Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

19 reviews

readandfindout's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Blood, Gore, and War

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Body horror, Xenophobia, Vomit, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, Medical content, War, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Sexual content and Xenophobia

Minor: Genocide

hanarama's review

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-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

5.0

The Good:

• Stunning world building
• Multiple, opposing POV 
• Complex characters 

The Bad:

• POV changes unexpectedly within chapters
• A lot of set up, slow-paced

You Might Like this if You Like: 

• First contact stories, eg. The Arrival
• Political Intrigue
• Gradually rising tension from multiple threats 
• Non-humanoid aliens 

Arkady Martine delivers a really powerful sequel to her excellent debut novel, A Memory Called Empire. The novel picks up about 2-3 months after the events of Memory. The conflicts with the newly discovered non-human aliens has escalated, with Mahit and Three Seagrass finding themselves at the center of the growing danger. Struggling with personal battles in addition to interplanetary ones, the two women must race to bridge the divide between their peoples and the aliens. 

This novel expands many of the themes presented in Memory. Most notably, Martine continues to examine the effects of colonialism, both on the colonized and the colonizers. Through Three Seagrass and Mahit, she investigates to power imbalances of romantic relationships between individuals on either side. Martine lets her characters ask if two people in such a relationship can be equal partners, and what does it mean for the colonized partner. Can they ever really turn down the colonizer when their requests are so similar to demands? 

Questions of what constitutes "You" and "We" and "Them" pervade all parts of this book. Asking readers to explore these concepts alongside the characters.  Many different perspectives are presented through Martine's rich characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, and Sexual content

mandkips's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Sexual content, Body horror, Gore, Xenophobia, and Genocide

trips's review

adventurous challenging reflective slow-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

Amazing continuation of A Memory Called Empire. The plot is a bit slow to start because Martine has a lot of threads going, but once they start converging, things get crazy. This book is though provoking yet easily enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Medical content, and Genocide

freedryk's review

adventurous 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content

Moderate: Body horror, Medical trauma, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

tooyu's review

adventurous challenging 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

This fucked me UP. The what makes a person a person through line combined with the heartbreak of Mahit loving a culture who will only ever think of her as an barbaric alien had me so stressed out and so hurt that I legitimately read half this book and then had to put it down and try to forget about it for a week. The sequel is better than I could have imagined and I am going to be thinking about it for a long time. 

Specifically the line: “Send—send us people. People to prove we are people.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror

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

achingallover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-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

phenomenal

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Xenophobia