Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Word For The World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

101 reviews

abissette's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad fast-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

5.0

Fascinating, philosophical, enriching sci fi

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

morenowagain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative fast-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

4.0

A very appropriate read for what's going on in the world right now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and War

scurvotron's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape

itsnotsarah's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

trailmixraisins's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense 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

5.0

This Ursula K. Le Guin classic is a short and bittersweet parable-like story. She uses vivid and explicit depictions of colonialism in the setting of an alien planet years in the future where humans have developed the technology to travel through space. Selver, an Athshean man, and his society are irrevocably changed after humans settle the planet to harvest wood to be sold on Earth. Though ultimately hopeful, the toll of human violence and hatred on the non-violent society puts its continued existence in jeopardy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

octliderro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Xenophobia

remib's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and War

Moderate: Rape

issyharvey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

I'm always a fan of Le Guin's writing and will definitely be rereading this piece again and again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, and Alcohol

johnpfromkc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Good message but it was a little too "on the nose." 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Classism

lottiegasp's review against another edition

hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

In this novella we meet the peaceful Ashtheans, a humanoid species living on a planet covered in forest. The planet has been colonised by Terran humans, who log the planet to return the wood to the now-arid Earth. We meet a selection of the humans living on Ashthe from the garishly evil Davidson who sees the Ashtheans as an inferior animal species, to Lyubov, an anthropologist who has studied, learnt the language of, and befriended the Ashtheans, and many in between with varying levels of respect or disdain for the Ashtheans. The main Ashthean we get to know is Selver, who leads the resistance against the humans.

Written in the 1970s, the story is an allegory for the Vietnam War, where the Ashtheans represent the otherwise peaceful Vietnamese who, when driven to it, fought for their country's self-determination. I liked how the story depicts a range of humans (representing Americans), but that even those who mean well are still complicit in human supremacy that hurts the Ashtheans.

I think stories like this that deal with speciesism against alien species and human supremacy function both represent the racism/colonisation of the past (blatantly defining non-white people as subhuman. These days the forms of racism tend to be more subtle) and also give us food for thought when considering how we treat non-human animals- making assumptions about their intelligence, feelings and value.

I always find Le Guin's writing quite dense, such that I struggle to get excited to go back to her novels while I'm reading them. Compared to her full-length novels I've read, this one was short enough to feel like less of a slog, but also meant it did not have the same build and climax that I enjoyed for instance in The Left Hand Of Darkness. But overall I recommend the book for its pertinent political themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape