Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

As I Descended by Robin Talley

9 reviews

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

As I Descended is a diverse, queer but still tragic retelling of Shakespeare that does not hold back from the horror. María and Lily are the school's rising stars, if only Delilah Dufrey wasn't in the way. When they have a séance with their best friend Brandon, they unleash a supernatural force that inhabits their Southern boarding school. And the ghosts say that blood will have blood...

I adore how Robin Talley recontextualizes the setting from the nobility of early medieval Scotland to a group of queer teens at a Southern boarding school, and how the themes do not change. It legitimately is impossible to tell if the characters are hallucinating the supernatural occurrences in the school, or if they are really happening. The relationships between the characters mirror those between their Shakespearean counterparts, but they also are their own people and show the effect of fate and the supernatural on their psyche.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Bullying, Addiction, Blood, Drug use, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Outing, Racism, Confinement, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Fatphobia, Ableism, and Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse and Body horror

directorpurry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Violence, Ableism, and Medical content

captainghafa's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Ableism, Biphobia, Fatphobia, Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia

skypotion's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Ableism

Minor: Suicide

beforeviolets's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I think if I tried to state all my thoughts about this book, it would end up as a 20-page essay. All you need to know is: this book was pitched to me as <b>sapphic dark academia Macbeth</b>, and it delivered! It's not a PERFECT book, but Macbeth is one of my favorite plays and a lesbian retelling will certainly make me easy to please :)

TW: there's a LOT. most of them are already in Macbeth so expect a lot of similar plot points.

outing, homophobia, homophobic slurs, ableism, fatphobia, racism, bullying, murder, blood, violence, gore, death, drug use (consensual and non-consensual), alcohol, vomit, car accident (past, brief mention), fire/fire injury (past), panic attacks, schizophrenia/psychosis, self harm, suicide, toxic relationship, also be aware that the setting takes place on an old Southern plantation so there's a history of slaveowners that is discussed quite a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident, Fatphobia, and Slavery

bitterseason's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

Moderate: Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, and Car accident

knightreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Ableism and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

lucy12345's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, and Slavery

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This is a YA retelling of Macbeth set in a prestigious private high school. I was really impressed with the ways that the author managed to tie Macbeth into the modern-day setting (though naming the football field Dunsinane was a bit much), and some of the scares with the ghosts were great.

However, most of the characters were pretty shallow (they definitely felt like identities first and characters second), the plantation stuff felt unnecessary since nothing was ever really done with it, and the ending was kind of silly. Also, this may be shallow but the main character Maria was called "Ree" by all her friends and it really annoyed me. What kind of nickname is that? Who would use that to shorten Maria??

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Biphobia, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death and Slavery