Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

85 reviews

issymaae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia, Animal death, and Racism

Minor: Child death and Sexual content

shelbyc's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Having grown up on the prairies of Montana (where this book is set in) the author did an excellent job of portraying the vastness of it. As well as the never ending wind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Racism, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Slavery, and Sexual harassment

ominousspectre's review against another edition

3.5

This had a lot of potential but I think it should've been two different stories.

Learning about women homesteading in Montana during this era really intrigued me, and I felt like that could've been a story in itself.

The premise of the secret in the steamer trunk really grabbed me at the beginning. And the mystery of the Mudges. Once the secret is revealed and you enter Act 2, it sort of lost me from a horror perspective. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Racism

dev921's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Grief, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

finalfires's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

3.75

I really loved the mix of genres in this book, the setting, the mystery and the concept. However, the pace sped up too much in the last 150 or so pages, and I feel like the story wrapped up too neat and perfect. I’d give the first half of the book 5 stars and the second half 2. The first half feels like a really cool, well written feminist western horror. The second half feels a tad fanfiction-y. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Deadnaming, Murder, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Child abuse, Transphobia, Slavery, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Animal death, Racism, and Gore

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark 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

A wonderful horror novel where the horror is our fear of the unknown and how our fear of difference turns us into monsters. Adelaide and her growing community were so interesting, and I love that we built out from the horror of ~what is in her trunk~ to the horror of a town's leaders being determined to micromanage and turn their community in a homogeneous white horror show.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Death, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death

sydapel's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Frustratingly, I found this to be not my taste, despite a really incredible premise. Mostly, I felt that scenes were cut just went I was beginning to become invested in them, which while adding to the dramatic and desolate effect, kept me from connecting with either the plot or the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racism

dwdillydally's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Child death, Racism, and Child abuse

Minor: Grief, Alcohol, Cursing, Pregnancy, Sexism, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

jashanac's review against another edition

4.0

Summary:
Historical western horror. Adelaide is traveling out to Montana after a life-altering event happens, resulting in the death of her parents, leaving her alone to carry the family burden with her now. She tries to survive while keeping the secret, but things don't necessarily go as planned and others end up getting hurt. She learns whether or not the community members will help her or if they will be her undoing.

Re-Readability:
I did really enjoy this, but I don't know that I'd ever find myself wanting to re-read it.

Characters:
I really liked the characters here, though sometimes I felt like there wasn't as much development as I'd maybe have liked. But with Adelaide and some of the more important side characters there was enough. I just didn't feel any particular connection to any of them, where I was engrossed in them. 

Plot:
I enjoyed the pacing throughout this, aside from a little bit toward the end where we were skipping forward a fair amount, but it made sense I suppose, because the action was ramping up. It was kind of weird to me that Adelaide originally had the one story about her secret and then later it was revealed that it was very different (and made more sense) -- I gathered that maybe she was suppressing the truth in her mind, but that wasn't really clarified.

I was also a little bit confused about why the women in the end

completely destroyed the entire town, when there were still 20 or so people who lived there and in the surrounding area... kind of seemed like overkill to destroy all of it?

Expression of female rage maybe?

Overall though, I liked the mystery and my interest was kept throughout the story. The horror elements weren't too scary for me and I enjoyed how everything ended up.  

Themes/Discussions:
Racism. Xenophobia. Women looking out for one another. Female friendship and comradery. The burdens people carry. Changing our perception of our horrific truths. Loneliness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

pineapplesurvivor's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Transphobia, and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation