Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

15 reviews

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Not quite 5 stars but sooooooo close. This book was an absolute ride and I adored every moment. There was a bit of a lull in the middle and I got whiplash a few times with all the changes, but ultimately this was a fantastic examination of cult mentality, facism, radicalisation and deconstruction of dangerously right-wing views. Absolutely brilliant. Will be reading more of Emily Tesh's books for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, War, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Outing, Torture, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and War

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/4.5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 4★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicide, Violence, War, Homophobia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Gore, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Racism

Minor: Bullying, Blood, Abortion, and Alcohol

ezwolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Kyr is a teenager born to fight for humanity after Earth is destroyed by The Wisdom and she has the training scores to prove it. When she's assigned to the Nursery and sends her twin brother on a mission meant to kill him, she breaks the rules and goes after him. Venturing to a planet inhabited by "traitor" humans, Kyr begins to learn that maybe everything she's learned is not the whole truth. 

This book brings up a lot of great topics, the faults of humanity in the future, as well as currently. Gaea is everything you would expect from a society that's almost entirely white and able bodied, xenophobic, homophobic, and forces its women to be pregnant for years and years. Of course, this is why Kyr starts off being immensely unlikeable, but she does grow and learn to realize how narrow minded her thinking was and at one point even recognizes that even though she has made progress, she still holds internal biases. 

But this is getting a solid 4 stars from me because I could not stand Kyr for a good chunk of the book. I know that was part of the plot and Kyr had to realize that Gaea was brainwashing everyone, but I was never endeared to her. I wanted her to succeed because no one should grow up the way Kyr did but I didn't particularly care about anyone other Yiso, I didn't like any of the characters other than them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for making this available in exchange for an honest review! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Homophobia, Grief, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, War, Blood, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Torture

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Abortion, Death of parent, Racism, Rape, and Pregnancy

wanderonwards's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

Thank you to Macmillan/Tordotcom for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

Some Desperate Glory was one of my anticipated releases this year. This was a story I had trouble putting down: every time I thought I knew where the plot was going to go the story would veer off in a completely unexpected direction. While the plot choices were completely unexpected for me, and some of them could have used more development, most of them grew on me and I’m glad the plot followed the path it did. The world outside the society Kyr was brought up in has a lot of potential to be further explored, and my favorite parts of the novel were the ones when she wasn’t on Gaea Station (but, to be fair, I don’t enjoy reading about cults that much). 

 

I was hoping this would be an outstanding read for me, but there were several things that prevented this novel from being 5 stars. First, I was rooting for Kyr’s society to implode from the first chapter and that satisfying payoff I was looking forward to didn’t really start to happen until the final part of the novel. Some readers might enjoy this build up, but for me the delay was disappointing. Without spoiling parts of the plot, I was hoping Kyr’s society would have greater chunks in its foundation chipped away with each of the novel’s parts. Second, Kyr was so unlikable to me for so much of the story. While she did end up growing on me, there was some explicit homophobia, transphobia, and racism expressed through her lens as the main character that I don’t think was ever properly addressed. I think you can share the nastiness of a cult society without the main character explicitly sharing and reinforcing its beliefs throughout the story. Finally, I felt this story didn’t end in quite the place it should have. There was one major part I felt was left unresolved, and even one more page of text could have wrapped things up in a way that was satisfactory for me. 

 

While this novel didn’t quite meet what I hoped it would, I would be interested in trying more from this author in the future. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Genocide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexism, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: War, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Violence