Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

6 reviews

casualk's review against another edition

funny

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Violence, Sexism, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and War

Minor: Mental illness, Ableism, and Fatphobia

kaylanicholsmith's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Hmm... where to begin with this....

I feel like I was really excited to get to this finally because of all the hype that I've heard over all the years and it was... fine? This book is kinda dense. You get thrown right into the world of Darrow, the main character, and you are learning as you go. There is nothing about the world, the language, the setting that is really explained to you. Darrow, as a character, kinda expects people to just know what he is talking about. Sometimes this narrative style works for me and other times it doesn't. Ultimately, the writing style as a whole just wasn't my favorite. I kept trying to remind myself that we are primarily reading from the perspective of teenage boys (yuck) but it just felt over the top with the juvenile quality sometimes. Also, my biggest pet peeve in books, any genre, is when the author has to insert fart jokes or fart commentary (usually as an insult to another character). I just can't stand it. The amount of times the author used "turd" could also warrant some kind of an award.

Despite the issues with the writing my biggest question with this story was the handling of sexual assault. On one hand, I feel like the author did do something a little different than a lot of other male fantasy/scifi writers - the female characters were not only there to be sexually assaulted and serve no other purpose. However, on the other hand, the amount of sexual assault still felt gratuitous and the female characters underdeveloped. While there is nothing graphic on the page, there is ample talk about the sexual assaults taking place, and not all of it is condemning the actions taking place. Granted, sexual violence is quite commonplace in war situations and the bystander effect is a terrible thing that happens everyday, but the author didn't really seem to tackle the issue quite as head on as he might have thought he was. Perhaps that was because there is SO MUCH going on in this first book - I think that we cover about 2 years in the course of this first book - and it flies. There is no real delving into any of the social issues that are being raised in the book. Everything felt super surface level.

I haven't totally written off the rest of the series but I'm in no major rush to continue on. I wonder if, as the story continues to build, that the commentary will become stronger and the writing more palatable but who knows. Maybe I never will... we'll see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Bullying, Racism, Sexual violence, Vomit, Ableism, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Slavery, War, Gore, Murder, Animal death, and Blood

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Child death, Confinement, Blood, Excrement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Violence, War, Ableism, Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

brook_price's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

1.5

This book was definetely not for me. I've heard the sequels are better but yikes, the portrayals of women and any character other than the hyper-masculine, stunningly handsome, muscular main character were so lackluster and kind of insulting. Also, the treatment of rape was infuriating. I get that the characters discussing and analyzing the incidents are children and that the proctors watching over the games are indicative of the dystopia that hired them, but damn, the handling of assault was messed up. It was as if the women didn't matter. I got straight-up pissed off a couple of times reading this book. To make matters even more irritating, I thought the battle royal element was so boring. The stakes weren't outlined well and the pacing was way too slow. I don't think I'm the target audience for this story, so take my notes with a grain of salt, but ooofff, did not like this book. 1.5 for interesting character names at least.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Classism, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Bullying, Misogyny, and Rape

I personally did not like this book

coincidental's review

adventurous emotional inspiring tense 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: Blood, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, and Slavery

logfan's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, and Death