Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

4 reviews

emmonsannae's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

5.0

As I was reading, I kept thinking how glad I was that this book was so long because it meant I would get to spend more time reading it… now that’s a good book! The plot was especially twisty, the pacing was exquisite, the characters were all dimensioned and flawed and brilliant. The ending was satisfying as well. Such a great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Colonisation, Hate crime, Murder, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Genocide, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

itkit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Xenophobia, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Grief, and Drug use

Minor: Blood

sneako's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Gun violence, Violence, Hate crime, Racism, Racial slurs, Trafficking, Police brutality, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Confinement, and Addiction

cursedepub's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Luminaries gave me a very satisfying mystery - lots of twists and turns in a very intricately woven web of secrets, lies, alliances, associations, coincidences, and crime. Not everything is solved neatly by the end either, which I liked, and the last chapters were impossible for me to put down (stayed up until 6am to finish it, from around page 500 onward). There is very good balance of appeals to a reader's intellect, sense of ethics and justice, and romance and emotionality. The narrative tone is very pointed in flaying characters open for us to pick at their weaknesses and gasp at their tragedies, yet allows us to understand why each person might do what they did, and chose whom to sympathize with.  It's a very well-rounded story, with a cast of characters who are flawed and self-centered in ways that are really fun to read about. 

The prose itself does kind of... "put on airs," as the novel is meant to remind a reader of the writing conventions of 19th century literature, to match the setting. In this vein the novel is very clever and very witty, and  is very aware of how witty and clever it is. You get the sense that this nothing in this novel is there by accident, and that it's proud of itself for that. To me this was part of the charm, but others may be put off. 

One thing to note is that there is a lot of anti-Asian racist violence in the novel, a lot of casual racism in general, and anti-Asian and anti-sex work slurs tossed around liberally. I guess this would be typical of the period and setting. The novel does not excuse the racism and misogyny, but it's very there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Trafficking

Moderate: Miscarriage and Misogyny