Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

10 reviews

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

dark lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-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

3.5

Just like Her Majesty's Royal Coven, this was a fast-paced read with spy movie elements in a magical world. I did feel like it dragged a bit in the middle of the book, though the point-of-view changes helped to keep me intrigued about other things that were going on enough to keep reading. Overall the atmosphere was a little darker and less magical, with more focus on characters fucking each other over than on sisterhood (which makes sense, considering the new main character, but also made it a little less appealing to dive back in after a reading break). The pacing of the ending was a lot more satisfying to me than in the first book, and once again there were some interesting twists to make me very curious about the next part!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Vomit, Self harm, Violence, Death, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Transphobia, Grief, and Child death

Minor: Blood, Animal death, Bullying, Racism, Abandonment, and Alcohol

sfdogmom's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

Great sequel. Very well and cleverly written. Several lol moments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Dysphoria, and Racism

dykebakery's review against another edition

Dawson was way out of her depth writing from a Black lesbian’s POV. Seeing a nonlesbian white woman write the phrase “lesbian bed death was real” without a hint of satire was exhausting enough (it’s a homophobic myth based on a homophobic study), but then to throw on the IMMEDIATE exoticization and racism with a slavery plot point before I’ve even had the chance to recover? I should’ve expected nothing less from a Brit, honestly. 

I’m not picking this one back up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, and Racism

izzy_w_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia and Racism

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, War, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Abandonment, Death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, and Death of parent

rabelais's review against another edition

3.0

the underlying premise of magic continues to be transmisogynistic. why? why is it necessary to require the entire existence of the world to be based on transmisogyny??? 🤬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Violence

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

 Thank you Penguin for this ARC
This book tore my heart out and then served it back to me on a silver platter. What's worse is that I loved every second of it!
Dawson perfectly captures what's like to experience life as a woman, it feels like she reaches into my brain and puts my darkest experiences to page. Part of the reason this trilogy is so difficult to read is because how close to real life it is. All the hate, fear, and bitterness isn't fictional. The only thing fictional about this book is the magic and witchery. Everything else sadly, you can easily find anywhere in the world.
This is in no way shape or form a light and happy read. There is sisterhood, family, and love, but what they all go through and experience is difficult at best, depressing at worst. Definitely check your tws before reading because there is a lot of death, murder, homophobia, sexism and more fun stuff.
I was so ready to hate Ciara, everything we learned in the last book really had her painted as "evil" plain and simple. If there's anything I should have learned from Dawson's writing, is that people are messy, complex, floundering creatures. There is no good or evil, only the choices we make, and we can always come back from it. ‘No. There’s always a way back,’ he said, trying to convince them both. ‘You just . . . turn around and go the way you came.’
My favorite pov is from Leonie, she is such a badass and I loved her adventure. On the flip side I always have such a hard time enjoying reading Elle's chapters. She just really annoys me and the way she behaves would drive me to therapy if I were her child. I didn't expect Luke's plotline to take him where it did, I enjoyed it, but it almost feels like too much out of left field.
Another MUST READ from Juno Dawson, this is shaping up to be one of my favorite series! Please I need the final book! DAWSON LOVES CLIFFHANGERS TOO MUCH!!

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Grief, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Misogyny, Death, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, and Drug abuse

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective 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

4.25

For the first part of the book, I was very confused about the plot but I was here for the vibes! Using witches to talk about sexism, racism, transpobia etc is a sure fire way to make me love a book. But as it kept going, I saw the plot unfolding and I'm super keen to see where this series goes and I hope it's a long one! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Torture, Racism, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Hate crime, Alcohol, Violence, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Homophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Addiction

meliemelo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.75

An excellent sequel! The new points of views (especially

Ciara's, but also Luke's

) really open up the story in sometimes hilarious, although dark, ways. The storyline works really well on its own and brings up very, very interesting developments to the overall arc. Will the references read as dated in a few decades (and perhaps much sooner)? Yes, probably, but that's ok.

I don't know when the (I assume) final book will be out, but I really can't wait for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Animal death, Addiction, Sexism, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Infidelity, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Dysphoria, Child abuse, Transphobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Torture

macaronoui's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative 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? N/A

5.0

This second book is packed full of twists and a more in depth look at the surviving characters from the first book.

Ciara (pronounced Kyra), is pretending to be Niamh (pronounced Neeve). Dabney is still missing.

This book introduces witch hunters (and killers), and was one of the best and scariest plot lines of the book as it mirrors real life sentiments of some men towards women.

The book really rounds out more of the characters which I loved.

The broad LGBTQ+ representation is beautiful and so important. As well as Bipoc women. So much happens in this book, that I’m still processing and I cannot wait for the third installment.

This book is definitely more scary than the first, but even better.

I listened to the audio version as I loved Nicola (Bridgerton and Derry Girls) reading book one. She is a truly fantastic narrator giving different inflections and accents to the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, and Death