Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

82 reviews

bluedijon's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad 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

4.75

Goodness, I loved this book. Maali is such a compelling, complex character, and it was bittersweet joy to follow him through his journey. This book is explicit in its descriptions of the Sri Lankan civil war, and uses the long tradition of magical realism to make sense of the horrors inflicted by people on their neighbors and themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Gun violence, War, Blood, Homophobia, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Classism, Murder, Death, and Genocide

clare072's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Violence, Classism, Genocide, Car accident, Police brutality, Racism, Suicide, Torture, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Colonisation and Animal death

heatherjchin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Trafficking, War, Death of parent, Grief, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexism, Blood, Genocide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

not_dead_yet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

It’s about the inner workings of a genocidal civil war and one man’s single-minded scheme to stop it by exposing the truth.  As a side dish it’s a murder mystery. 

The chaotic structure of the writing draws you in to the chaos of the forces driving the civil war.  The chaos continues after death without missing a beat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War, Racism, Torture, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Genocide, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

thesvnthsense's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Grief, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Police brutality, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual harassment and War

andyourstruly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective

4.75

This was a really good book.

The best way of describing it is that genre of book where someone in the main character's life has just died, leaving behind a tangled web of mystery for the MC to unravel and resolve ... from the dead person's point of view.

The author does an amazing job painting the political landscape of Sri Lankan politics in the 70s-90s in all of its complexity and using it as a vehicle to reveal the story as opposed to allowing it to bog the story down.  The main character is jaded and unlikeable, but the slow reveal throughout the book of what leads him to be like that and the dynamics involved was really impressively handled.  I really loved the ending and the way that the author doesn't pretend to try to fix everything.  

I read this book because a friend of a friend told me that her book club had read it and that everyone but her had said that, while they liked it, they would not recommend it as a book club book, a sentiment that she had disagreed with.  Having now read it, I have to agree with my friend's friend: if these aren't the topics we discuss in a book club, then what are?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Police brutality, Suicide, Violence, Car accident, Homophobia, and War

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

Go into this book on your guard, my friend.

kermities's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

Bar the repetitions in descriptions and the slower moving parts I have to the middle, this book was great.
The history brought me closer to my roots, the spirituality thought me more about my culture , the characters made me reflect on the complexities of being kind in a pathologically flawed and unjust world and the ending was the cherry on the cake that left me moved and hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

Minor: Torture, Police brutality, Suicide, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Animal death, and Child death

This book is centered and about death and war. War is horrible so of course there are descriptions of it.

charlottelilac's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Murder, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Police brutality, Colonisation, Car accident, and War

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Genocide, Car accident, Child death, Hate crime, Torture, Racism, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, War, Xenophobia, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Classism, Mental illness, Slavery, Animal death, Death of parent, Suicide, Colonisation, Car accident, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

The more I think about this book, the higher my rating. It’s so good and thought provoking and well written. I’ll probably need to come back to it for a reread sometime because I’m sure there’s a lot that I missed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Drug use, War, Racism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Torture, Police brutality, Grief, Alcohol, Abandonment, Murder, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Blood, Violence, and Child death