Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg

7 reviews

prosenheim's review against another edition

dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Self harm

indeedithappens's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Transphobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Death, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Animal death, Child abuse, Dysphoria, and Body horror

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

This book is so lush, so full of sensory details that never bog it down. It's also worth noting that I'm usually a quiet reader, but I made a lot of "Mmm" and "Oh" and "Oooh!" sound while I read this, because it hit me in all the feels places. It's also full of older queer people, and I want so much of that in my fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Murder, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Fatphobia, Racism, and Vomit

Moderate ageism

maidinnah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

3.75

The Four Profound Weaves drops you into a world that normalizes queerness, polyamory, and genderfluidity amongst desert sands and nebulous magic systems, making an absolutely enchanting, intricate, and spellbinding tale. By having two elderly, transgender protagonists at the forefront, adventuring past their prime and asking questions about identity, transformation, and death, Lemberg expresses hope for different ways of being and inspires the courage to pursue them. 

Despite how much passion and love this book was written with, the vague, lyrical prose did make it challenging to follow along initially. Additionally, the alternating perspectives seemed unnecessary, given how similarly both protagonists sounded, which added to the confusion. The Birdverse world is worth feeling lost for a bit though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Torture, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexism, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Child death

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Outing, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

'The Four Profound Weaves' by R.B. Lemberg is a thoughtful novella that follows two past friends as they attempt to rescue an item of value from an insidious collector.
Uiziya and the nameless man were acquaintances once upon a time and they reconnect as Uiziya seeks to learn the four profound weaves from her aunt and the nameless man seeks to be recognized for who he is. When Uizaya's aunt sets her a task to retrieve a weave from a local ruler who hoards treasures, the nameless man chooses to accompany her. This ruler holds something precious to him as well and by helping Uizaya complete this task, he may be able to finally close a chapter of his life that was previously stolen from him. 
This novella is honestly hard to describe because Lemberg packs so much into a short length. The story feels far more expansive than one might think from the page count but I think this is in part because this is part of a wider universe that Lemberg often writes in. It is clear that they have spent a lot of time exploring this world and that comes through in this novella. There is a clear mythology within the world and this is explored throughout this particular story. 
Ultimately, this is a story about trans identity. Both of the main characters are trans and each is grappling with different aspects of their identity. Uiziya has been hoping to learn from her aunt for years and this expectation has become a part of herself. The nameless man is seeking to be accepted for who he is after a lifetime of being deadnamed and having his identity rejected. 
I am very excited to read more of Lemberg's work in the Birdverse. There are many pieces available on their website and I hope that we will see longer works in this world published in the future. I will definitely be following along for more of their work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Torture, Deadnaming, Death, Murder, and Transphobia

Moderate: Confinement

micheala's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

3.25

This is an interesting take on a coming of age novel in that both the main characters are in their mid-60s and are only now finally figuring out how to be who they are. 

Seeing the nameless man's journey was more impactful for me then Uiziya's as I never really connected to her motivation. 

R.B. Lemberg has previously published poetry in this universe and I feel that that can clearly be felt in the prose style. It was more flowery and metaphorical than I typically enjoy. 

The world is really interesting, but it's also definitely on the weird side of fantasy. As much as I really appreciated the desert setting and clearly non-Western based cultures, the magic system was hard for me to wrap my head around. I'm not sure if I would have had an easier time if I had read the short stories set in this universe before hand, or this is just a system that my brain is going to struggle to get anyways. 

If you're interested in queer stories by queer authors, you don't mind your fantasy being on the weird end of the scale, and/or you enjoy novellas, I would recommend this. 

On that note, however, there are two big trigger warnings that I think are important to know before heading into this, particularly if you are not cis:

The nameless man gets dead-named and misgendered on several occasions by different people in the latter half of the book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Death

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia