Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

23 reviews

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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? It's complicated

2.0

I wanted more from this book. I felt like he world building and magic system was a bit unclear and incomplete. I thought the characters started to show some growth until they made questionable decisions in the end and it felt like a step back in their development.

Honestly this book left me with so many questions on the world building front.

Why does Reina see her heart as monstrous? Because of iridio? Then why does she admire when Celeste uses it? Eva’s family treated her like crap and she refused to believe that they were lying about her father? How do the nozariel wear clothes with their tails? Is iridio inherently tethered to Rahmagut? Why do some users acknowledge him and others don’t? Among others

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On a character front, many of them didn’t stick with me or make me love them or hate them. I didn’t have strong feelings for a lot of the characters other than annoyance at their dumb decisions. I did like Maior and her fiery personality.

I liked that Reina chose Maior in the end. I thought they had more chemistry and fit better than Reina and Celeste. Reina started off very naive and impressionable and stayed that way for the majority of the book but I’m glad we saw some development, even if it was toward the last couple of chapters. On Eva’s side, she really started to upset me toward the end. She refused to believe her kind father and stuck to what her horrible grandmother told her, she refused to defend Javier. I know Javier was morally grey but at least he knew he wasn’t a saint. Eva acts all high and mighty then turns around and acts cruel to Javier and caused the whole mess in the end! Not to mention she becomes arrogant with her abilities. I thought Doña Ursulina was easy to hate and Doña Laurel was easy to love which was nice.

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I wanted more clarity in the world building and character development. There were a few characters I enjoyed and I thought the fighting scenes were well described. I don’t think I will be picking up the rest of the series but I am glad I gave it a chance and someone who isn’t as nit picky about world building may enjoy this more than I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, Racism, Colonisation, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Gore, Toxic friendship, Murder, Racial slurs, Slavery, Blood, Classism, and Homophobia

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Incest, Infertility, Cursing, Death of parent, Alcohol, Genocide, Self harm, and Child death

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

1.0

Despite getting drawn into this story, I found out there were several highly problematic themes in this story, particularly from queer Latinx reviewers. I myself am a queer South Asian American and I can’t say anything on the culture in this book other than the fact that a lot of the bigotry written in the books was giving me major off vibes and I couldn’t pinpoint what until I read the reviews. 

I strongly recommend reading the review written by “Christopher’s Colorful Corazón” on Goodreads under this book for an in-depth thoughts on the entire book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Racism, Ableism, Colonisation, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Body shaming, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Death of parent

nely's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Fatphobia, and Ableism

rambles's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Racial slurs, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Colonisation, Death of parent, Classism, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, and Lesbophobia

eh1736's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Colonisation, Death of parent, and Racism

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Thank you to Black Crow PR for granting me a physical uncorrected proof of this title. All opinions remain 100% genuine.

Buddy read with Sharron Joy Reads.

I loved the depth of this tale. It was slow for the first 3rd or so with world building but once I pushed through, I found it to be worthwhile.
The setting was lush, tense and atmospheric, all at the appropriate times.

I appreciated all the contextual terminology being at the front. I find nothing more tedious than trailing through the end of the book, looking for what something means, with the fear of seeing a spoiler hanging over me like a black cloud.

The conversation of oppression, classim and the mistreatment of other species due to being who they are was so on point to how society still is in the real world.

The sapphic romance threaded through was great. I felt like there was a lot of manipulation in the romance though (as well as the platonic relationships) and it was hurtful to see characters I began to care about being strung along on the whims of others.

The magic system felt unique and unusual to me and though at times it went over my head a little, I was excited to see powers being mastered by various characters.

this is the 2nd book in as many with some weird incest thread, oh dear... I mean I wasn't expecting that and I still don't really get the how... I guess Celeste and Reina would be 1st half cousins?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can see how it can set up for a sequel, but equally would feel complete enough as a stand a lone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Colonisation, Cursing, Slavery, War, Chronic illness, Classism, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Xenophobia, Grief, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Lesbophobia, Trafficking, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Toxic relationship

ladynavalon's review

adventurous challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

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

3.0

I really enjoyed the world bulding, that's five stars, no doubt. But, I didn't like the pace, some characters seem not know what to doy and the plot is not clear for the first half of the book. In this sense, I feel like the characters needed more work. Also, I didn't like how the author writes... I admire her for writting almost 600 pages in a different language, but it is hard to follow her sometimes... but I insist, I love the world she created.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death of parent, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, Incest, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Slavery, Bullying, Blood, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Racism, Body shaming, Abandonment, Xenophobia, and Murder

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

I think my high hopes got the best of me with this one. I really liked the characters (especially Reina) and the world-building and that probably will entice me into reading the next one. I did have problems with the pacing and structure. It dragged in the middle for me and the fact that none of the characters even suspect the twist is baffling. I think my biggest issue is that Reina and Eva should be foils with a developing relationship and they just float around each other. The finale hinges upon the different yet same directions they wind up in but it lacks the emotional resonance since they don't care about each other. The only person it actually effects personally is Maior. My qualms aside I did still have fun and overall liked the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Minor: War, Suicide, Homophobia, Genocide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

"The Sun and The Void" was one of my most anticipated books this year and I'm really glad that I was able to read an ARC of it! 
The blurb was really promising but after reading the book I have to say that even with good plot ideas the execution wasn't as satisfying. 
Let's start with the things I enjoyed: 

• The woldbuilding happened through the eyes of the protagonist
• The arc of suspense at the end was quite good and I enjoyed reading the last chapters. 

But the biggest issue I had with the book was the timeline. The story expanded over a view years and because of that it feld like the author wanted to put too many plot points in this book. There was too little focus on different events and they fell a bit flat.  Also, the characters seemed kinda inconsistent and some of their actions didn't made sense. 

Another thing I didn't like were the love interests. They were either racist (at least in the beginning) or abusive and still, the protagonists fall for them. I really didn't like that the abusive behaviour was explained with

"a curse"

for that seemed to take the responsibility for their actions. 

All in all I would say that the ideas for the plot are could be good but it needs a little more balance between booklength and events in the story as well as more comprehensible character building.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book!

Edit: changed my review to 2 stars, for the more I thought about this book, the more problematic aspects I've found. Especially the ableism, ugh!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Blood, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, Incest, Child death, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Racism, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Abandonment, and Suicide

bryonyindecisivereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

I really like slow-burn sapphic fantasy retellings (hello, The Priory of the Orange Tree) but unfortunately The Sun and the Void did not hit the nail on the head for me.

I think my main issue was that I just didn’t really care for the characters or understand much about them. This book featured characters of different species, which was interesting to see how they were perceived in different cultures of the world. However, I found them really difficult to picture (and I’m not sure I was a fan of one of them having a tail). I also kept forgetting who was who (and what was happening) if I put the book down for more than five minutes. There was kind of a character list at the start, but it was more like family trees in list format - I kind of wanted to know a bit more about who each character was, what their part was in the world’s history etc. as I think that might have helped me put together the characters more. 

Neither of the main characters particularly had their own motivations, they were always doing what other people wanted or what they thought would make other people like them more. This made it difficult to root for them because I didn’t know what they wanted or what they stood for. Because I didn’t really care for the characters, I found it really difficult to want to pick up. 

I certainly don’t mind long books, but I still like stuff to happen on all the pages. This felt really slow, like nothing was happening even when it was. I didn’t want to pick it up because, even when stuff was happening, I wasn’t invested. 

I do think this had some promise, so I do wish I had liked it more. I did think the different species were interesting and I think there was a rich backstory to the world, in terms of the history and also the religion. I think, as the gods and the culture/rituals began to creep in, I started to enjoy it more but I think I was too far into it at that point for me to overlook my earlier thoughts. 

It was an interesting read, but unfortunately not everything I wanted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Racism, and Slavery