Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

8 reviews

kurumipanda's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

Jess is already dealing with the stress of meeting her family’s expectations, hiding her secret girlfriend, and job hunting, when she realizes she’s also being haunted by her dead grandmother. Solid story with grounded characters and relationships, a tense supernatural plot, and a good balance of humorous and heartfelt moments. Some dialog felt slow, some themes felt thinly incorporated, and a couple plot points seemed to trail off, but these seem to fit with the realism of the setting and resolution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Murder, Kidnapping, Cancer, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Minor: Car accident, Classism, and Racism

imaginingly's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Torture, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Outing, Kidnapping, Death, and Cursing

greymalkin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I loved the premise and sparring between the main character and her grandmother.  And it was an all too rare delight to immerse in a culturally different linguistic rhythm of speech.  But Jess was not fun to spend time with.  The secret-keeping drove me crazy.  It didn't seem like there was much point other than to stretch out plot points. 

I wish that there had been more about the rest of the life in Malaysia, something to contrast all the stuff that Jess is going through.  And she's such a terrible girlfriend, I didn't see the chemistry, nor why the other girl stuck around as long as she did.  I would have loved more about Ah Ma, or the guy, or Ah Ku, or the girlfriend, or her parents, or basically almost any one else, they were all so much more interesting to me.  The ending was pretty good on the ghosts stuff, but I wish that we'd actually been able to see more of a pay off for Jess' coming out.  Not because we are owed that, but because I wanted to see Jess's parents surprise Jess.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Classism, Racism, and Homophobia

pocketspoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Classism, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Violence, and Cancer

Minor: Car accident

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, Cursing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Torture, Classism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Rape, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

The death/gore/violence is more graphic than the sexual assault. The assault starts but is cut off immediately (cue violence). So if you are very sensitive, I would say this book is too graphic.

scifi_rat's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Medical content, Rape, Physical abuse, Death, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Lesbophobia, Gore, Grief, and Sexual violence

Minor: Classism, Outing, Self harm, Torture, Racism, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Cancer, and Cursing

sulinde's review

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, Violence, Sexual violence, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia and Xenophobia

Minor: Cancer, Cannibalism, and Deportation

_forestofpages's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

I immediately found myself relating to Jessamyn; she uses humor as a defense, hides her true emotions and compartmentalizes. She seems to be depressed and anxious as well, not to mention in the closet and surrounded by judgmental and religious people who would not approve of who she is because she's gay. I loved her character development, which I won't spoil, but it's gradual and realistic and I truly appreciated how much time the author took with developing her.

I absolutely loved her family. Some of them weren't so great (though I related to that too), but her parents are amazing. It's refreshing seeing a teenager in a book with decent parents for once. Her Ah Ma reminded me so much of my own grandmother, and she was truly a complex character. 

There is a crime and mystery element to this along with the supernatural/mythology aspects all through the lens of interesting and vivid Malaysian culture. The blend of the modern and ancient was something I haven't read in some time and this book reminded me how much I missed it. This was also a great representation of a closeted character with a traditional family dating long-distance an "out" person. The relationship, though not a main focus, was still handled very well and realistically. I appreciated that it wasn't all the character thought about, but was still a big part of her life.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys magical realism, mythology and well done LGBT rep, with a side of dysfunctional but well intentioned family drama. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Racism, Classism, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse