Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

39 reviews

bookishkellyn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• 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? No

4.0

Adelaide settles in the small town of Big Sandy, MT with a concealed “demon”. Her custodial burden is both a blessing and a curse as she encounters new characters. I liked the blending of history and horror, but the demon’s origin reveal underwhelmed me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Murder, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Racial slurs

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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

I really liked this! 

Ominous build-up, creature horror, found family, realistic portrayals of racial dynamics on the “frontier”, heartwarming ending; the author put it all in here without it feeling too jumbled or heavy. 

will definitely be reading more by this author; the prose was lovely!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Racism, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Child death, and Animal death

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Murder, Misogyny, and Colonisation

bedtimesandbooks'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child death, Death, Transphobia, Sexism, Blood, Cursing, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

billyjepma's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

A very good book with very, very good writing. It doesn’t all come together—the ending is a little glossy for my taste, and the genre elements don’t quite mesh with the historical fiction as cohesively as I hoped—but LaValle’s writing and characterizations are so sharply nuanced and textured that I was always invested in the story, even if I never felt compelled to rush back to it—which is why it took me a month to finish it. If anything, I wish it had been longer. With some more space to explore the setting, enrich the character dynamics, and delve into the themes, I could see the story becoming something really immersive. But as it is, LaValle accomplishes a lot in under 300 pages and delivers another tonal masterpiece that strikes a nearly perfect balance between the various genre, thematic, historical, and even political edges it’s engaged with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, Murder, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Lesbophobia, Gore, and Deadnaming

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Dysphoria

hmatt's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I really like this concept. The characters are diverse and feel very well-developed, and the storyline is interesting.

What holds it back for me is the pacing, which felt a bit up and down. This might partially have been how I read it, but it's one of those that start slow and then all of a sudden wrap up. With the very in-depth characterizations, I think it would have benefitted sticking to the slower pace and being longer. 

I also did not like the narrator for this audiobook - it felt too obviously like they were reading off a page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Grief and Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse

meganpbell's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious 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

4.0

“History is simple, but the past is complicated.” This well-researched supernatural Western expands the picture of the Wild West we’re used to—redrawing the boundaries to include the Black, queer, and mixed-race settlers that lived and labored on the frontier while exploring assimilation and inclusion, complicity and community-building. To be honest, I appreciated this book more than enjoyed it. Recommended for fans of Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland.

Highly recommend reading this excellent article on the historical background of Lone Women:
https://www.tor.com/2023/04/03/book-reviews-lone-women-by-victor-lavalle/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Confinement, Transphobia, Death, and Colonisation

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, and Sexual content

storyorc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

3.5

A woman facing down the Wild West with nothing but a trunk full of monster is a premise like no other. The pacing lags at times and LaValle cuts away from the violence too soon to have proper satisfaction, at least to this sick soul. However, there is many a wonderful turn of phrase to be found (short buildings that 'hardly trouble the horizon' and wind that 'sculpts' the town residents) and the overall length remains very reasonable. It calls out the many historical wrongs of the era but does not get mired down by them. The women themselves make up for any other faults by managing to be intensely admirable not  or lack of flaws but for their manner of facing them.

Also the central woman is (mostly) unapologetically a big, tall, strong woman. Love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Child death and Rape

mandi_lea's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Confinement, Murder, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Blood

seasonedreadings's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Child death, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore