Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

17 reviews

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Hate crime, Violence, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Colonisation and Classism

Minor: Body shaming

cosmicpanda's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Racism, Violence, Grief, Islamophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Body shaming, Deportation, Fatphobia, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Drug use, Medical content, Sexism, Misogyny, and Rape

t_higgsreviews's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

5 Stars
CAWPILE = 9.11

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Death, Racism, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Deportation

bookbird's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Punchy and interesting and terribly sad. Would love to see this premise expanded. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Islamophobia, Murder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Death

nannahnannah's review against another edition

2.0

Ah … this one started off so good, but quickly became very unenjoyable to read. But I've seen others liken this novella to the show Black Mirror, and I can absolutely see why. If you haven’t already read something like this, you may enjoy it.

Representation:
- the main protagonist is Muslim and an immigrant from Iran
- the other PoV character is a first-generation Indian-British citizen

In a near-future “dystopian” UK, Idir Jalil takes the British Citizenship Test. But he’s barely begun when a shooter bursts in and takes him and the other test takers hostage. And when Idir draws attention to himself, he finds himself forced to choose which people die when the shooter decides to take lives.

I love the beginning. The first few chapters have such a compelling and distinct voice. But then the shooter comes into play -- and worse, the “twist” happens (I’m not sure if I can really call it a twist, because it comes so early in the story! I didn’t actually know it was supposed to be one, either, until I went back to the book’s goodreads page). In the end, another goodreads review sums it up best:

”If you forcibly put someone through a [traumatic] event, they will be traumatized. The concept fell fully flat ….”

The author also bashes me over the head with one lesson in morality (and psychology) after another. It’s exhausting, even if I mostly agree with what he says (how did reverse racism and pro-cop sentiments get in there, though? No, please!). The shooter is obnoxiously childish, too, his dialogue almost laughable at times. And at one point, the prose was filled with so much telling, I forgot this was an actual published piece of work (the typo was there in the text, too): 

“Deep is upset. He’s not thinking about himself at this point. [...] What Deep is experiencing is just narcissistic identification and a very strong case of narrative transportation. At this point, Deep is incapable of separating Idir’s success of failure from his own. He’s so caught up in the simulation that his feelings and opinions are filtered through the rules of the game.”

I’m being extremely critical, I’m sorry. I just didn’t see the mind-bending, mind-blowing critique of immigration I was hoping for.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Islamophobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexism, and Domestic abuse

also: being drugged

marareading's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

This is a quick and intense read. It will definitely stay with me for a long time. It is very thought provoking. What happens when we push too far? What happens when the parameters aren't set properly? How do we recover when things go wrong?

This book is about a man who goes in to take his citizenship test and he gets more than he planned for. I could never have imagined the twists in this book. So much packed into a short book. I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Islamophobia, Violence, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

kstericker's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Fatphobia, and Grief

Minor: Hate crime, Islamophobia, and Racism

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Police brutality, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Bullying

Minor: Abortion, Sexual assault, Dementia, Child death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture

runwithkander's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Best book I read in 2021. Audio book is amazing for this, and honestly listened twice back to back because I’m not sure what I would have done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Gaslighting, Child death, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, and Racism

dalmavatai's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

3.0

This book was definitely memorable and incredibly unique. 

As social commentary, I believe this book is extremely successful. The way that it explores the dangers of the intersection between scientific technology and xenophobia in Britain, all while the country purports to be against prejudice and discrimination, was radical in the best way possible. The dystopian future Neuvel imagines in this short story is a radical critique of our own time and the ways in which 'Western' countries in particular think that they are liberal and accepting, all while perpetuating a status quo that's still very xenophobic, racist, and Islamophobic. 

However, this book wasn't for me in other ways. The explanations of science definitely went way over my head, especially because I listened to the audiobook and couldn't go back if I didn't grasp something fully. I also thought that the plot point towards the end, while I understand its function as commentary, was a bit random and I could not fully appreciate its inclusion in the story, especially as so much was going on already that I found it a bit hard to follow. 

Short stories are not terribly likely to get a very high rating from me because I can't connect to the characters in such a short period of time, but this is a short story that I believe is definitely worth the read even for those not into science fiction. Maybe read the physical book (perhaps along with the audio because Neal Shah's performance is superb) if you want to stay on top of everything that's going on, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fatphobia