Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

L'Incivilité des fantômes by Rivers Solomon

175 reviews

leweylibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I really wish I liked this one more 😕 I think I would've liked it better not in audiobook (the quick, brief POV changes were a bit difficult), and I wasn't a big fan of the narrator or the MC really. I can tell it was good writing wise, it just wasn't hitting me much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

wonderingintothevoid's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Biphobia, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Toxic friendship

abbie_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

It’s always a great feeling when a well-loved book lives up to the hype! And bonus points for me if it’s science fiction, not a genre I naturally gravitate to. Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts is gut-wrenching, original, intense and I can’t wait to try their other books now!

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This book is set on the Matilda, a huge space ship which has been carrying the last of humanity to a fabled ~Promised Land~ for generations, home to a social strata uncannily similar to the antebellum South. Aster, a labourer in the lower decks of the Matilda as well as a healer, finds herself in the unlikely position of overturning the oppressive ruling powers of the Matilda, along with Giselle, a heavily traumatised woman, and Theo, the Surgeon revered by the entire ship.

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I loved that Aster was coded neurodivergent, and literally every other person in this book is queer. There are some gorgeous and heartbreaking explorations of gender and sexuality, particularly from Theo. There’s also quite a lot of action (in comparison to the books I usually read anyway), and I found it to be paced well, with plenty of suspense and mystery. Please do be mindful of the triggers though, as this book is also heavy on things like sexual violence, racism, state-sanctioned murder etc. My only issue was the character of Giselle felt a bit underdeveloped and often too convenient.

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For some reason I don’t feel like I have much else to say, except that the writing was beautiful and I was fully invested in this story from page one! Just a bloody good piece of sci-fi that I finally picked up thanks to @openbookopen’s Queer Your Year challenge!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

kellyofcali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Very much a modern sci-fi for me, I liked the world the author created and the way they wove in themes of classism and racism while still pursuing a vibrant sci-fi story with a more diverse and varied cast of characters. My main issue was the ending - it felt like someone told them to "wrap it up" and so the ending felt unhurried and less gripping than the earlier parts of the book. However, definitely worth a read and made for an interesting book club discussion (people were very split) - especially for sci-fi lovers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Racism and Pregnancy

angelbabe_cj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

dariusmortee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

I didn’t really know what to expect of this book but it was so good! It hit on so many important issues and the characters are super well written. 
I loved the narrator and the way she did all the voices. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

salty_morton's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

directorpurry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Death of parent

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This is one of those books that I close after finishing and stare off into the middle distance for a solid ten minutes, just… processing.

I feel like I should have a bunch of really thoughtful reactions to this story, since there’s obviously so much going on thematically, but more than anything I just feel like my brain is stuck on the buffering screen, lol.

I loved the premise—an enormous space vessel acting as a sort of Noah’s ark, harboring a human population fleeing earth in search of the proverbial promised land. I appreciated the autistic, intersex, trans/non-binary, and asexual representation, as well as the allegorical interpretation of the antebellum south.

I struggled a little bit with some of the dense “science-y” terminology and just ended up skimming a lot of it, assuming I’d be able to get the gist. I had a similar issue when I tried to visualize some of the things described (in particular, the fields where lowerdeck workers harvest crops). The only other thing that threw me off sometimes was the quick jumps around through time, and not being able to sure when a “flashback” is being described and at what point have we jumped to the present again.

Other than that I really enjoyed this book, especially the second half. It’s beautifully-written, and the characters are nuanced and richly crafted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

rcsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

3.5

The space ship is a great analogy for being trapped in slavery, you can't run away into a vacuum. The actual science of this space ship though, is insane like it has a tiny sun with floors for growing crops round it that all require drastically different environments and you can see people on other floors and they're upside down. What? If you take the ship purely as an analogy and don't think about science then this is a really interesting way to write about slavery and trauma full of diverse, queer and neurodivergent characters. The A deck ruling class are the white, heteronormative colonisers and the rest of the alphabet of decks represent the various cultures that the West enslaved and colonised. The analogy is good but the actual plot of the story gets confusing. 
 The story of Aster learning about her mother through the journals she left behind started out so well and then kind of got lost later. We just dropped it for the middle of the book and then it reappeared at the end with a lot of solutions which clearly happened off page. 
 I could see why Giselle was there to show us the effects of trauma but i have no idea why she was Aster's friend, she seemed to hate her a lot and they had nothing in common apart from living on the same floor of the massive ship. I have no idea what the Lieutenants motives were, he was a cartoon villain who just decided one day that a random child was his nemesis and he was going to mess with her for the rest of his life.
 It was very readable and I enjoyed it but this review seems to think otherwise...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism