Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

9 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

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

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

hedsek's review

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

3.0

I found the book really hard to follow, maybe even more so than the first part. Baru seems like a completely different person, which makes sense given the things she's done, but in a very weird teenagery way for some reason. I am super confused  by her relation with almost everyone, but maybe it's supposed to be that way? There was some beautiful prose though, and as with the previous book the ending was very climactic and makes me want to read the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Addiction, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, and Death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Torture, Homophobia, Blood, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, War, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Cursing, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

mazomazli's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

I really loved the first one, but like many others I found this one to be quite slow until the very end. 

The author is very detailed about their worldbuilding and you can tell they have taken their time and done the work. It’s because of this that a certain topic that wasn’t particularly addressed so far and was just there. That I was deeply bothered by it. I haven’t seen anyone else address it so I will do so now:

Men in this book often take on traits women in the real world (western countries specifically) like makeup for example. There were multiple scenes where side male characters were treated as wh*res much like women experience today all of the time. It made me deeply uncomfortable as I was going in with the love of powerful women to see them enact the same exact violence in my lived experiences. It wasn’t explained why it was like this or given much context. It wasn’t even needed for the plot. It doesn’t make sense either. In real world examples of matriarchy-adjacent (as most western historians state that there’s never been a true one) this type of violence does not happen. These societies are usually quite equal and the women take on the task of passing down knowledge. 

The author’s attempt to address colonization and all of that desperately needed some non-western research. Especially when the majority of character are coded as BIPOC. I just really wanna know why was it necessary to do these scenes with men being mistreated in sex by women? Like what was the benefit? 

Additionally, while most of sapphic people I’ve come across have greatly enjoyed this series I find myself alone in some of my thoughts. As an early 20s sapphic woman, I would think I would relate a lot more to Baru. Unfortunately I just… didn’t. What I felt from the series so far is the sexual side of sapphicness and very little of the romantic feelings. I admit I am very much WLW and NBLW romantic and more of a demisexual. I did not feel represented in the end unfortunately which is okay, not every story will do so. 

Finally, the biggest book comparison that can be made with this series is the Locked Tomb. There are several key elements that align both series especially with the outcomes of the main sapphic relationship.

the butch girl dies and weird brain sh!t happens in the second book

. These could’ve been very equal books for me, especially since the locked tomb is one of my all time favorites. I can follow the confusion for the most part and greatly appreciate complex plots. However due to all the reasons above I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as I had hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, War, Blood, Homophobia, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Vomit, Alcohol, Classism, Child death, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

lighterthaneyre's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

I had a hard time getting through the first third, but the back two thirds were much more engaging.

This is another book emphasizing the importance of bonds between people. It's grimmer than others, because it's also interrogating imperialism and the bounds of utilitarianism. But I think it's setting up just a killer conclusion that I'm looking forward too

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia, Cancer, and Sexual content

cynthreads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual content

Minor: Transphobia

lmarsh's review

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The friend who recommended me the series in the first place didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one, but I thought it was a very solid follow-up and can't wait to read book 3. I love the way the books mix biological science and magic while avoiding a Sandersonesque "hard magic" system (in fact, Baru is skeptical that the "magic" exists at all). Dickinson also continues to write intriguing, diverse societies. And of course, Baru's economical antics are as crazed as ever, and continue to be enjoyable even to me, someone with next to no knowledge of economics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, and Gore