Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

5 reviews

anarmandameg's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Just gonna recycle my review from The Hanging City and say 'Weirdly Horny'

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Murder, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Trafficking, Gore, Genocide, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Infidelity, Racism, Religious bigotry, Torture, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Deportation, Drug abuse, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Domestic abuse

hopscotchreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

As a wasian/hapa myself, this hit close to home. I still think about my favorite quotes. Lots of important conversations here. But some of the writing is pointlessly verbose and there's a men-writing-women feel that is super annoying sometimes.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Murder, Death, Torture, Violence, Racism, War, and Rape

Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Animal cruelty

veronicats's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Gore, Racism, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, War, Sexual content, Slavery, Misogyny, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Torture

alexhaydon's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Gun violence, Body horror, Gore, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Child death

sarahsthoughtsonbooks's review

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I don't know which books it was competing against, it deserves the Pulitzer and any other awards it won. 

Also satire goes over my head, so I might have missed things. 

This book made me put down the book then go down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia to learn more about the Vietnam War (or as it's also known, The American War). Love how Viet Thanh Nguyen wasn't pulling any punches, and he was not necessarily writing to the white audience or those without a working knowledge about the war.

Two themes that I picked up that on - not all on screen representation is good (parody/fictionalisation of Apocalypse Now), and belonging (will probably explore more of this in my IG caption).

Also, while the author has likely done many podcasts interviews, I highly recommend listening to Asian Enough, Season 1, Episode 2. It's my absolute favorite season 1 episode (and John Cho was the guest in the first episode, so that's a high bar in my eyes)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Torture