Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

10 reviews

cleot's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Confinement, Animal cruelty, and Police brutality

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual violence, Ableism, Genocide, and Misogyny

gulag, soviet repression, femicide, human experimentation, nazism, Josef mengele, radiation, surveillance state, child experimentation, willful exposure of civilian population to lethal circumstances

bestknownfor's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Child death, Terminal illness, and Homophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, Rape, and Body horror

krys_kilz's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Confinement

Moderate: Murder, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, and Homophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, War, and Rape

pvbobrien's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Police brutality, Terminal illness, and Antisemitism

Minor: Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Rape

breadwitchery's review

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Violence, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Medical trauma, Confinement, Murder, Gun violence, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, and Police brutality

Minor: Cursing, Racism, Ableism, War, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

spacebornfew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

On one hand, this book gave me exactly what I wanted, it follows a formula that just makes something in my heart clench. It was, as always with Natahsa Pulley novels, hauntingly beautiful, tragic and tender. With bonus octopus.  

However it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore how poorly her female characters are treated. You can't help but feel that they are plot devices purely there to move things along for the leading men. Considering the book explores sexism and gender, at some points in quite a heavy handed manner, it feels incredibly jarring to still not have women exist to have some purpose beyond window dressing. 

It's also very dark, at points a lot darker than her other novels which I had not entirely expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cancer, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Torture, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Homophobia, Police brutality, Rape, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse

Minor: Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, War, and Xenophobia

tamamorii's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Cancer

Moderate: Antisemitism and Genocide

Minor: Animal death

ginger2d's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Terminal illness, and Sexism

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Torture, War, Transphobia, Genocide, and Forced institutionalization

btrz7's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Animal death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness

csevet's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This was historical fiction without the fantasy element I’ve come to expect from the author’s books, but I ended up enjoying it just as much. Plus I ended up learning much more than I expected to about radiation and in a way that filled the gap that the lack of fantasy element might have left. Also Valery may be my favorite character she has ever written, so

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Ableism, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Antisemitism