Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

9 reviews

careinthelibrary's review

adventurous dark emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual violence, Confinement, Murder, Colonisation, Torture, War, Death, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexism

tenten's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death and Antisemitism

athenaia's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

The book is very challenging to read but beautifully written. However it is also not a book that is for light reading. The topics that are discussed were sometimes hard to deal with and I would recommend anyone who wants to read it to do it slowly and stop if it is too much for one day. In my opinion the book is a fantastic litterary work even though I needed half a year to finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Racism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War

aargot1's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, War, Death, Confinement, Colonisation, and Rape

hardcoverhearts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative tense 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, and Forced institutionalization

sarrasegway's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Child death, Confinement, Excrement, and Gun violence

brgntteva's review

dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, and Violence

boogsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Shadow King tells the story of the unsung among the Ethiopian armies who fought the Italians during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in the mid-1930s. It asks: What is home? What is honor? What is owed? It’s an intimate look of the pain and glory of war shared mostly through the eyes of Hirut, a servant girl turned soldier. Hirut works for and fights alongside Aster and her husband Kidane. Each character is a person who buries their grief, sadness, and shame in anger, ego, or false ownership. Infuriating and all the more compelling because of it.

A portion of the story is also told through the lens of Ettore, an Italian photographer who has no business being in war. Ettore’s story revolves around his father, where his father comes from, and how that defines him. While I was interested in the layer Ettore’s father added to the book, I felt as though Ettore was here simply to carry the novel’s focus on photography as storytelling. Excerpts throughout the book are told as descriptions of photos. This worked well but made me question the role of Ettore as a central character.

This was my final read of 2020 and it felt like such a fitting ending. It’s epic in all of its forms. It left me reflective, cheering for the underdog, acknowledging pain in repeated history, and finding hope in moving forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, and Xenophobia

curatoriallyyours's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

The positives: I learnt a lot from reading this book, even though it is a work of fiction, about Ethiopia and the Italian invasion under Mussolini. I intend to read some non-fiction on this topic as a result of reading this story. 

The negatives: Though I pitied the main character for all she endured, I did not warm to her. The author's style was also quite off-putting and made it hard for me to sink into the narrative until well into the book. If I hadn't been reading this as the final book in a reading challenge (with only a few days to go) I'd probably have abandoned it. The author's refusal to use speech marks to denote speech baffled me and made me resentful for the re-reading I needed to do every time I realised someone had started speaking without the usual indication that this was the case. I don't care to read any more from this author as a result. 

I feel that the story itself was worthwhile but the author's style really bothered me throughout the book and stopped me from ever truly being enveloped in the narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Excrement, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Antisemitism and Drug use