuously shows agency and an active, determined will wherever she goes (until she is eventually shoehorned in her own story into a traditionally romantic story with all its tropes, even with all her badassery, but ah well, that's my pet peeve xD).  

And so, in light of the fact that Lúthien is also often characterized in an incredibly badass and subversive manner in the Lay of Leithian, one thing that will forever mystify me about Tolkien artists - both professional and hobbyists - when it comes to depicting Lúthien Tinúviel is why they hardly ever fully exploit ✨✊the gold mine of awesome✨✊ that is portraying Lúthien going through all the badass af actions she can add to her personal CV: From bringing down the whole fortress of Sauron with a Song of Power (#BossLady, she created the hashtag alongside Galadriel), to escaping single-handedly from her imprisonment in Doriath with just her hair, to smiting down Carcharoth, to using her shapeshifting magic to create disguises to enter Angband, to performing her sadly rarely depicted magically-charged, literally 'winged dance' around Morgoth, the Balrogs and all the Orcs in Angband while singing more Songs of Power and kicking another Dark Lord's ass (in contrast to the more frequently portrayed male-gazey 'seductive dance' she initially entinces Morgoth with as her cover), reimagining Lúthien as a warrior as well as a powerful enchantress, there are so many options here.      And yet, for each artwork that depicts one of these scenes, there's a handful with Lúthien being beautiful, being a romantic love interest, being sad, dancing and singing in a non-offensive manner, looking after Beren, being sad again. I personally think it's a shame and a waste.

My cosplay of Lúthien, badass magical edition. Source

Going back to the illustrations of this book, Alan Lee does choose three of these scenarios for his selection, in two colour plates and one graphite drawing, and does depict Lúthien in her more active, badass roles. But I still found these examples to be fewer than I expected, and sometimes also executed in a way that didn't quite focus primarily on Lúthien or do her full justice, in my opinion. In one colour plate (Fig. 7) she's shown suspended in the air against Morgoth, showing the surprisingly rarely depicted scene of Lúthien rising 'wingéd' in front of the Dark Lord of Angband while singing her Song of Power. Lúthien does radiate power and agency in this illustration, my favourite from the whole book. In another graphite sketch, Lúthien is shown transformed into the female bat Thuringwethil, servant of Sauron, flying alongside transformed Beren towards Angband (Fig. 8). But in another plate (Fig. 9), Lee chooses to show the fortress of Sauron from a full panoramic view with Lúthien standing on the bridge as a mere blob, focusing more on Sauron's fortress instead of depicting the also massively underused-in-artwork epic moment where Lúthien takes down Sauron's fortress with her singing magic. While I also get the effect of showing Lúthien as a barely discernible speck in the midst of this huge dark fortress she is going to destroy just by singing, don't tell me that's not a freaking epic scene to fully paint, with Lúthien front and center and zoomed-in, because it is. My favourite Lúthien cosplay pictures are a tribute to that xD (see above).

Fig. 7: Watercolour plate - Lúthien is shown center-stage in this painting rising with a powerful, defiant pose in her 'wingéd dance' and singing her Song of Power against Morgoth. Various creatures are shown asleeep inside Angband, and Beren is huddled in the forefront alongside asleep Balrogs, Orcs and the like.

Fig. 8: Graphite drawing - Lúthien flies towards Angband transformed into Thuringwethil, bat servant of Sauron, with Beren disguised as a werewolf below her.

Fig. 9: Watercolour plate - Lúthien approaches Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the fortress of Sauron, determined to free Beren even if that means crushing the whole fortress down to its foundations (queen xD). The focus of the painting is the fortress rather than Lúthien, however.

✨CONTENT✨

 

Now we've talked about Lee's illustrations depicting Lúthien, how is Lúthien portrayed in the text selections and commentary in this book?  Well, as I said before, for some reason the selections do tend to omit the more badass, powerful and subversive aspects of Lúthien's characterization and her ample participation in the Quest of the Silmaril, especially in the final versions where she is the most active and overtly badass (so many people tend to put Beren centerfront when it was actually Lúthien with Huan who did like 90+% of the work, and that's being generous). The commentary did not add any particularly new or interesting info about her either, that I recall. 

 

Bonus rant incoming about how the relationship between Beren and Lúthien is so romanticized near everywhere and hardly anyone seems to feel like there are actually problematic points going on there. Because I adore Lúthien, but I don't much care for Beren, and I actually overtly dislike more than one point about the romantic relationship as portrayed in all the versions of the tale 😬. This is not an specific issue of this book, but rather of the different versions of the tale of Lúthien and Beren on their own. However, I feel that the way the excerpts from the different versions were selected for this book does highlight some of these issues, alongside the oftentimes found shoehorning of Lúthien into her more 'traditionally feminine' characterization and roles that I described above.

Some examples of why I don't really like this romance (I was initially supposed to review *three* books here lol, but then a feminist analysis appeared xD):

All extraordinary women deserve to be admired and respected the way Galadriel is, to be honest. Become even 1% less extraordinary just because of a relationship? She says nope can do.

-It's the epytome of the trope of the extraordinary woman whose considerable powers and skills (be they magical, warlike, intellectual, or a combination of all these) are at the service of the more objectively mediocre man. A man who 99% of the time also ends up - or even begins by - being in a romantic relationship with her simply because he's worth it (being a man), and also because the extraordinary woman often and very bafflingly (well, men often write them, so that's why) doesn't have standards, doesn't recognize red flags and accepts the first dude that falls for her no matter what 🙃 (if we ignore the Friendzoned Nice Guy act of Daeron, that is :S xD). I'm sorry, but that's the tea. I love Lúthien's epicness and power, but she basically does all Beren's work, with the added aggravating fact that said more mediocre man is often talked about as the actual main character and hero, both in the tales, in the commentary, by Tolkien in his letters, by part of the fandom. 

And your treatment in Multiverse of Madness wasn't fair either, Wanda.

Related to this, in one of the quotes selected for this book, in one of his letters Tolkien actually refers to Lúthien, with all her power, 'a mere maiden even if an elf of royalty', and centers his conversation on how heroic Beren is: "Beren is the outlawed mortal who succeeds (with the help of Lúthien, a mere maiden even if an elf of royalty) where all the armies and warriors have failed: he penetrates the stronghold of the Enemy and wrests one of the Silmarilli from the Iron Crown. Thus he wins the hand of Lúthien". Um, wtf. Lúthien's literally a powerful half-goddess with way more offensive capabilities, experience and wisdom than Beren ever had, but she's also called a 'mere maiden' who 'helped' Beren the Hero out because of her gender, while the mortal, power-free male is hailed as the brave hero, and nothing 'mere' about it, apparently, in spite of doing like 5% of the work during the Quest, and that's being generous (Lúthien allowed them to be able to enter Angband!). And let's also remember that in the fandom Lúthien's also often branded as a 'Mary Sue' because of the sheer power she wields and her many capabilities - because the Valar forbid a powerful woman (whose power and skills make total sense in terms of her nature and characterization) exist among an ocean of societally-accepted powerful men, am I right?

River relates and yes, I am right.

-The romance and the dynamic between Beren and Lúthien (or rather, of Beren with Lúthien) is just problematic when you delve minimally into it, quite frankly. They look like a power couple, but are they really? Prior to even meeting and during their very first meeting, Beren shows more than one sign of male entitlement and the consistent red flag behaviour of a creep and a stalker, spying and following her around while she thinks she's dancing and singing alone in her forest (the audacity of women being alone and tempting men with their looks and songs, am I right), and then, in all versions of the tale, basically sexually assaulting her when he calls to her, pursues her, grabs her and kisses her without a by your leave. Why Lúthien would find that attractive is beyond me (well, a man did write her, and, even taking into account her subversive active personality and amazing skill, that shows).  

If powerful demigoddesses aren't safe dancing alone at night in a realm magically protected by another goddess, who is??

One quote from an early version from The Book of Lost Tales II describes the interaction thusly: "Thus suddenly did he lay his hand upon her slender arm beneath the leaves, and with a cry she started away from him and flitted as fast as she could in the wan light (...). The tender touch of her arm made Beren yet more eager than before to find her, and he followed swiftly and yet not swiftly enough, for in the end she escaped him, and reached the dwellings of her father in fear; nor did she dance alone in the woods for many a day after." I think all women can relate to this feeling. And yet the interaction is painted as high romance, the ultimate heroic fantasy romance. In the very same page of this version, Tinúviel keeps getting stalked by Beren for months, and yet she grows fond and unafraid of him because of his 'sad, yearning face' and, without even knowing who he is or what his intentions are (I mean, those are clear anyway, he's obsessed with her :S) ends up feeling flattered that he likes to observe her dancing. That is so not relatable. Male writing in action.

*channelling Thranduil's I'm done with everything 24/7 attitude* Sure thing, serial stalking and non-con grabbing and kissing is romantic af. Why Tolkien, why.

After this non-consensual grabbing and kissing as a means of romantic meeting (not), Lúthien is then supposed to fall in love with him completely at first sight (because that's the natural reaction when a male stranger who's obsessed with your beauty and little else stalks you for months and then grabs you and kisses you when you were just minding your business), then she's putting all her power at the service of a quest devised by men who presume to treat her as a possession which passes from one man (Thingol the father of the millenium) to another (entitled lover-husband wannabe Beren) as recompense in exchange for a pretty jewel, and ultimately expected to sacrifice her everything, losing her actual lifestyle and immortality for this man who met her by forcibly kissing her. Romantic? Not to me.

And that's the tea

And then the woman who's being treated as a thing by near everyone in this tale does the majority of the work to succeed in this quest, involving a lot of misogynistic-flavoured obstacles and a lot of hard work, including but not limited to (brace yourselves):  

• Having to break free of her father's imprisonment (because men still think they own women no matter how powerful they are, and Thingol sucks as a father)
• Being kidnapped and forcibly detained by rapey Feänorians (a dog is literally her only ally. Celegorm was so set on raping Lúthien that Huan had to literally stand guard at her door 24/7 till they escaped, and bare his teeth and snarl at his former master so that he would leave her alone. Yay :|)
• Having to destroy Sauron's fortress to rescue her lover while Sauron is beeing leery about what he would do with her (didn't know what was coming for him, did Mairon)
• Curing said injured lover from another attack from the Feänorians who intended to kidnap her again (side note, they suck big time, but so do many men in The Silmarillion welp)
• Transforming herself and Beren into servants of Sauron (10 points to cosplay magic xD)
• Taking down a huge wolf guarding the gate of Angband (Lúthien literally multitasking with the badass shit and taking down dark creature after dark creature, and Beren literally wanted to abandon her and go alone lol)
• Feigning to have come all the way to Angband to seduce the leery creep Morgoth into complacency (totally empowering for women, huh! And the entitled idiot believes her)
• And then throwing all her singing and epic flying dancing magic at him and literally putting him and every creature in Angband to freaking sleep, Balrogs and all (after which Beren cuts the Silmaril from the crown because he wants to be helpful and get brownie points or something, but then again, he also causes the whole of Angband to wake again because he's kinda dumb with his plans, so maybe not)
• Then curing Beren again when his hand is bitten by Carcharoth because he woke up the whole of Angband again (seriously, Lúthien should have cut the Silmaril from the crown while she was at it)

Then, finally, the pretty crystal is in the hands of the father and Beren - yes, Beren, as we saw before - gets hailed as a courageous hero while Lúthien's literally standing by hyping him up (male writing), and Lúthien gets successfully exchanged aka married to him. Tell me how any of this is fair and how Lúthien's OK with it, because I don't get it. 

 

"Beren is the hero of the Quest of the Silmaril" Dude, Lúthien is literally *right there*. She literally does *everything* and doesn't at least get hyped and praised, as she should? I'm suing.

Lúthien then of course also gives away her immortality in exhange of a mortal life with Beren because Elven women do that as an instinctual feminine thing when they're in love, we're told, but male Elves are rather more reticent about it (ahem, Aegnor). And she ends up living a very traditionally-structured life isolated from her mother (do I care about Thingol? Nope), friends and family, as a wife and a mother and a beautiful woman who dances and sings for Beren but never again shows the amazing feats of power featured in the Quest, with a short life and a very beautiful Silmaril to briefly wear until it shortens her already brief new mortal life. Yay!

While there's nothing wrong per se with actually choosing to marry, be a mother or partake in traditional activities that one may actually enjoy, having such an incredibly powerful woman simply end up like that because that's the societally accepted happy ending? Anticlimactic is the word (and Galadriel didn't have to tone down shit when she got married, btw, so it's doable). And all this time? Beren of course deserves such an extraordinary woman as Lúthien, so much so that she as a result should certainly work so much and sacrifice so much for him because he's so worth it.  Because everything is of little value in exchange for the promise of the traditional married heternormative life every woman longs for from the beginning (this is literally what Tolkien says in the infamous letter 42 - Tolkien's work is great and all, but if you also want a taste of stagnating conservative values about gender roles and relationships, that's the letter you want to peruse :S!). 

Totally a 100% great deal for every woman!

 When it comes to this tale, I would honestly, really love to see a power couple with two people who work together and take down the bad guys and go through obstacles as a tandem, and genuinely appreciate and love each other. But in this case, that's not what I see, unfortunately. While I love Lúthien being a badass who ends up doing nearly all the heavy lifting, the balance dynamic still comes off quite unequal instead of just subversive and indicative of a more egalitarian dynamic, and this is because the motivations for the Quest are masculine codes of 'honour' and female ownership, and she multitasks through it all at the service of said men, who just seem to see her as a pretty object. 

And the famed romance is still based on 'she's beautiful and he wanted a piece of that, and she fell in love at first sight in response because a man wrote her', and that isn't deep enough ot believable enough for me, I have to say. Because we also need to highlight the fact that Beren's main motivation to want to marry Lúthien is that she's incredibly beautiful, dances really well, and well, that's all there needs to be! He does call refer to her as brave sometimes, if I remember correctly (although Huan is the one who's mainly hyping her up), but in a truly equal dynamic firstly he would not have outright stalked and assaulted her, right? 🙃 

Secondly they would preferably have things in common that would help build a significant relationship, but their dynamic post-stalking and pre-quest involves Lúthien dancing for him (mainly) and sporadically with him, and them 'being in love' in a generic way. Which I guess could work in a kinda bland way (except for the fact that Lúthien's dancing wasn't originally intended to entertain or titillate a man - although Nice Guy Daeron might have thought otherwise as well :S), but there are other red flags, as we have discussed. And thirdly, if he really liked her as a person, he would very probably want to hype her up and talk to her and about her regarding how badass, witty and powerful she is, and...he doesn't really do that, and if he did it was so sporadical I have forgotten about it (Lúthien's dog friend Huan does hype her up, a lot more. Heh). Because she's beautiful, and that's the main reason why this romance exists for him, it seems ("I desire thy daughter Tinúviel, for she is the fairest and most sweet of all maidens I have seen or dreamed of", he says in Book of Lost Tales II, for example).

This gif is a must, come on xD

In conclusion, I love the character of Lúthien in itself, how utterly powerful and capable she is, but I resent and hate the way her character is made to revolve around entitled problematic men, and how all the men in the tale are constantly throwing obstacles in her path. No to Thingol, the controlling father. No to Daeron, the 'friendzoned' Nice Guy who doesn't get any in spite of offering free music for her dancing (the audacity. Pay me back for my free karaokes!). No to Beren, the stalker entitled guy who thinks he deserves the extraordinary woman just because she's beautiful and he called to her, who insists on the stupid quest when he could have opted out and stayed with Lúthien on their own terms, and who then made dumb decisions in the midst of Lúthien's unlauded multitasking (let's leave Lúthien asleep because I can totally handle Angband after the Sauron fiasco she rescued me from! Then let's sing so loud the creatures of Morgoth might hear me, and Lúthien too! Then let's prick Morgoth's foot after Lúthien's hard work while trying to pry off a second Silmaril you didn't even need!). No to Celegorm and Curufin, the rapey entitled brats. Yes to Huan, the only ally Lúthien seems to have, a freaking giant hound. Yes to Melian, who does support her daughter, but who, in spite of being an actual goddess, seems to need to answer to the commands of her Elven husband (hello, Patriarchy). And of course, no to Sauron and Morgoth, who get their asses kicked by Lúthien's badassery but not before they can tell the readers and Lúthien about their creepy lustful and rapey intentions towards her. But hey, at least the narration is honest about it and Lúthien is adequately creeped out and responds by taking them down. Beren basically stalks the shit out of her for months and assaults her by taking her in his arms and kissing her without her freaking consent, and it's all apparently 'so romantic'? So much that as a response she sacrifices her everything for him, including her freaking immortality? For a dude apparently only interested in how beautiful she is?? Yep, after so many years I'm still so not getting it, but now I'm kinda repeating myself xDD. 

I could definitely go on about how the fact that JRR Tolkien considered his wife Edith to be the inspiration for Lúthien and called himself Beren in association, and how we can definitely see a projection of some points of their dynamic (not all of them unproblematic) and his idea of an ideal F/M romantic relationship by comparing his real life relationship with his story of Lúthien and Beren as a romantic duo. But that is a whole different (but related) can of worms to analyse, and I do have at least a post about Edith planned, so that's enough controversial Tolkien women opinions for today, folks 😅 😂 xD!

Lúthien out xD

Goodreads feminist reviews - Gin & Daggers (Murder, She Wrote novels, #1)

 

 Book: Murder, She Wrote. Gin & Daggers (1989), by Donald Bain, the first of a series of Murder, She Wrote novels, based on the TV series of the same name.

2/5. Goodreads review also here. 

 I love Murder, She Wrote and adore Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher, but unfortunately this book's characterization of her was not it. At all. This is my first foray into the Murder, She Wrote books, and I'm honestly quite discouraged to see that the same author wrote most of them, because I'm less than impressed - and more than a bit displeased - with the way he wrote Jessica's characterization. Not to mention the blatant male gaze present throughout the whole book.

I love Jessica Fletcher because she's just so refreshingly unconventional in every way. Firstly, we direly need more protagonists who are badass older women who subvert gender roles every day (Jessica loves both baking apple pies in her seaside town and solving murders everywhere she goes, and it's perfect xD). And I just love how Jessica combines badassery and kindness, doesn't care for money, fame or power in spite of having become a world successful writer of mystery novels, always keeps an open mind and constantly hones her curiosity for learning new things, for example, about other countries and peoples (she's not a typical EEUU citizen in more than one way welp), and she seems to always have a special affinity for the more oppressed minority groups.

Honestly, Jessica Fletcher is the intelligent, badass and supportive friend that we all need in our lives

The Jessica Fletcher of this book is quite dissimilar from this profile, though :S She is written as quite more conventional, displaying a somewhat narrower mind in her inner thoughts, and also displaying less of the badassery and aplomb that so defines her. And it's a shame.

But the main thing that really made me dislike this book more was the way that the male author displayed a blatant male gaze in each and every one of the descriptions involving women, particularly the young female characters in the story. The book is written in first person from Jessica Fletcher's point of view, and can there be anything more incredibly jarring than Jessica Fletcher describing the young women she meets while solving the murders in an incredibly sexist and sexualized manner that reeked of male gaze :S? The book kept describing women's outfits and how tight and revealing they were (sometimes combining this drooling male gaze with the misogyny of how they were sl*ts and dressed inappropiately). The descriptions focused on women's cleavage more than once, just freaking because, and generally made a point of highlighting how beautiful and seductive and sensual the women were (or not, depending on the author's tastes). Wtf. I would be angry about having to read about a man describing all women in this way anyway, but the fact that it's supposedly Jessica goddamm Fletcher describing them like that, in such a disrespectful and sexualizing manner? WTF. I'm personally offended on so many levels.

Jessica Fletcher WOULD NEVER.

The descriptions in the book also engaged in casual fatphobia, body shaming and ageism, there was a completely unnecesary subplot featuring strip clubs because more male gaze, one sole mention of a "*nasty* homosexual relationship" (wtf), and the author also proved that he followed the archetypal way of not bothering to learn geography beyond the United States - This Mediterranean European eyerolled so hard during a description of an Italian female character in which she was described as a 'sensual and exotic beauty' (bonus ethnic fetishism) with "Middle-Eastern features, perhaps from Lebanon, perhaps from Spain or Italy". The word he was looking for, if he wanted to use all three of those countries at the same time, would have been *"Mediterranean"*, and he would have been right, without any need to mix up the continents. Sigh xD.

Jessica Fletcher is way more knowledgeable than that, dude.

The plot was alright, I guess, and it made me want to finish the book to find out if I was right about every whodunnit's main question (who the murderer(s) are xD), but I also found the mystery to have less quality than the standard series plotlines, and it also left me a bit dissatisfied as I felt that the book didn't tie all ends in a satisfactory way.

Did that character really write the fictional murder mystery book the plot revolves around, then? And what happened to that other murder victim who is never mentioned again?

There are also way more male characters than female characters in the story, and the main points about all the female characters' plots revolved very strongly around men. Which is something that we can also see in various episodes of the series, and not every Murder, She Wrote episode includes the healthy dose of social criticism that I tend to enjoy (although more than one does), but the book was overall lacking more in at least the unconventional and subversive element that Jessica Fletcher always adds to every episode no matter what. So meh.

Without divulging any of the whodunnit's twists, I also didn't quite like how Jessica kept either thinking about her late husband, or crushing on a handsome inspector from Scotland Yard. Jessica does indulge in sporadic love interests and casual lunch and dinner dates at the end of various episodes, and that's perfectly fine and more power to her, but the book often had Jessica thinking in a more engaged manner about men instead of you know, solving the murders. In the series, it's pretty much the other way around.

If she's interested, Jessica doesn't say no to a casual dinner date with the episode's random guy of the day, but murders, books and travelling are her main thing, dear author. It's literally because she's widowed that she started writing, travelling and solving murders in the first place, and she's also not about to change that any time soon no matter how much she had loved her late husband, lol.

Finally, I felt that the characters of Doctor Seth Hazlitt and Sheriff Mort Metzger and Jessica's dynamic with them also lacked the characterization of the series in more than one respect, and I actually found it patronizing and intrusive how the plot decided that they would both just travel from Maine to London and stay a few days to help Jessica out - as if she wasn't perfectly capable of solving murders wherever she goes with the help that she already would have found at hand had she needed it, as we have already seen in twelve seasons of the series :S xD. The dynamic is not at all like that in the series most of the time, and what's more, Seth and Mort hardly added anything to the mystery solving per se, choosing instead to indulge in sightseeing and especially in a "boys' night out" drinking and enjoying the attention of lots of young, attractive women (eww). I felt like the author relished every opportunity to add more descriptions of sexualized women and men being icky and nope.

Jessica disagrees with all the unnecessary sexism in this book

I'm not sure that I'll be reading more books from this series any time soon, although knowing my perfectionism, I'll most probably read them all at some time xDD Let us hope that the rest of the books improve at least somewhat on these accounts :S!