Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

18 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

Some of the plot lost me, but I liked the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Classism, Infidelity, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Colonisation, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Incest

noodlebooknook's review

adventurous funny 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

3.0

3 stars 

There are some really strong parts of this novel. But overall the narrative felt a bit flat and not as memorable as I was hoping for. 

First of all the premise itself is interesting, the idea that oil is essentially no longer bountiful is a very real reality for future gens. As well as the idea of a female commune that also are kind of vigilantes/kill men to survive, pretty fascinating. 

I think the convergence of multiple POVs is also such a great narrative device where we can see so many different sides of the story. 

I think in general the writing style was very strong, especially for a debut novel.

Some critiques:
- the middle of the novel is sort of a blur for me, it was just kind of meh and because of that nothing stood out as important to remember. 
- the pacing was a bit weird (I understand this may be a series so that could be why) but the first half of the book felt a lot slower paced than the last half 
- some of the POVs were much stronger than the other ones and I found myself not as enthralled by each POV

Overall it was a pretty decent dystopian story that had a lot of potential for future books set in this world that could be even better, I would recommend it if you can get over the issues I mentioned above.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Murder, Classism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Death, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

oriana095's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

There were a lot of things that left me confused or disappointed in the end. I have no clue what the point of Grant’s POV was. It seemed to not really add anything at all to the story? I wonder if there will be a second book to tie up the loose ends of this one. I didn’t really care for any of the characters. Rose was alright but not a character I really loved. The beginning of the book was very slow. There were a couple things I saw coming. Overall it wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great. Wouldn’t read it again. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Sexual content, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Car accident, and Death of parent

prosenheim's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Sexism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death, Child death, Colonisation, and Car accident

Minor: Animal cruelty and Blood

prairieraven's review

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Sexism, Misogyny, Grief, Classism, Rape, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racism, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, and Violence

mandi_lea's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Classism, Colonisation, Blood, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Death, Confinement, Sexual violence, Murder, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, Car accident, Child death, Alcohol, and Pregnancy

tigger89's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

I finished this book nearly a month ago, and it's been stopping up my review queue ever since. I have very complicated feelings about it. Ultimately, I think I liked it, based on a personal reading that was very much between the lines and that I can't guarantee the author intended. You see, this book has many feminist themes, and it's not particularly subtle about them. They also lead, at least on a surface-level reading, to a fairly ugly, gender-essentialist conclusion about the nature of men versus women.

After much deliberation, I choose to interpret the book as undermining those apparent themes, for a number of reasons that are are too spoilery to discuss here. But I understand how many readers might, and have, come to a different conclusion. For that reason, I'd recommend this book to people who like their plot themes to be a little messy rather than straightforward, and caution those who are particularly sensitive to depictions of gender-essentialist feminism.

The things I liked the most about this book were getting to know the characters, the speculation on future technology with the Flick devices, and the empowering depiction of sex work, both in Camp Zero and in the Floating City. I also appreciated how the White Alice narrative was separate from the main narrative until near the end, leaving the reader uncertain of whether it was set in the future, the past, or concurrently with the rest of the plot.

The most important question: does the bear die, does the snake die, and do the dogs die?

There's a scene where a captured bear cub is used in a gambling game. The bear cub is implied to have been injured in the course of being captured, but, though its ultimate fate is unclear, no harm comes to it on screen. In another scene, we briefly encounter a pet snake. It's later implied to have already been dead when we arrived. In addition, there are several guard dogs working at Camp Zero. All survive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Rape, Dementia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

torturedreadersdept's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

I don’t always love dystopian stories but this one got me to love and fear it. Between the ominous update to our present-day social media addiction and the continuation of our climate disaster, as well as the well-placed references to the ways our societies have harmed the earth and stolen from indigenous communities, this novel taking place in 2049-2050 was a gut punch, as was realizing that one of the main bad (ish) guys was born in the 90s, making him younger than me…. Yikes! I really enjoyed this book way more than I expected to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Murder, Violence, Colonisation, Child death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Body horror, Classism, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual content, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Blood

micaelamariem's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m usually into dystopians but this one didn’t hit as well to me as they usually do. This is a great book for some people. There were interesting themes of environmentalism, feminism, colonialism, and survival. With multiple perspectives that weave into each other’s stories, it was interesting to see how it was all connected. But, it just wasn’t what I was expecting, and it was hard to focus on what the most important takeaway was. There was a lot of violence, and too many of it against animals for my liking. That being said, this book reminded me a bit of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, just in the survival in the Arctic kind of sense. And the feminist themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Colonisation, Cursing, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

risaleel's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, Classism, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Death and Pregnancy