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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Death, Murder, Body horror, Racism, Xenophobia, War, Gun violence, Gore, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Grief
Moderate: Genocide, Animal death, Slavery, Bullying, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Child death
Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Sexual content, Alcohol, Cancer, and Suicide
Surveillance ("The Perfect Match"). Eye trauma/gore, violence against sex workers ("The Regular").safiewafie's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Rape, Body horror, Child death, Racism, Sexual violence, Abortion, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Animal death, and War
Moderate: Trafficking and Suicide
atalea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Rape, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, and Medical content
Moderate: Alcohol and Gaslighting
Minor: Child death, Suicide, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, and War
story_goblin's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Torture, Medical trauma, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Blood, Racism, War, and Child death
10stormlight's review against another edition
3.75
As a warning, there is a ton of *extremely* graphic content in here. In fact, I think this may be the most explicitly graphic book I have ever read.
Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Grief, Medical content, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Child death, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Confinement, Gun violence, and Murder
Minor: Terminal illness, Bullying, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs
blenchbooks's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, Hate crime, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and War
kthudson15's review against another edition
Graphic: Torture and Grief
Moderate: War, Child death, Death of parent, Racism, Genocide, and Violence
Minor: Racial slurs and Murder
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death of parent, Racism, Suicide, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Police brutality, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Slavery
Minor: Dementia and Sexual content
kalira's review against another edition
- 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
It took me a long time to read this anthology, largely because the stories are very good . . . and sometimes, so painful and heavy and immediate that upon finishing I needed to set the book aside and take some time. Both to process the story and to give myself a little emotional space to breathe.
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child death, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Trafficking, Vomit, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Chronic illness, and Grief
missbear's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.25
To that end, I found that some of these stories were quite dark and brutally violent. That's not something that I necessarily have a problem with, but it really caught me off guard in this collection and somewhat soured the experience for me. Again, this was possibly a personal issue, having gone into the collection with a mistaken impression of its contents, but I did not know that several of the stories would include (view spoiler) I actually kind of feel like Ken Liu wanted those scenes to come as a shock, or wanted them to be contrasted against stories that at first seem simple and innocent, to make a point about history and our culpability in it when we ignore/forget brutal parts of the past. And I guess I respect that as an authorial choice (plus, I do understand that its a collection of stories that were written at different times, so it's not necessarily meant to feel cohesive), but personally I found it quite jarring and I don't think it really had the intended effect on me. It almost makes me feel a bit guilty, that I'm complaining about reading about disturbing things, when I think Ken Liu's point is basically "well, these things actually happened to real people and we have a responsibility to remember that," but I can't help feeling misled.
Don't get me wrong, I did very much enjoy some of these stories ("The Waves" and "State Change" stood out especially) and I greatly respect the message that Liu is sending about history. I'm just afraid the medium was just not to my taste, whether that's my squeamishness or misleading marketing or whatever else.
Graphic: Genocide, Torture, Child death, and Rape