Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

20 reviews

andrew_corduroy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, and Colonisation

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Vomit

sheiksleopardthong's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Slower than the first book, The Monster introduces a LOT of characters, and I found myself struggling to keep them all straight until near the end. However it's so so so good. Intense and dark and intricately woven. Dickinson has such a mastery of poetic prose. I love a book I need to put down sometimes because you want to punch and vomit on a character (looking at you Cosgrad).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Excrement, Xenophobia, Blood, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, War, Racism, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abortion, Alcoholism, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Homophobia, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Murder

Minor: Vomit

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, War, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Cancer

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child death, Miscarriage, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Slavery, and Alcoholism

ferlefur's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Homophobia, War, Body horror, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Xenophobia

tristanc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Ayamma. A ut li-en.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Outing

beldaran1224's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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 finished this sequel with feelings very similar to the first book: I want to read more...but I don't. There is something very compelling about the world and the characters (especially the explorations of the means vs the ends. Despite this, I find myself very conflicted about the book - the narrative is so befuddled and deliberately obfuscated by the author that I find myself getting frustrated by it multiple times throughout the book. I understand why the author is obfuscating: in the first book, we're meant to be kept guessing about Baru's loyalties and in the second, we're meant to be kept guessing about whether she is merely dancing to Itinerant's plan or actually acting on her own...but it gets old.

That said, there's a lot to like here. The flashbacks and other perspectives, especially the ones for Tau-Indi, are exceptionally well done. I enjoy the way Dickinson uses Baru's injury as a method of narrative obfuscation, though I wish they had been less aggressive in doing so. The world gets broader and deeper in this book, too. I enjoy the way the text plays with

Baru's relationships with those around her, including Iraji, Tau-Indi, the diver and more.

I also enjoy the increasingly important question of whether Baru is compromised beyond hope and the exploration of

the opposing theories of empire put forth by Itinerant and Hesychast

.

Besides the obfuscation I mentioned above, there are a couple other gripes I have with the text. The first is that the plotting is a bit lackluster. The first novel was redeemed by an insanely compelling and heartbreaking ending, and this book's ending

just didn't leave me with the same impact or curious about the specific reveal that occurred

so much as leaving me hopeful that the final book will have a more propelling plot. I'm also not enjoying the character of

Tain Shir

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, Colonisation, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Ableism, Stalking, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual content, Gore, Gaslighting, and Cancer

Minor: Drug use, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Forced institutionalization

eegekay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness

vonhresvelg's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

The constant jumping between different points of view (and time periods) rather than focusing solely on Baru leads to the pacing feeling noticeably slower. That said, they provide welcome context and information, it can just be frustrating to finish a chapter on a cliffhanger, only to see you must read through a different character’s situation first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Cancer, Homophobia, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Lesbophobia, Death, and Grief

librarianmage's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Colonisation, and Cancer

Moderate: Body horror, Homophobia, and Gore

Minor: Child death and Sexual content

lipstickitotheman's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

The writing got experimental in this one, compared to Traitor. I don't like it as much. Still very good, but this one didn't capture me as Traitor did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Cancer, Colonisation, Confinement, Torture, Toxic friendship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, War, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Police brutality, Sexual content, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical content, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage