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emelkay24's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I loved this book! It kind of felt like a tv movie, where the short stories are the episodes and then the book escalates all the stakes and tropes beautifully. I love Jeeves quitting at the beginning, though I do kinda wish there was a little more emotionality to it and their subsequent meetings (do I have shipping goggles on? Maybe.), I love the tangled love triangle stuff where Bertie and the gal he’s managed to get himself engaged to actually do (platonically) like each other, and the ending where they all sweet talk Bertie into becoming their patsy by listing all his good qualities felt like such a tv movie climax, I loved it.
What I didn’t like was all the blackface - Jesus, it’s literally 50% of the book, Bertie puts on the black shoe polish halfway through and it doesn’t come off until the penultimate chapter.Even worse is when Roderick Glossop joins in and there are TWO characters running around blacked up. Reminds me of Swing Time, the Fred and Ginger movie with the best relationship yet the only one to feature blackface. Ugh, the early 1900s. If only Wodehouse had decided to feature circus clowns or something instead.
Still, this book really showed me how alike mysteries and farces are, with all the setting up and paying off. Wonderfully clever.
What I didn’t like was all the blackface - Jesus, it’s literally 50% of the book, Bertie puts on the black shoe polish halfway through and it doesn’t come off until the penultimate chapter.
Still, this book really showed me how alike mysteries and farces are, with all the setting up and paying off. Wonderfully clever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Racism
caties_books's review against another edition
3.75
I absolutely love this series, one of my favorites of all time and I reread one or two of them whenever I'm going through a rough time, but I hadn't read this one as an adult and even though it's one of his funniest, the racism is so alarmingly frequent and jarring, I had to take off a couple stars. I think this is the only Jeeves book so far I've rated less than five stars and I understand that you have to take it in the context in which it was written, but there's a line and the racism was just so blatant in this that it completely drew me out of the story on dozens of occasions and just ruined the experience. I'm talking dozens of instances of the n word and a huge amount of the plot revolving around blackface 🤮🤮
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Racism, Misogyny, and Racial slurs
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