Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark

8 reviews

ashlislibrary's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, and Murder

escapinginpaper's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Injury/injury detail, Racial slurs, Murder, and Slavery

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcohol, Sexual content, Colonisation, War, Genocide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Classism, Antisemitism, and Cursing

Spoiler

There is pretty graphic racial violence and a scene involving an entire family being lynched.

megan_paget's review

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gun violence, and Slavery

kayladaila's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Death, Racism, Hate crime, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Medical content, Racial slurs, Violence, War, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Slavery, Genocide, Colonisation, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Trafficking

liormaleficent's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Body horror, Genocide, Gore, and Hate crime

solspringsreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

This book is definitely intense, set in a rich alternate-world like ours with demons and monsters. It's graphic in its violence--understandably so, given the genre and topics--but I really enjoyed and appreciated the way that so many of the themes are investigated in the story. I'm not a fan of horror but I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone with this one, so I enjoyed myself pretty much as much as I could considering the content. I had previously read another short story by this author, and I didn't really enjoy the style or world-building in that one as much; I could definitely see the growth in his writing, which was definitely a treat and makes me excited for any future releases. This was a great introduction to social horror, and I wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone who wants a more historical, fast-paced horror to keep them up at night.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, and Death

rivercat0338's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

ceallaighsbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

“Bad wedduh, bad wedduh, bad wedduh, gwine come…” 

“There were two brothers, Truth and Lie. One day they get to playing, throwing cutlasses up into the air. Them cutlasses come down and fast as can be—swish!—chop each of their faces clean off! Truth bend down, searching for his face. But with no eyes, he can’t see. Lie, he sneaky. He snatch up Truth’s face and run off! Zip! Now Lie go around wearing Truth’s face, fooling everybody he meet.” She stops stitching to fix me with stern eyes. “The enemy, they are the Lie. Plain and simple. The Lie running around pretending to be Truth.” 

TITLE—Ring Shout 

AUTHOR—P. Djèlí Clark 

PUBLISHED—2020 

GENRE—Fantasy; Horror 

SETTING—Georgia (Macon & Stone Mountain) in 1922 

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Black culture & history in America; Black pride; Black resistance; racism; folklore / folktales; Ku Klux Klan; monsters 

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

BONUS ELEMENT/S—literally everything about this book was perfect but I especially loved the details that made it feel extra gothic; I also loved the Gullah-Geechee character; and the descriptions of the characters’ clothing was also really good (and romantic ❤️) 

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Ok here we go. This is a great example of my favorite kind of book. Folklore. (“And them tales got it backward! Rubbish and rabbit propaganda is all that is!”) Storytelling traditions. Revenge of the oppressed. Extremely badass characters. Perfect philosophical underpinnings. Gorgeously gothic and bone-chilling horror elements. And a (seemingly) effortlessly beautiful writing style. An easy 10/10. 

“Who says all the fantasies with sword-wielding heroes and heroines have to be in Middle Earth, Westeros, or even our dreams of Africa past—“copper sun or scarlet sea?” Maybe they can happen right here, too.” — from the Acknowledgements section 

There’s a climax the story is leading up to and part of you thinks you know what it’s going to be and then when you realize a literal *half* a beat before the MC does what’s going to happen you get actual chills. I felt like I was knocked sideways—I didn’t see it coming, and yet it was the most perfect twist for the story. Even thinking about it now I’m getting goosebumps again. 

And *then* the way the MC takes that twist and her reaction to it is 100% perfect. The deeper philosophy, I should say the many layers of deeper philosophy, to this story is some of the best I have ever encountered. Solid, real, and fully-formed in the mind of the author and excellently communicated through the characters and action of the story. 

“The Shout keeps going, whirling into the night. Like Judgment Day.” 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

TW // racism, bigotry, slavery, genocide, mentions of lynching, PTSD, colorism, body horror, gore, death, violence, abduction 

Further Reading— 

• the entire syllabus included with my purchase of this book from Decentred Lit in Jamaica! in particular… 
  • books I have: Kindred, by Octavia Butler 
    • Mules and Men, by Zora Neale Hurston 
    • A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle 
    • Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde 
    • Beloved, by Toni Morrison 
  • books to get: the Annotated African American Folktales, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Maria Tatar 
    • all of P. Djèlí Clark’s other books including The Night Doctors 
    • Searching for Sycorax, by Kinitra Brooks 
    • The People Could Fly, by Virginia Hamilton 
    • Hammers on Bone, by Cassandra Khaw 
    • The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle 
    • Shout Because You’re Free, by Art Rosenbaum 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Slavery

Minor: Kidnapping

There is also a character who has war-induced PTSD and it is briefly mentioned.