Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler

12 reviews

gemstonejasper's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a great adaptation of the original book. It's been years since I read the original, so I thought I'd pick this up to scratch that itch without having to read all of Kindred again (I'm in the middle of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, so I didn't want to get her writing confused). At first, the art seemed jarring. But the more I read, the more I realized that the art is a perfect fit for the story. 

It's a heartbreaking story that explores Dana's perspective as she is repeatedly pulled into the past to save the life of Rufus, her distant white ancestor. The first time she is pulled back, he is just a child and she saves his life. Each time she goes, he has aged up anywhere from months to years. To keep her family line going, and ensure her own existence, Dana has to keep Rufus alive long enough for his child to be born. But that's not easy. The story gives you no other choice but to watch as a child, innocent as any other, is corrupted by his family, culture, time, experiences, etc., and becomes a disgusting plantation owner.

Don't expect to read this in one sitting. Some books can be read that fast, and some people may be able to do that here. But the horror of the subject matter makes it very hard to read in one sitting. I had to take frequent breaks to process what had happened. But I really loved the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Ableism, Gaslighting, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, Child abuse, Racism, Rape, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Suicide attempt, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Slavery

nick_thebucket's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is incredible but the art is so poor that it actually detracts from the story. The way the expressions are drawn is so cheesy and it just doesn't read as authentic at all. Like they drew her looking more emotional eating shrimp than when she returned after time traveling for the first time. It doesn't look like the characters are feeling the emotions, they look like they're acting, if that makes sense. The anatomy was.... there were so many mistakes and they were very beginner level mistakes. The characters didn't even look like themselves half the time because the artists couldn't draw them consistently. Also the layout/composition of panels was so hard to read at times that they literally added in white border to try to make some sense of what's going on and I thought the white linework was distracting and unappealing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Hate crime, Trafficking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Self harm, Sexual violence, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, and Emotional abuse

canascorner's review

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Blood, Classism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Violence, Confinement, Murder, Body horror, Slavery, Death of parent, Gore, and Racism

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Deportation, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, and Torture

booksaremythirdplace's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Rape

mxmarta's review

dark emotional fast-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

4.5

A very interesting plot mechanism of time travelling to the past to contrast the reality of late 20th century with early 19th century, in a plantation in the south. I'm definitely interested in reading the original novel, but this graphical novel adaptation is very easy to read and conveys the horrors of colonisation and slavery in a visceral way by virtue of being visual. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Blood, Colonisation, Sexism, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual violence, and Gore

Minor: Miscarriage and Child death

rowanasm's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Miscarriage

aalisahw04's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.5

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It is a good book, like the illustrations are beautiful, especially the switching between past and present and the different lighting/color schemes. However, I think my main issue was that nothing truly got sorted with and it didn’t feel like there was any actual purpose to the book. The story focused on Dana, who was able to time travel to Maryland, during the 1800s when slavery was still rampant, due to the fact that she was connected with a slaveholder named Rufus. Whenever he found himself being injured, almost to the brink of death, she would show up to take care of him. 

I think the main reason why I’m not as big of a fan of the novel is because it seems so unfinished. Like I understand the ending, but I feel like there’s still things missing. Like why was her and Rufus intertwined? What happens to all of the slaves Rufus owned till his passing? Did they die? What did they think about Dana and how she was able to come in and then disappear as she pleases? And also for Dana, is she still able to time travel? What’s the extent of it? Does she need to be thinking about a specific person for it to happen? I feel like there’s so many questions that was left unanswered in the book because the book decided to end just with Rufus dying. If this is apart of a series then that may be why but I haven’t seen information about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Body horror, Torture, Racism, Hate crime, Blood, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Self harm, and Miscarriage

camsara99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Slavery, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Death, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

orchidd's review

dark reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Minor: Fire/Fire injury