Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

In Flammen by Megha Majumdar

35 reviews

claudia_bow's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Rape, Transphobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, and Murder

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

5.0

 In the beginning moments of this novel, terrorists set fire to a train in modern India.  Jivan, a young woman, later posts about it on Facebook, equating police inaction to government terrorism.  In the middle of the night, she is arrested.  PT Sir was Jivan’s P.E. teacher before she dropped out of school after 10th grade.  Unappreciated and power-hungry, he eventually finds himself in the inner circle of the government’s opposition party nearing an election.  Lovely is a hijra, a transgender woman and a member of a community of trans and intersex people.  She’s a talented actress on the hunt for her breakout role, and she’s learning English from Jivan to become more marketable.  The three characters collide amid Jivan’s trial.

Wonderfully read by a full cast, Megha Majumdar’s A Burning is especially relevant in the age of highly-politicized social media and government extremism. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Islamophobia

Minor: Death, Transphobia, Blood, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

horrorbound's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Islamophobia, and Medical trauma

Minor: Death, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, and Religious bigotry

catgenevieve's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book surprised me and I felt that it ended too quickly. Though the characters aren’t exactly likeable, I wanted to know what would happen to them next.

Though the book is centered around the end of one person’s life, the life of the other characters seems to be just beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Violence, Excrement, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Rape, Transphobia, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

Minor: Fatphobia

atsundarsingh's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this book more. It's timely, it's got multiple voices, and it's the kind of thing where the harshness of real life it literature-ified just enough to get you to think about it without being exhausted. But there just isn't enough character development. The book sort of sits on the surface of the topic. Why is it getting all the awards and notice this year? I think because for many people the portrait of India it paints was new to them in this years news. For me though, it just wasn't enough. Not a bad read, but not special either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Racism, Police brutality, and Islamophobia