Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

42 reviews

lauracousineau's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

kaschaller's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Vomit, and Chronic illness

Minor: Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual violence

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Sexual violence threat (repeatedly mentioned)

leaflit's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Racism, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Genocide, Medical content, Outing, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

griffinthief's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Chronic illness, Cursing, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, War, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Vomit, Torture, Classism, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Ableism and Suicide

ril_amber's review against another edition

This one does not spark joy. It kind of threads similar ground to The Jasmine Throne and just… doesn’t measure up. The text feels YA-ish, being both less mature and more naive than The Jasmine Throne’s, and I don’t find characters likable, and the idea of a romantic relationship motivated by potential profit and threat of harassment at all appealing.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual harassment

ajthequeen's review

Dnfing at 170. I usually give a book 100 pages to wow me, but i so desperately wanted to enjoy this book i gave it to 200. I didn’t even make it that far. This author is talented, but “they use too many word when few word do trick”. The author does a lot of telling instead of showing. Touraine and luca’s  backgrounds are told to us immediately with little to no build. I think this author wanted a priory of the orange tree type romance to happen, but instead got an imbalance of power and really toxic female leads. I had to stop at 170 because i genuinely dont care about what happens next. So so much exposition with little pay off. I think if you took out the entire first 100 pages and used the second half of the book to have luca and touraine bond over their pasts and grow to trust each other, the book would be 200x better.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Classism, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Genocide, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol and Ableism

inting3270's review

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Medical trauma, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

Minor: Kidnapping

theirgracegrace's review

emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

The Unbroken asks the question: what about those parts of the fantasy world that are the "colonies"? Set in a queer-positive fictional setting that mirrors French-controlled Saharan Africa, Clark's characters live in the awkward space of either benefitting from or being the product of the colonial state. Clark cleverly deconstructs how the colonial state of Balladaire's oppression has separated the people of Qāzal from their culture and their heritage and made many into soldiers to further that oppression. A book that I cannot stop thinking about and eagerly awaiting the sequel of!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Stalking, Torture, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Pregnancy

ksfinnerty's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Ableism, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol