The Shape of Water

I would have given the narrator more than 5 stars if I could!

Unexpectedly clever. Great escape.

This book is complete garbage full of liberal propaganda. The villain Richard Strickland, is just all the worst possible things: sexist, racist, classist, a military veteran, an abusive husband, and of course a Christian. He is not a very complex nor interesting character. All other males are evil because clearly men have always hated women until about two decades ago. Actually I take that back, the only men that are not evil in the story are of course the gay neighbor, because being gay makes you automatically virtuous, and also the Russian spy because he’s not America duh. The main characters are Elisa, a mute oppressed woman, and a humanoid fish creature. They fall in love because reasons. The book places great emphasis on the sexual nature of their bond which is weird. The story is not similar to the beauty and the beast where you can clearly see the pain, humanity and masculinity of beast. No, in this story, Elisa just wants to have sex with the creature and is exited about the creature’s ability to be able to say egg in sign language. It is more of a pet owner relationship. The book is over all just boring. It spends too much time showing how evil Richard Strickland and how hard Elisa life has been. It also has unnecessary sexual scenes that do nothing to advance the story. However, perhaps this is just part of the overall message of the book which places unconventional and unrestricted sexuality as its highest value.