Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

48 reviews

mxfahrenheit's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Police brutality, Vomit, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Colonisation, and Deadnaming

Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

roaming_reader's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

I first heard about this book on TikTok and Instagram from the author themselves and I wanted to pick it up. I am a big fan of Sim Kerns's social media posts and wanted to see if I would be a fan of their writing as well. Turns out I definitely am. This novel is set in an alternate USA timeline, during which Al Gore won the 2000 election and instead of a War on Terror, we were set on the War on Climate Change. It's something that sounds like a utopia, when in actuality, there are so many systemic issues that are masked by "saving the planet". Maddie as a main character was a great one to lead readers through, because her self discovery and learning journey felt reflective of what many people went through in 2020 during the BLM protests after the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor. I did think that the commentary on systemic racism was a bit surface level. I saw another review that called it "entry level" for white people, and I have to agree with it. I enjoyed the discussions on transness and gender identity in the book and thought that the cast of characters was extremely diverse. They were fleshed-out so much that I would love a novel from each person's perspective. This book is enjoyable and really makes you think. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Homophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Rape, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

theliblairian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Suicide

adrienneh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really appreciated the theme of finding hope even in the face of ongoing struggle and I could see a lot of myself and loved ones in these characters. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, Grief, Police brutality, War, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

sky130's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book starts out kind of slow, but make no mistake: by the end, you will be rapt and horrified, watching it spiral out of control and knowing full well it will end badly. It's like watching a train wreck - it's violent and tragic and you can't look away for a second. For all the painful turns the story takes, it never feels like the violence and misfortune is written in just for the sake of tormenting the characters. Unfortunately, it's pretty true to life despite being speculative fiction. I would still really recommend checking the trigger warnings, as the book is an absolute onslaught of trauma of every variety. If you feel like you can handle that, I would give this book a shot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Drug use, and Racism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Rape, and Addiction

Minor: Colonisation and Deadnaming

miggyfool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Rape, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Physical abuse, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

katcool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, and Police brutality

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual assault, War, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape

smellie_mooo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

stwriter92's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I pre-ordered this book after searching up "solarpunk" on TikTok and coming across Sim Kern's page. It quickly became one of my favorite pages on that godforsaken app and when I saw that they were publishing a book, I knew I had to pre-order it immediately. When it came, I was still in the midst of finishing up other books (which I have yet to write reviews on, oops. I feel super behind. Oh well.) but something drew me to it on Friday and I slipped it into my bag to read while I was out. Perhaps it was because of everything that has been going on in the world. I felt that I needed a bit of hope, fictional or otherwise.

Let me say: I have not sat in a cafe reading for so long in my entire life. I read the first half entirely in one sitting.

The novel centers on a greenwashed solarpunk alternate universe in which Al Gore won the presidential election and declared a War on Climate Change instead of a War on Terror. This has led to a society that has been built with the intentions of creating a more environmentally friendly society. However, it soon becomes clear that the entire thing is one big greenwashing ruse. Our narrator, a young white woman named Maddie Ryan, soon realizes that without fixing the deep rooted problems of racism, classism, and capitalism, the "environmentally friendly" society will be nothing but a greenwashed facade built to protect the capitalist endeavors of the ruling white upper class. 

In their novel, Sim Kern has masterfully navigated themes of racial injustice, intersectionality, and activism in what seems to be a hopelessly bleak capitalist country. How can we have any sort of hope when we are up against a seemingly all powerful government? How can we have a voice when every shout feels like it's being swallowed up by the void? We do it slowly and consistently. As Shayna says towards the end, "we grow our network--we spread our mycelium, we strengthen our community." Change must start from the ground up. To make a change outside, we need to start by making a change in our own communities.

I would encourage anyone and everyone to read The Free People's Village. I feel that, especially in the current geopolitical climate, the message needs to be spread far and wide.

(Also, I have added all of Gestas's books to my TBR. I encourage you all to do the same.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

Moderate: War, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

feministy's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

3.0

Pros:

• A character with neopronouns is always a nice thing to see.
• Some of the passages around organizing really hit home, especially the ones that centered ideological disagreement amongst protesters.
• Always here for the fight for Palestinian liberation shown in a positive light. 

Cons:

• Maddie is a pretty insufferable MC (main character) most of the time. 
• It's very "white cis lady is on a journey" for the first half of the book, and it's exhaustkng even for me as a white AFAB person who also had to learn and come to radical viewpoints. 
• Maddie's love interests are consistently awful and it's frankly hard to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Sexual harassment