Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen

1 review

sarah984's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I did not like this book at all. The "Western" style narration felt fake and annoyed me. Near the end there is a four or five-paragraph section that just lists all of the book’s intended themes like you might not notice them. There are a lot of attempts at diversity but most of them wind up being kind of offensive (eg. The use of skinwalkers, the situation with Nettie’s gender identity, food descriptors for skin colour, the depiction of the Lobos, the absolutely constant low-level misogyny, the way the main character thinks about and describes sex workers - even the one who tried to help her!). I hate sexual assault for shock value in YA and yes that makes an appearance here too.

If you want to read a cool fantasy western save yourself the trouble and read The Good Luck Girls instead.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Rape, and Suicide