Reviews tagging 'Violence'

In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu

15 reviews

ellornaslibrary's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

3.0

This is definitely one of those books where I'm going to have to re-read it. I definitely enjoyed it, but I don't think I fully grasped it. I'll probably try to re-read it in a digital or physical format though. Maybe I'll follow it better then. For now, I'll say it's definitely a 3 star as the story is compelling and emotional, and the narrator did a wonderful job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Suicide, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide attempt

I'm sure there might be others I missed. . . I'll try to update them when I remember, but this book starts off with a warning about a completed suicide so please, please, please keep that in mind.

mondays's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Abandonment, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Confinement

Minor: Sexism, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

Self-injury for magical purposes. Foot binding. Suicide by drowning. Mutilation/cutting, including in a consensual sexual context.

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

3.0

I like framed short stories like this, and always enjoy queer and inclusive stories. The framing story felt a little clumsy from time to time, but it was intriguing. I really wish we got more stories out of that box! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Gore, Colonisation, Blood, Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Murder, Medical trauma, Death, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Police brutality and War

People as food

laurareads87's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

With In the Watchful City, author S. Qiouyi Lu has produced a novella that feels like a novel given how much is included... yet that somehow doesn't drag.  The author describes this as biocyberpunk, and the novella touches on many themes one would expect from that description - surveillance, biological/technological interfacing, the relationship between body and consciousness, and more.  I liked a lot about this, including the intermingling of multiple genres and how utterly and unapologetically queer the entire story felt.  I did like the 'stories within a story' structure, though some components were stronger than others and I found myself wishing that some sections were longer.  I definitely want to read more from S. Qiouyi Lu.

<i>Content warnings:</i> suicide on page (drowning), suicidal thoughts, death, violence, mention of a past suicide attempt, sexism, colonization, medical content, grief, blood, consensual cutting/scarification in a sexual context

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Medical content

Minor: Colonisation and Sexism

nittiotvaan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, and Death

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Suicide attempt

mugs_it_is's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Violence

yavin_iv's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent

foreverinastory's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Thank you so much to Tor.com and B2Weird Tours for a finished copy of this novella in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In the Watchful City is a book about Anima (æ/ær/ær) who is an extrasensory human that interacts with the complex living network of Ora called the Gleaming. Anima maintains watch over all the citizens of Ora and makes sure no one comes to harm. But when a visitor with a cabinet of curiosities comes to visit, everything Anima thought was true comes into question.

This story is full of stories within stories. It deep dives into what emotions and experiences make us human and the bonds that tie humanity together. This story also explores queerness in a way that's so normative it's like walking into a big queer group hug. Lu tells this story in fragments, and the non-linear timeline worked so well for this story. I loved seeing all the various characters and then coming back to the main storyline between Anima and Engima (se/ser/ser). Lu's writing was rich and I know I'm going to be diving back into this book soon to relive this experience!

CWs: Suicide, death, death of sibling, foot binding, blood, colonisation, self harm, violence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Colonisation, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence