Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

25 reviews

melliedm's review

dark tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

Overall a fantastic read, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. There were times that the pacing felt strange, and some of the action sequences were confusing to read. I am also not entirely sold on the romance subplot, but I’m open to seeing how it shapes up by the series’ end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Child abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, and Gun violence

salemander's review

4.0

this was a very interesting and pretty poignant fantasy, but it felt lacking in some places. the characters motivations got kind of confusing at times, leaving you wondering how many fucking lessons they had to learn before the understanding their actions were harmful would actually sink in. and while i do appreciate how complex the main characters were it felt redundant at times and the romance between them was not very believable. i still think this book was a great read but i don’t think it lives up to its full potential. i would be very interested to see how these characters develop in the continuing books, but i am rooting for the downfall of their romance lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Grief, Genocide, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, War, Death, and Torture

angiepoggi's review

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 I didn't hate or love this book. I liked the world building being an analogy to France colonizing North Africa. Thus, it touches on themes such as racism, xenophobia and religious prejudice, but in a fantasy world with magic and many queers.

However, I didn't like the pace. It was slow (which I don't have a problem with) but boring. It took a long time for things to happen and there's a lot of time spent just talking, for example, until halfway through the book, about 245 pages, we were still building the narrative. Not to mention that, when some type of action could've happen, being running around or the characters discovering a secret on their own, a character immediately tells them everything and resolves the possible conflict quickly.  Also, after halfway through the book, the pacing becomes very inconsistent, with the ending, the very end, very rushed, but that part didn't bother me as much.

Now, I didn't like one of the main characters, Touraine.  She makes some decisions that made me so ANGRY AAA and they didn't make any sense, I mean, in theory they could've made for her, but the author didn't build much of a foundation for it.  For example, in relation to the development of this character, I know the points the author wanted to reach in Touraine's journey, but there were none to few scenes to justify the key changes in her head.

Even with all these reservations, I'm still curious to read the second one.  I heard that it's a different vibe and that the pacing is better balanced.

Anyway, I recommend this book if you want to read a fantasy that talks about colonialism with a lot of queers. There are a lot of people who love it, including a friend who wanted me to read it, so I think it's worth giving it a chance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Hate crime, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Kidnapping, Gore, Emotional abuse, Genocide, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Mental illness, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Grief

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

lady_valhella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Genocide, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

marysunburn's review

hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Blood, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Trafficking, War, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

katclaybaugh's review

adventurous hopeful medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, and Genocide

Moderate: Ableism, Xenophobia, Slavery, Cannibalism, Death, Torture, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

aseel_reads's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

This one is a hard one to rate because I found it super engrossing and something I wanted to constantly read but at the same time, I found that some of the betrayals just didn't make any sense and were quite unbelievable, so I couldn't rate this as a four. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Gun violence, War, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Child abuse, Death, Violence, War, Ableism, Blood, Xenophobia, Genocide, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

alexalily's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Violence, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Gore, Police brutality, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Excrement, Self harm, Vomit, Cursing, and Child abuse

pwindmill's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I was recommended this book by several of my favourite authors, and it aligned with the types of fantasy I usually read, so I thought that I’d give it a go.

I enjoyed that the narrative challenged your assumptions about characters, often not revealing details about them until it became relevant. The world building felt very strong, perhaps because it was so heavily based on French colonisation in North Africa. Each character was interesting and unique.

Sometimes though, characters made terrible decisions that weren’t well justified, and felt like they did it just to push the story in the way the author wanted it to go, without much reasoning behind it, and for characters that are presented as clever, the lack of thought felt a bit out of character to me. Maybe it’s just that I didn’t pay close enough attention to between the lines though! I also felt that the middle third felt a little slow compared to the first and last thirds? 

This sounds more negative than I’d intended, I did enjoy The Unbroken, and will definitely be reading the sequel! Just I maybe won’t instantly pick it up for a re-read as often as I thought I would based on the recommendations that I heard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Racism

Sexual violence threat (repeatedly mentioned)