A review by bites_of_books
Disclosure by Michael Crichton

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

This is probably the worst Crichton book I've read so far. He tries to do a gender reversal on sexual harassment in the office but it completely misses the mark. 

We follow Tom, a man who is looking forward to a promotion that will happen along with a merger at his tech company. However, he's very surprised when a woman takes the position that he thought he'd be promoted into and that she's also his ex-girlfriend. From the start there are a lot of gaps in his memory that felt like justifications for all his thinking, he didn't remember how they broke up, etc. The first day that she's at her new position she sexually assaults him and he reacts by trying to get acknowledgement of the assault. In this case yes, he is a victim of what has happened and using this to set the scene, Crichton creates a lot of ambiguous arguments about the problem with women being in positions of power, has characters make misogynist, homophobic, and racist remarks, and just a lot of drivel that was simply unnecessary and awful. 

There is little to rescue from this book unfortunately, he tries to also show a virtual reality system and how that mirrors our own reality but it doesn't quite work either. 

I wouldn't recommend this book, if you want to read Crichton, maybe read one of his earlier works.