Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

14 reviews

danasaur's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Alcohol, Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gore, Sexism, Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Violence, War, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, War, and Suicidal thoughts

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Would give it 4 stars but there were a few misogynistic parts that didn't sit well with me.
Will I read the sequel: likely but not a priority since the third book hasn't come out yet.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Body horror, Death of parent, Murder, Addiction, Death, Blood, Bullying, Sexism, Violence, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Gore

nortsapa's review

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

this book really hasn’t aged well? the writing around poverty & music makes me feel like the author isn’t very familiar with the lived experiences of poor folk & musicians (“if you’ve never been xyz you wouldn’t understand” is said a lot) and it has a very j.j. abrams “mystery box” plot style. it prefers being totally unpredictable to having a flowing plot with foreshadowing and the like. many offhand phrases are repeated over and over again (take a shot every time “times being what they are” is said)

i don’t like school settings and i wasn’t really prepared for us to spend 75% of this book in a school, or to encounter quite so much patriarchy. another review says the protagonist is a mary sue and i very much agree.

there’s lots of different fictional races, which i presume is why people say this cast is diverse, but it’s more like there’s russians & jews, the french & italians, the british, and romani people. as a jew, i always feel off-put by kinds of oppression/microaggressions faced by some groups in here, and by the fact that there’s a ‘money race’ for lack of a better term.

at many points the book was a chore to get through, and i was disappointed by the lack of a clean ending. also, lots of grammar/spelling/math errors in my edition?

overall i won’t be recommending it to anyone myself, but it’s a genre staple and fun to talk about with friends. definitely check the content warnings area before embarking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Classism, Abandonment, Death, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racism, Medical trauma, Grief, Child abuse, Animal death, Ableism, Gore, Sexism, Vomit, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Body horror, Blood, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit, Violence, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gore, Antisemitism, Trafficking, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Medical content, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Bullying, Blood, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, War, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Classism, and Body horror

graphic depictions of whipping a child, pickup artistry, anti-sex work, timeskips

random_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

midnightcomets's review against another edition

Started for epic fantasy, nice world-building, and magic, stopped because I hate being inside Kvothe's head and everything he utters makes me want to punch him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Rape

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

I never want to hear complaints about female Mary Sues again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Bullying, Classism, Misogyny, and Blood

Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Police brutality

ekcd_'s review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Likely be a reread, esp once the third book comes out. 

The only negative thing I have to say is the pacing was funny. I thought the book reached a good ending point and there were 500 pages left. Then again and 200 pages left. Then the book actually ended and it felt mid sentence! 

Perhaps the intended effect…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Police brutality, Child abuse, Violence, Bullying, Body horror, Alcohol, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

annapox's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Classism, and Sexual assault

pokecol's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Name of the Wind is, plainly put, enjoyable. There are criticisms levied all over the place in the face of problems with the series and there is a heaping of praise said for that which it achieves in spite of its contemporaries.
I don't think either of these perspectives are necessary to expose the nature of the book or series (singular) to. There is outside context but leave this to a future generation and such context will be largely meaningless. We can discuss the impact of WWII on Tolkien's Trilogy, but that is not the critical point on what makes Middle-Earth and The Lord of the Rings what they are - nor is its exclusive positives in prose the aspect we solely take away from that series.
When it comes to the King Killer Chronicles, the Name of the Wind is, again, just enjoyable. Its a straight-forward story with brilliant description, beautiful flow, interesting if not particularly deep characters, great moments and a wonderful sense of connection.
My way of looking at it is mostly that its a book where nothing really happens - a little silly sounding, but in the idea of a story there is no main plot that unfolds and ends its just part of an adolescent boys journey written through extremely lyrical expression and perspective. Its like a riveting tale a new friend might tell you about their time in another country or some fun way they look back on things they did as a child that they've mastered the telling of - because that's what the book is, Kote providing a personal take on how he perceives the tale of his life so far. Its a really enjoyable peek into nothing happening. Weird.
The book also leaves off on just enough of a hook to get you to keep wanting to read, ultimately it feels like a foundation to build upon and I gather that is it's purpose in part. If the context of the pages of The Name of the Wind were evaluated alone though, I would say it was great.
The highlights were often the parts that in other books would be dull, in how story-tellers with a story-telling told tales of the world. That of Lanre sticks out VERY specifically. The downsides however are that lack of central plot means it doesn't feel like we're moving towards anything and for a book touting the name "King Killer Chronicles Book 1" it had an awful lack of King Killing, or steps towards King Killing, or reference to Killing a King at all for that matter - in terms of expectations it is disappointing as the scope of the story is very small. And the book could do without the very dated way women are perceived by straight men, its old-hack and was the most detractive part of the book, even if Denna specifically was able to appear fairly  involved as a character, taking a breath to describe her sexual perception to Kvothe is unnecessary and is explicitly about appealing to a pretty bad straight male ideology which should probably be avoided.
At the time of writing, this was the longest book I have read, and simultaneously one the books I had the easiest time getting through. I know not what to feel for things to come but I intend to proceed without any lens coming from Patrick Rothfuss' public expression or the public perception of the books, it services no-one.

Tl;dr: a book where nothing happens, but its the most enjoyable nothing I've had the pleasure to read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Violence, Police brutality, and Sexism

vonny3492's review

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is one of those books written by a man that sort of just forgot to include women? There is even a line from one of the characters that's like "there's been such a lack of women in this story" and then the story promptly is like what no women? There's ONE woman! With I think complete lack of insight into the irony. 

When they get to speak, especially the ONE woman, they aren't totally vapid and one dimensional, but mostly they are plot devices and manic pixie dream girls. You can tell the author is trying and even thinks he's doing a good job being pro-woman but he falls flat.

Frankly there are too many common phrases at the expense of sex workers...

He manages to somehow pull off being a very good writer who's obsessed with his own prose without being totally annoying, which is impressive. 

I will say overall I liked the book and thought it was engaging. And I think the author does a good job of sprinkling in the mystery and some fun parallel language use.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Sexism

Minor: Police brutality