Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

13 reviews

maneatingbadger's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Rape, Murder, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide, Racism, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

caitlin_bookchats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Spectacular short story collection. Each story distinct; wide variety of settings, characters, topics, lengths; thoughtful questions raised.

I didn't love every story, but I loved most of them and there were very few that I did not value in some way. Truly a quality collection.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Torture

Triggers vary widely by story, particularly memorable: The Regular discusses the search for a serial killer who targets high dollar sex workers. Some of the content is in the killer's voice. The detective is also dealing with the death of a child by abusing body modification tech. The Literomancer mentions some racial slurs used by children towards another child. It also details torture of one character by another. The torture is not glorified or seen as necessary/good but it is graphic/detailed. A Brief History of the Trans Pacific Tunnel mentions "comfort women", forced prison labor, and the cover up of both. The Litigation Master and the Monkey King - mentions the historical 15th? century massacre of a Chinese city and what, 50 years later, the ruling dynasty does to continue to cover it up. The Man who Ended History: a Documentary details atrocities performed by the Japanese by Unit 731 during WWII and the ways the USA and western world is complicit in covering them up. (Medical experimentation on humans) It includes but does not endorse denialist phrases. The Simulacrum mentions cheating (mentioned here because it's not in the list of triggers.

readandfindout's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

On first read in 2017: There were multiple five star stories for me in this anthology. However, because there were also some two and two and a half star stories, this gets 4 stars overall. Ken Liu is such a smart writer. I really enjoy his style.

2023 reread: 4.25 stars overall

The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species: 5 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
State Change: 4 stars (2017), 4.5 stars (2023)
The Perfect March: 3 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
Good Hunting: 4.5 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Literomancer: 5 stars (2017 and 2023)
Simulacrum: 2 stars (2017), 3.5 stars (2023)
The Regular: 4.5 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Paper Menagerie: 4.5 stars (2017), 5 stars (2023)
An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition: 3 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Waves: 5 stars (2017), 3.5 stars (2023)
Mono No Aware: 5 stars (2017), 4.5 stars (2023)
All the Flavors: 3 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel: 2.5 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
The Litigation Master and the Monkey King: 4 stars (2017), 5 stars (2023)
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary: 5 stars (2017 and 2023)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Xenophobia, Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Genocide, Murder, Grief, Colonisation, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, War, Body horror, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs