Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

30 reviews

isaacjohn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative 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

5.0

I cannot recommend this book enough. LaValle writes a fictionalized fantasy within the realms of very real American history. Somehow he balances these aspects with a dark, yet ultimately hopeful tone.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Blood, Gore, and Racial slurs

Minor: Slavery

Content warning/spoiler (low detail):

the climax involves hanging, though is overall low in detail

shelbyc's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Having grown up on the prairies of Montana (where this book is set in) the author did an excellent job of portraying the vastness of it. As well as the never ending wind. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Racism, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Slavery, and Sexual harassment

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

jashanac's review against another edition

4.0

Summary:
Historical western horror. Adelaide is traveling out to Montana after a life-altering event happens, resulting in the death of her parents, leaving her alone to carry the family burden with her now. She tries to survive while keeping the secret, but things don't necessarily go as planned and others end up getting hurt. She learns whether or not the community members will help her or if they will be her undoing.

Re-Readability:
I did really enjoy this, but I don't know that I'd ever find myself wanting to re-read it.

Characters:
I really liked the characters here, though sometimes I felt like there wasn't as much development as I'd maybe have liked. But with Adelaide and some of the more important side characters there was enough. I just didn't feel any particular connection to any of them, where I was engrossed in them. 

Plot:
I enjoyed the pacing throughout this, aside from a little bit toward the end where we were skipping forward a fair amount, but it made sense I suppose, because the action was ramping up. It was kind of weird to me that Adelaide originally had the one story about her secret and then later it was revealed that it was very different (and made more sense) -- I gathered that maybe she was suppressing the truth in her mind, but that wasn't really clarified.

I was also a little bit confused about why the women in the end

completely destroyed the entire town, when there were still 20 or so people who lived there and in the surrounding area... kind of seemed like overkill to destroy all of it?

Expression of female rage maybe?

Overall though, I liked the mystery and my interest was kept throughout the story. The horror elements weren't too scary for me and I enjoyed how everything ended up.  

Themes/Discussions:
Racism. Xenophobia. Women looking out for one another. Female friendship and comradery. The burdens people carry. Changing our perception of our horrific truths. Loneliness. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

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

ahhhreadzombiez's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Transphobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Abandonment, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Torture, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Deadnaming, and Emotional abuse

mtnest's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Cursing, Child death, Alcohol, and Confinement

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.

---

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

como022's review

mysterious sad 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

3.0

A good book but slow and a little boring at times. Makes a very irregular woman seem pretty normal which may be the point?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

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