Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

8 reviews

mcfeinics's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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: Racism, Classism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Slavery and Physical abuse

abbymcclure's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.0

Similar to Harry Potter (at a school, an evil force coming into power, main characters parents no longer around)  but with huge focus on systematic issues, including racism, sexism, and homophobia. 

I really struggled with the main character for the first half of this book but that is kind of the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, Classism, and War

Minor: Homophobia

risaleel's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Xenophobia, Genocide, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Grief, Mental illness, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Violence

Minor: Trafficking, Blood, and War

kpitts13's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Classism, Gaslighting, and Racism

jcruppert's review

adventurous challenging dark 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: Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gore, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Animal death, Classism, War, Death, Physical abuse, and Self harm

crystalsparkles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Slavery, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Bullying, Death of parent, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Racism, War, Murder, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Genocide, and Medical trauma

bookishfaye's review

Dnf’d at 27% 

I went into this expecting something really fun & epic & witches and warlocks and dragons and werewolves & elves and fae & a magic school & that sounded like fucking eeevverrything but…. Dear god did this one ever take a turn…

The first hundred pages it became clear that this was going to be a story about realizing your people are the bad ones and you’ve been lied too; it was kinda vague in the early stages and that can go a lot of ways & mean a lot of things so I was like period okay okay let’s see where the author goes with this. The next 100 pages then showcase the most vile metaphors for racism that mirror our world but in a fantasy world in ways that are so incredibly fucking odd & obviously written by a white person?? Like the white coded/white saviour protagonist is wildly sheltered and naive and doesn’t understand why so many people hate her and are terrified of her (though the audience catches on real quick that it’s because they are oppressed by her people/family etc). In one scene, she is pushed by a child of one of the mixed races who then refers to her as a “black roach” & the whitecoded MC “flinches at the racial insult” & I- …. What the fuck???? Also the main army in this book is absolutely coded to be the nazi regime down to the symbol on the uniforms. I just don’t care to see where this author is going with this story, because at this point it is clear to me she didn’t do the proper research to go about representing things with grace and is talking about things that she doesn’t understand & being fucking disrespectful about it. This is not even including the homophobic coded world of women needing to be “wandmated” to a male love interest while they are still children, & if they don’t remain faithful to this pairing they are whipped & put into like… slavery??? Also the 2014 era girl on girl hatred is just eyeroll. This is just an incredibly strange and disgusting way to go about representing racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Colonisation, Confinement, Antisemitism, Bullying, Classism, Racism, Racial slurs, and Slavery

ka_ke's review

adventurous dark 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

4.75

I was nervous to start The Black Witch, and I’ll admit, the first part is very slow/basic. But once you start part two, the plot really picks up. Elloren is a wonderful character who develops her own beliefs and values and sticks to them. Her aunt is probably Umbridge level cruel. 

People like to say the Deadly Education or Zodiac Academy series are adult Harry Potter, but I think the Black Witch Chronicles are a better comparison. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Slavery, Trafficking, Bullying, Xenophobia, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Racism, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Grief, Racial slurs, Violence, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, and War

Minor: Death of parent