Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

122 reviews

eve81's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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funkylitchick's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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reubennieandthejets's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Her Majesty's Royal Coven was an engaging read. It does what all good urban fantasy does and blends our mundane reality with a fictional fantastical world in a consistent way. I was able to suspend my disbelief and get sucked onto the story because the world building made sense with reality and the fictional rules of the world Dawson created. However, Her Majesty's Royal Coven has elements that stop it from being a 4 or 5 star book for me. The change of perspective wasn't entirely successful because specific povs felt more three dimensional than others. The depth and nuance in Niamh's and Leonie's chapters made me feel like Dawson enjoyed writing from her povs more. Therefore, I skimmed whenever the pov switched to Helena or Elle because I wanted to get back to the characters that felt more fleshed out. The constant change in perspective also impacted the pacing. It felt like the book kept stopping and starting.
Personally, I think the depiction of transphobic felt slightly unbelievable and abrupt. The rhetoric Helena uses did sound realistic. I'm sure Dawson has heard those exact arguments or had them aimed at her many times. However, the extremity of Helena's transphobia felt too sudden. That level of hated comes after a period of radicalisation and being in an echo chamber of disinformation. So I think, scenes of Helena seeking out other witches should have came before she jumped straight from mild disgust and confusion to fully fledged extremist terf rheotic. 
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reb_curt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

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r_gale's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Loved this book, took a while for me to get into it with the chapters jumping between 4 characters. But once I hit the half way point I struggled to put it down. 

Love the way she writes so clever and funny and the characters are so well rounded, can't wait to read the next book ! 
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popatschi's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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nightstitch96's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lorriss's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nora13hf's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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albernikolauras's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A story following 4 women who joined a coven in their childhood and survived a war. Now, a prophecy has been made and they must deal with the effects of the prophecy and the strains on their sisterhood.

The book took its time to establish the world and the relationships each woman had with their magic, the war, and the other women. The story ramps up in tension until a rather explosive battle in the end. HMRC series deals with a lot of white feminism, TERF politics, and female friendships. There were a lot of avenues and themes approached in this book, some handled to less depth than others.

Pacing was a little bit sporadic for me and the writing with a bit simplistic, but I enjoyed the characters (especially the younger kids). 
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