Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

7 reviews

quarkie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

As in the first book, a really interesting world and some thought-provoking takes on various concepts, but I was a bit distracted by what I thought to be less-than-stellar writing. I liked this one a bit more than the first one, but I think it was more due to the change in structure rather than a significant change in writing. Rather than the entire book told from a single point of view, this story was told from four distinct viewpoints.  This helped avoid repetition of the same topic and thoughts that was present in the previous book, and also allowed readers to better follow the motivations of characters, since they had access to more internal monologues. It also allowed for readers to see characters' thought processes develop over the course of the book.

One thing I really enjoyed was the pacing - while the beginning was s bit slow, the second half had me on the edge of my seat, and made it difficult to put down!

One complaint I have, that is similar to the previous book, is that sometimes plot points "just happened". Meaning that they either seemingly had no lead up to them, or that they happened and didn't actually have an effect on the plot. It left readers hanging in a few cases.

The main topics that I took away from reading this were what the concept of "you" means to various societies, which was explored in the previous book and then expanded even further upon here. It was also an interesting look at how a society that is know for consuming cultures through colonization acts when confronted with a (SPOILER ALERT) society that will much more literally consume them. Finally, this book explored more concretely the ways in which people from these various cultures interact with one another, and how they can be actively doing harm when they are in fact well-intentioned.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, War, Vomit, Murder, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death, and Violence

Minor: Grief and Alcohol

alisonvh's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-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

The first book in this series was so good I couldn’t wait to read the sequel, and it did not disappoint! It’s as full of humor and great dialogue and political intrigue with just as much pondering the nature of empire and colonialism. Cannot recommend highly enough⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol

fraxisle's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Death, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Gun violence, Stalking, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide

indeedithappens's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Death, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical content, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, War, and Xenophobia

maddiebusick's review

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved everything about this except for the ending. This entire universe from this book and the previous book was so fascinating as were the characters and it will stick with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, War, Colonisation, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, Sexual content, Vomit, Cursing, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcohol, Deportation, and Suicide

caramiaculpa's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Murder and Medical trauma

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Violence