Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

21 reviews

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

loveallthis's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, and Misogyny

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

booksbeyondthebinary's review

emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Sexual content

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Racism and Pregnancy

kylieqrada's review

adventurous dark reflective 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? No

3.0

This had me for about the first half and then it lost me. The themes are so on-point but I just couldn't get on board with the execution. Womp wompppppp.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Racism

mysterymom40's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting

aileron's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism and Misogyny

Minor: Racism

starrysteph's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This eerie little tale felt dreadfully real and captivated me from cover to cover.

It’s very-near speculative fiction. The slightly elevated technology that encourages total detachment from the world. Violent impacts of climate change and ecological disaster. A continuation of those with a sense of power ripping away land and shaping it in their image.

And interwoven through all that - classism, possible collective utopia after criss, survival, curious gender binaries.

We follow three different POVs in the far north of Canada. Rose is an escort who has a secret reason for her placement at Camp Zero: she’s spying on its head architect in exchange for a secured future for herself & her mother. Grant is running away from his powerful family and the mistakes of his past, hoping to solidify his life in the north as an English professor. And the female collective of White Alice learns to survive and thrive in a climate research station.

We flip-flop through past and present during each POV, and layers of the mysteries surrounding Camp Zero and White Alice are slowly unfurled. 

In my opinion, calling this a dystopian thriller is a mischaracterization. It is a slow, character-driven piece. Each POV is lost in swirling memories, and the action of the present is much shorter. The world of Camp Zero is very much our own.

The weakest point to me was a lack of intersectionality. While classism and sexism come into play quite a bit, race is curiously missing from the picture. Indigenous voices were referenced but not really explored; Rose is half-Korean but it was never significant outside of some discussions of her family’s immigration. I think there was an opportunity to dive deeper into gender & expanding boundaries and perceived binaries during the White Alice chapters, and that was missed a bit.

I thought the writing was incredibly strong, and there are elements here that will sit with me for a bit. I think it would be a great book club pick as well - and a group of readers would probably have vastly different takeaways and opinions on the final segment.

CW: murder, death, misogyny, sexual assault, animal cruelty & animal death, gore, toxic relationship, grief, classism, colonization, racism, pregnancy, sexual content

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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Colonisation, Racism, Pregnancy, Death, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty

gondorgirl's review

adventurous challenging hopeful sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Death

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.0

Thanks to Atria Books for the free advance copy of this book.

 - CAMP ZERO is a near future dystopia, terrifying in that it's not all that different from the path we are currently on.
- I flew through this novel, fully immersed in its world and invested in the characters, all of whom have come north for different reasons, all of whom have done good things and bad things and are simply trying to survive.
- CAMP ZERO mainly explores how gender effects each character's path in this melting world, but it also gets into class, race, education and more. I already want to read more by Sterling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Colonisation, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Cursing, Violence, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Racism