Reviews tagging 'Outing'

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

12 reviews

andrew_corduroy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This was a challenging listen, as many fantasy books are with all of their names and places. But damn if I wasn’t just hooked and felt like I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Homophobia, Colonisation, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, and Outing

kingcrookback's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

This is a compliment: The last twenty percent of this book made me want to scream. The way Dickinson seeded the reveal, just enough to barely rouse suspicion at first, and the way it all started adding up, terrible but unstoppable. I sometimes felt like I was watching someone start building a cage, only to suddenly understand that they're building it around themselves. God, it was almost unbearable, so effectively constructed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Murder, Outing, and Sexual content

emeraldrina's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A masterpiece of world building and intrigue. Each time I picked up this book I was so immersed that I forgot I was reading. The world is both complex and believable, the characters all beautifully complicated, and the plot just the right amount of knotted mystery to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat without being confusing. At times the strategic planning was a touch over-explained, but that might just be because I have a background in the subject. And it wasn’t redundant enough to put me off or make me feel bored. Other than that, the writing was stunningly beautiful, and yet never so present that it was distracting from the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, War, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Blood, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Outing, Vomit, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bookycnidaria's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Alcoholism, Genocide, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Torture

Moderate: Outing and Pandemic/Epidemic

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

I was a little skeptical about this book because I keep seeing it recommended alongside other books I didn't like very much, and the 'take an empire down from the inside' storyline can often be kind of cheesy. I'm glad I gave the book a chance (even though it hurt me severely) - this was a tragic story with fascinating characters that never lets you forget for a second the cost of empire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, Death, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Torture, Xenophobia, Animal death, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Vomit, Child death, Pedophilia, Ableism, Addiction, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

jjjreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Abandonment, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Acephobia/Arophobia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, War, Mental illness, Alcohol, Transphobia, Colonisation, Misogyny, Outing, Deportation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

bruisedtigers's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was disappointing after seeing it so highly praised and discussed. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half falls flat, and the conclusion didn't land for me at all. There are too many characters, very few of which are unique enough to easily tell them apart, and that made all the war games difficult to follow. I kept mixing up who belonged where, what they offered, and their personalities didn't stand out. It might've been better if (major ending spoilers)

Baru's betrayal wasn't a 'surprise twist' -- and the reader experienced her struggle more directly through the whole war. Instead, since it's all her POV, she abruptly just becomes less insightful as a narrator, and you can put two-and-two together. Justice for Tain Hu, the only really good character. If I didn't already know she died, this would've probably made me much more upset about it. I think they needed to actually be together for more than one night for that betrayal to really cut deep. Instead, it feels gaudy.

I probably won't pick up the sequels, unfortunately. Highly suggest looking up content warnings as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Death, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, War, and Xenophobia

eegekay's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Homophobia, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Outing, Racism, Sexual violence, War, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Death

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

I can't rate this yet. It's been too soon. All my brain can say is "Baruuuuuu"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Colonisation, Death of parent, Homophobia, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, War, Animal death, Hate crime, Body shaming, Genocide, Murder, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Ableism, Addiction, Grief, Alcohol, Biphobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Chronic illness, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Confinement, Medical content, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

hedsek's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

This is a pretty difficult book to rate! I love the setting and the worldbuilding, although I think some of the details could have been repeated a bit more often because sometimes I felt like I was supposed to remember everything that was mentioned once for the rest of the book to understand what was going on. The plot was quite hard to follow sometimes (might also have to do with the fact that I read this before going to sleep), and I often felt like the motivations Baru had for her decisions were left implicit which confused me. Now that I have reached the ending of the book, this makes more sense though and I feel like I'll have to reread the book to fully appreciate the plot. 
Although I struggled through the first 2/3 of the book, I finished the rest in two days because the ending is just amazing and the buildup towards the climax is so well done. I am really glad I was convinced to continue reading after all. 
Finally, it is just so refreshing to read a fantasy book that is not the same white cishet patriarchal stuff I've come to expect from the genre so that is definitely a pro.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, War, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Outing, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Biphobia, Homophobia, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts