Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

9 reviews

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

4.0

Enjoyable read and good set up novel for the series. I found small sections a little too verbose which sometimes brought the quick pace to a crashing stop but that would be my only complaint and I'm hoping that's just partly down to this being a scene setter first novel in the series. Looking forward to book 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Addiction, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide, Death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Blood, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Torture, Gore, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

selimhannah's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Vomit, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Gore, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, and Excrement

melshoo's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Fun urban fantasy, fun narrator, fun use of magic. I enjoyed the humor in the narration and appreciated the practical approach to magic (the use of ppe to protect against exploding apples comes to mind). I also liked the attempt to reconcile magic with modern technology (instead of handwaving it away like some other stories do). The plot didn’t seem to hold up to the rest of the story. The antagonist was much less interesting than everything else so I didn’t care as much about the climax or resolution of the main plot.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

kartoffel_00's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

23/02/23:

It was a fun and okay read. Like not particularly exciting but also not particularly boring. The MC's musing and observations were fun to follow, like comments about bureaucracy. I didn't enjoy the male gaze parts though. Its not at the level of Dresden files but still there, which not going to lie, made me really uncomfortable. Not to say there weren't varied personalities of female character. The MC is just horny and makes it really really obvious. If I could reach inside the book and smack his head I would rate the book much higher. (jk)

Final rating: 3.5/5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Gore, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

This book has gruesome scenes so just prepare yourself for those. And gruesome in the sense that it doesn't provide details but the scene does make your stomach lurch for being what it is.

vaindesi's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Minor: Sexual assault

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcohol, Child death, Gore, Cursing, Murder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Sexual assault, and Blood

Minor: Racism and Xenophobia

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.5

If you're a fan of crime, or police procedural books, I suspect The Rivers of London will be more up your street than it was mine. I really wanted to love it but just couldn't get into the story. After a very slow start, my main issue with it was that I found it too crime, not enough fantasy. But I also found many of the characters hard to gel with - especially Peter Grant. Until it was specifically mentioned that he is meant to be a POC character, I had no idea from the writing. Which was particularly surprising given, being set in the British police force, Aaronovitch had ample opportunity to explore the mix-race experience within law enforcement in his writing. This was completely wasted, with Peter reading like a white guy for 90% of the book. It felt a bit like an afterthought, or token diversity.

While occasionally funny, and having an interesting take on relating old magic to the modern world, I found the events of the book very stop/start and the stakes hard to invest in. At about 35% it became much more readable pace-wise, but I still didn't really warm to the characters or the fantasy world which had initially encouraged me to pick up the book. Disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual assault

unablelemon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexism

Minor: Xenophobia and Sexual assault

Liked the idea and the plot but didnt like the way the author described and wrote about women

fairweather_fox's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Racial slurs