Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

8 reviews

finalfires's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

I really loved the mix of genres in this book, the setting, the mystery and the concept. However, the pace sped up too much in the last 150 or so pages, and I feel like the story wrapped up too neat and perfect. I’d give the first half of the book 5 stars and the second half 2. The first half feels like a really cool, well written feminist western horror. The second half feels a tad fanfiction-y. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Deadnaming, Murder, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Child abuse, Transphobia, Slavery, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Animal death, Racism, and Gore

notthatkat's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Racism, Classism, Blood, Grief, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

Minor: Cursing, Child death, and Sexual content

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcohol, Slavery, Gore, Racism, Confinement, Gun violence, Blood, and Cursing

jourdanicus's review

dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

I'd heard of this book before, and once it was recommended to me by a friend I decided to give it a go.

I really enjoyed the themes of this story, the "casual" diversity (not bending over backwards to fit diverse characters in and not sacrificing their humanity for their identity aka tokenizing them), the character depth, and more. I loved the setting, both time and place. I think the 1910s need more attention in a world of historical fiction that focuses so heavily on the WWII era.

The plot was a little scattered I think, maybe it was more difficult for me to keep track of everything because I was listening on audio. It seemed like the depth of some elements of the plot was sacrificed for the sake of breadth, and the author's attempt at trying to give every character a backstory left me with some questions about the more main characters' motivations. The author did pretty well weaving together all the loose ends, but it took a little while to get there.

If you like a bit of horror, don't mind gore, and need your characters (even the monsters) to be deeply humanized, this is a book for you.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Death, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Gun violence, and Deadnaming

Minor: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Slavery, and Vomit

adiajamille's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Murder, Racism, Child death, Classism, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Transphobia, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Racial slurs

sarah984's review against another edition

dark informative reflective 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

5.0

I really liked this book - the history is interesting and the characters are well drawn. I didn't think the horror was that scary and a few parts were a bit silly to me but overall this is a great story about family, revenge, and the meaning of forgiveness.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Grief, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Abandonment, Child death, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, Slavery, and Misogyny

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I am a little disappointed with this book. I was really looking forward to it, but it didn't live up to my expectations. That being said, I still think it's a good read. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator does a very good job.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Classism, and Confinement

Minor: Child death, Racial slurs, and Sexual content

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I've been holding off on writing up my review of Lone Women due to the requests of writers, editors, and other staff at Random House and their ongoing strike.

At this time, I'm going to go ahead and write my review here so that hopefully in the future, I'll be able to add to NetGalley once an agreement can be reached by the union and the corporation.

First and foremost, shoutout to the One World team for recommending I pick up Lone Women due to my review of a novel by another writer, as well as to the NetGalley team for supporting readers, reviewers, and authors. This novel, set during the early 20th century during the U.S. historical era of Westward Expansionism, has fabulous pacing that matches the western/horror/time period style incredibly well. Right around the halfway mark, readers get a big reveal, which allows for really nice ramping up of the story itself. Our protagonist is a Black femme homesteader during a historical period in the United States that was not kind to unmarried Black femmes. 

There's a really gothic feel to this novel, and it's a bit of a combination of something like a monster noir story set during this period alongside a more traditional Western style novel. This combination isn't one I would have thought would work for me, but my experience is that this combination felt really clean and fresh. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the LGBTQNIA2S+ representation in the novel as well and that these characters don't play solely a secondary part in the novel, but become the main focus for large portions of the story. 

I would recommend this novel to folks who enjoy horror, Westerns, and are willing to take a risk on a combination of the two. Due to the style/setting/time period in question, the pacing is slower, but anyone who enjoys a good Western will be familiar with this! 

CW: child abduction, transphobia, homophobia, monsters, classism, racism (albeit to differing levels among these). 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Classism, Racism, and Homophobia