Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

15 reviews

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

amsswim's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

This book was not bad, I just don't think it was anything outstanding. Anything above a 3 is still worth a read if you're interested, in my opinion. If the author's intent was for me to be mostly bored and hate every man in this book it was achieved. Then the story I did like following, the WHite Alice plot, was generally ignored until 2/3 of the way through. I think overall Rose's story was the best written though. I could've just read a book about her experiences, which she was definitely the main character. Ending was alright but a pain to get to. The themes of climate change and folies of men are good, and I love a dystopian always (this was more of a pre-dystopian in my opinion).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Murder, Sexual assault, Cursing, Death, Blood, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy and Death of parent

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

infairveronaa's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

I'm on the fence of whether I think this was more than ok and into the good range.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual harassment

erinpiac's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.25

I was interested in the plot at first, but it really lost me in the second half. The characters weren't very well developed and the writing wasn't good (especially the dialogue). Many plot points also centered around hating men and the reasoning behind this wasn't believable (except for the Foreman, who made sense to hate). And they mentioned the exploitation of Indigenous people many times, but did not include any representation from those groups, and kept the commentary very surface-level.

Also I didn't like how they kept saying "We only kill when necessary" or whenever when they literally could have robbed people instead of murdering a bunch of men. I feel like they could have acknowledged male priveledge and dealt with it in a way that wasn't just them murdering men nonchalantly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Death, Murder, Sexism, and Violence

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

annafr's review

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Violence, and Death

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