Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

8 reviews

josh_mza's review

dark emotional reflective 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

3.25

A captivating irony of a dysfunctional immigrant family trying to piece together what it means to live. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Addiction

gentleprocrastination's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Suicide, Grief, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Child death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Medical content, Pregnancy, Cancer, Abortion, Gun violence, and Police brutality

jessthanthree's review

emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Violence, Mental illness, and Racism

Minor: Racial slurs

random19379's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs

Moderate: Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Chronic illness, Grief, Homophobia, and Suicide

jarnbooks's review

emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book. Not initially, I hated  the first 100 pages because of the EXPLICIT descriptions of sex but I enjoyed the character. The story of the Gold siblings makes you think about if you want to live or survive and how much time we really have to do it. Each sibling has their own story to tell that each give a different lesson in a different time period that makes them feel real. There were some character decisions that I thought were a little quick but it adds to the story in the moment. There is a character for everyone to have some relation to. Each character is so strong in their passions and it’s genuinely interesting to see how each of the siblings go about their lives and the time they have left. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Death, Child death, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Toxic relationship, War, Racism, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Chronic illness

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Stalking, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Vomit, Infertility, Homophobia, Car accident, Cancer, Bullying, Antisemitism, Abortion, Abandonment, and Gun violence

Most of these are in Simon and Klara’s parts which you can pretty much skip as the important parts are mentioned in the other parts.

infinitezest's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Animal cruelty

The characters throw around slurs and stereotypes about Romani people so casually that it seems the author does not think they are a problem. As a white person I don’t know the history between Romani people and Jews, but I thought some acknowledgement that the g-word is not OK would have been appropriate.

lovelybookshelf's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

"If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?"

The Immortalists hinges on the question above, and explores how four siblings' lives play out after finding out, as children, the dates of their deaths. This was my virtual book club's March pick. I finished reading it a week ago, but I feel like I'm still processing some things about this book. It'll be interesting to see how tonight's conversation goes.

I loved Chloe Benjamin's writing. The prologue starts off with our four sibling protagonists as children, and it reads like an especially beautifully-written middle grade novel. This style places you right into the children's perspective, complete with all their wonder and curiosity, bravery and trepidation. That prologue really set the stage for the rest of the story. The writing style changes tone as the children grow up, and we as readers are swept along in it. I was surprised by how much of the book is written in present tense. It's done so well that I didn't actually notice until halfway through.

This was a seriously well-crafted, absorbing story, but there were a couple aspects that gave me mixed feelings.

Simon: Her writing of gay characters is stereotypical and a little...weird. At times it bordered on caricature-like because of its heavy focus on gayness as tragedy, through an obviously straight lens. That didn't feel good as a queer reader. I should not see the "bury your gays" trope coming when I've practically just met the character. But I can't deny that there are also some very tender moments that are handled beautifully, and the tragedy of it all hit hard. And there's a side character from Simon's life who reappears at the end, whose words clarified some things for me and redeemed some of these reservations. (Not all, but some.)

The Romani rep was not good. Honestly, I thought it was pretty disrespectful. "Magical Romani" and "Dishonest Romani" tropes are all throughout this novel. There are a few half-hearted lines about how they're misunderstood, they're "not all like that," but these lines were so feeble they seemed like an afterthought, as if she was trying to justify writing offensive descriptions of the fortune teller's family.

So yes, these two cliché, contrived aspects were frustrating, but I have to say, I was fully invested in these siblings' lives and loved reading about them. They were all so different from each other! And I was completely dazzled by Chloe Benjamin's writing style. So I don't regret my time spent with The Immortalists, and I'm likely to read more of her work.

TW: AIDS, death, homophobia, homophobic slurs, violence, racism, racist slurs, alcoholism, poverty, animal cruelty, OCD, health anxiety 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Gun violence

nicolewhopickedthisbook's review

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This is a very slow paced book but the concept is very intriguing. Left very open ended and leaves it up to the reader to decide if the magic and the fantasy aspect is real or since they were told the date they were going to die, their belief some how manifested it... 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

Pop Culture Readathon Prompt: No More Wire Hangers (Family Dynamics) 

TW: alcohol and drug abuse, racial slurs, suicide 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, and Terminal illness