Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

L'Incivilité des fantômes by Rivers Solomon

80 reviews

jessthanthree's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

vulcanzaddy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

Go to review page

  • 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

This is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and one of my favorite sci-fi books ever. The way Rivers Solomon weaves together commentary about race and oppression and the most interesting take on gender I’ve ever read with beautiful character work and stunning prose. 

Be warned, however, that this is a VERY heavy novel with racism, violence, and death throughout along with a LOT of other potentially triggering content, so PLEASE proceed with care if you’re planning to read it.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bash5617's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lilaceous's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

characters - ⭐️
plot - 
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend - 
would read again - 

i wanted to like this novel, but to me, it just fell so flat in so many ways.

the characters were well-developed and painfully engaging, but it isn’t enough to make this novel worth reading in my opinion. even the queer and trans representation felt more harmful than positive to me.

in terms of plot, the ending felt so out of the blue that i couldn’t even make sense of what the point of the rest of the plot was. so many things happened, but it felt like there was never a clear goal, even at the end.

also, the sci-fi elements of this piece added almost nothing to the story.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tahsintries's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

armontheroad's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Rivers Solomon always delivers with faer books!! This dark space opera is a great commentary on our society. I cared for all of our main characters so much! I will say this book is not for the faint of heart. AN UNKINDNESS OF GHOSTS is very graphic and triggering. I have listed all the content warnings I could remember down below! 

CWs: Here are a few that StoryGraph doesn't have options to list: Execution and misgendering

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lolajh's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

A black autistic intersex nonbinary lesbian main character, Aster, in space! Aster’s childhood best friend is Giselle, whose character arc was heartbreaking and traumatic and so raw and real that she and Aster became my favourite characters. Giselle had some minor chapters in her point of view that I wish we got more of because of how interesting of a character she was.
There was also kind of a lead up to what I thought would be a romance or attraction between both Aster and Giselle which didn’t happen, but was understandable due to Giselle’s mental state at the time. Instead Aster romances with Theo, the space ship’s surgeon, who I always saw as more of a parental figure to Aster than a romance, but it developed anyway. Both Theo and Aster are genderqueer; Rivers described online as Aster being nonbinary and Theo a trans woman, which was nice to see and I still very much liked Theo’s character and their experiences and discussions of gender, HOWEVER, there was a sex scene between Aster and Theo in which Aster asks for them to not penetrate her but also not saying what they could do, but Theo goes down on her anyway. So I think there was a mistranslation of proper consent being done here, which is what let down Theo’s character for me, especially after Aster had already had experiences with sexual assault and rape, it really surprised me that Theo would not be so caring and thorough to ask consent of her properly before doing anything. Before that happened as well they do kiss her face and lips without Aster’s consent, dominating over her and overall it seeming like an unbalanced power dynamic that shouldn’t have happened and then Aster continuing to romance them afterwards.
 

Throughout the story Aster uncovers the mysteries of her mother’s death and the blackouts occurring currently on the ship all whilst dealing with trauma and systemic racism and standing up to it more than anyone had done before. Aster is such a strong and admirable character and I loved her progressions of exploring her gender. Will be visiting more of Rivers’ books.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

multiplyoctopi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings