Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Akbabaların Ağıdı by Lila Bowen

3 reviews

thalassa_reading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Despite the elaborate worldbuilding and tense, gruesome plot, this book lives on its characters, especially the protagonist Nettie. She's in between so many categories (race, social hierarchies, gender roles, sexuality) and struggles with her place in the world in a really relatable, sympathetic way, with strength, vulnerability, openness and intelligence. It's beautiful to see her learn gradually, with the help of kind people , how to see herself and others more truthfully, less through the lens of prejudice and societal norms. It's rare to read the pov of a bisexual girl who's confused about her feelings and physical reactions to both sexes. She also has huge character growth regarding her view of gender roles. She starts out equating womanhood with the gender roles of her intensely misogynistic society and consequently doesn't want to be a woman; additionally she needs to pretend to be a boy in order to get anywhere in that world. Towards the end she realizes that everyone is their own unique being and doesn't have to conform to anything, and accepts herself the way she is. Same for her indigenous-Black identity in a majority white society that taught her she was ugly and worth less. I loved seeing how she came into herself.
Unfortunately it sounds like the sequel completely goes back on many of these things and changes her personality, so I won't be continuing. It's fine, the story is concluded and I'd rather headcanon Nettie getting together with Winifred.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child death, Physical abuse, Torture, and Slavery

smitinghedgehog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Animal death, Body horror, Slavery, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.0

I did not like this book at all. The "Western" style narration felt fake and annoyed me. Near the end there is a four or five-paragraph section that just lists all of the book’s intended themes like you might not notice them. There are a lot of attempts at diversity but most of them wind up being kind of offensive (eg. The use of skinwalkers, the situation with Nettie’s gender identity, food descriptors for skin colour, the depiction of the Lobos, the absolutely constant low-level misogyny, the way the main character thinks about and describes sex workers - even the one who tried to help her!). I hate sexual assault for shock value in YA and yes that makes an appearance here too.

If you want to read a cool fantasy western save yourself the trouble and read The Good Luck Girls instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Rape, and Suicide