Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

17 reviews

mals_reads's review

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Xenophobia, Child death, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual assault

siandee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, and Slavery

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, Grief, Racism, Child death, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Death, War, Murder, Violence, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Slavery

carpechristi's review

As a Black woman, I wanted to read only Black authors during Black History Month. While this book is incredibly well written, and the world already seems so lush and beautiful, I was not ready for the slavery, colorism, racism, child abuse and sexual assault. I read enough of these kinds of stories growing up and thought this was going to be a little bit more joyful. I understand that setting the tone is probably important for showing off just how victorious the characters are going to be in the end, but I just wasn’t ready to encounter all of those triggers within the first two chapters. I own a physical copy and will revisit it again someday. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Slavery, Child abuse, Genocide, Police brutality, Racism, Trafficking, War, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual violence

lady_valhella's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Racial slurs, Cancer, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, and Torture

michelejenn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Xenophobia, Torture, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Genocide

bookishperseus's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Child abuse, Colonisation, Hate crime, Slavery, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Murder, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Self harm, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mahra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

As a fellow West African person, I really enjoyed the world created (the magic system is a bit confusing though). The prose was also pretty good.

However, it was way too tropey and predictable for me. I was very excited to read this, and this is exactly what I did not want to see. For me, it falls into the category of books that borrow way too much from the most popular YA fantasy books that we’ve all read (you know them). And because of that, reading this felt like reading a pale copy of many books that I’ve already read. This is unfortunate because the concept is great. 

There was also way too much pointless violence. I understand what the author was trying to do, but I don’t think it was executed well. I also do not think that this is the best idea. There are better ways to tackle these issues

(racism/anti-Blackness, police brutality, State violence…)

and spread that message. 

Unfortunately, I do not think I will read the second and third book. 

PS: The characters were all annoying, except Amari. The romance was horrible. Inan was insufferable. That lady who kept saying his name too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Death, and Violence

squinnittowinit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Edit: After thinking on this book a bit more, I've decided to lower the rating from a 3.75 to a 2. I kept trying to convince myself that this was a good story because I keenly understand the place it was written from, but beyond the bare bones of it, I don't think it actually was. I didn't enjoy the characters and I felt like the plot didn't actually make a whole lot of sense. I've decided that I will not be reading the sequel.

Original review:
Overall, this is a good story with a (unfortunately) very relatable setting: an oppressive society that treats certain people as lesser due to something inherent that they cannot control. I felt the author's pain and anger surrounding this real-world issue in the writing, and perhaps if this had been my first exposure to the mindset of the oppressed group, I might have found it more impactful. However, I personally found it a little tiring for specific reasons that I will mark as a spoiler below. 

Again, it is a good story, just one I've seen many times already. Nothing about it surprised me and as much as I was rooting for them, I didn't love any of the characters by the end. I'm not sure if you're supposed to or not.

The specific reasons I found this book to be tiring have a lot to do with the main characters. All three were naive to a fault, and retained that naivete throughout the entire book, even as their views on certain things changed. I suppose it's realistic, as they are all teenagers and teenagers are very naive, but I found it very frustrating to read about them doing impulsive and very ill-advised things over and over again and then only afterwards thinking that they might have been bad ideas. 

Next, there is the issue of trauma. This is a book based in racial trauma, which makes it automatically not a fun read for me. Again, I really want to stress that I'm not saying it's bad, but it's very real, and it's hard to laugh at any of the jokes or moments of levity when the whole book is about oppression and I already experience oppression nearly constantly in my real life. 

Next, as I said above, nothing about this book surprised me. I was never on the edge of my seat or uncertain about the fate of the characters, because I've seen this story so many times. It hit all the beats I was expecting it to, and the only death I didn't predict was a character that I didn't care about at all. 

Finally, the romance. I'm all for a good romantic subplot, but I couldn't get behind this one. It was going for "enemies to lovers" but was done with no subtlety, I felt like I was being bashed over the head with foreshadowing about this relationship. Then, the actual enemies to lovers part happened seemingly overnight, and they suddenly didn't hate each other anymore. The romance gave me some emotional whiplash and made me feel like I was missing time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Racism, Genocide, Classism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

overthinkereading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

So good. Just…so, so good. Honestly, I would have given five stars if I weren’t so sensitive about violence and bloodshed (and CW THERE IS A LOT OF THAT). 

Even so, the magic and tension and love (romantic and familial) and history of Orïsha is immersive. Before I even realized it, I found myself completely invested in the characters and their mission, and the cliffhanger ending makes it easy to jump right into book 2 of the series. The Author’s Note is the most powerful part of the book, though - do not skip. (Contains spoilers).

Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Death, Classism, Racism, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Gore, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia