Reviews tagging 'Racism'

La congregazione reale di sua maestà by Juno Dawson

122 reviews

shae_purcell's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

3.75

I didn't like this book as much as I thought I might. I enjoyed the multi-POV chapters and the diverse representation. I liked a lot of the characters and relationships. I don't know what it is. It fell a little flat for me, like the characters could have been fleshed out more maybe.

A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Outing, Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Incest, Islamophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Classism, Homophobia, Self harm, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and War

There is a lot of intentional misgendering in the chapters told from the

anti-trans character's

POV.

raccoonteeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Death, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, and Transphobia

Moderate: Genocide, Vomit, Classism, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, Toxic relationship, Racism, Toxic friendship, and War

katharina90's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed the themes, like the politics and dynamics at play among the covens and witchy parts of society, but the plot really didn't wow me. It was a little boring. 

The book has LGBTQ and BIPOC rep but I would have liked for Theo to play a bigger, more active part in the story.

I listened to the audiobook and Aiofe McMahon is a favorite narrator so that helped get me through the book when the story dragged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Confinement, Violence, Racism, Death, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Infidelity, and Abandonment

merricatfromblackwood's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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? Yes

3.0

This is a hard one. The TERF having a POV was hard to read. I also wish there was more world building/more time with the magic system. But I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Transphobia

giuliasbookshelves's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Racism

sacredgriefsociety's review against another edition

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

3.5

really enjoyed this book but WISH there were some spoilers attached at the beginning as i wasn’t prepared for the grief discussions around partner loss nor the transphobia within its pages. 

this was a darker book than i initially expected it to be but good nonetheless. the characters grow (some for the worse) and a few twists/surprises leave you wondering what the hell could happen next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny and Racism

sandreline's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

A delightful surprise! A rich and interesting world that is not overly explained. And it's always refreshing to read about a cast of mature women. 

The politics are about as subtle as a brick to the face. It was a bit weird to hear 30-something Black lesbians talking "Intro to Feminism" with their Irish friend. But hey, some audiences need that. 🤷

I hope the next book spends some more time breaking down the binary between witches and warlocks, cause it seems quite silly to me. 

The vibes reminded me a lot of "The City We Became."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Animal death and Racism

Minor: War

richy_qu33r_readzz's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? No

3.5

Dawson writes this inside of a tERF’s mind a little too well. *shivers* some gaping holes of logic that characters skirt over which is annoying. Could be gayer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Minor: Racism

sfdogmom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

fantastic book. Very well written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Gaslighting, Racism, Outing, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Kidnapping

minervacerridwen's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing tense fast-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

3.75

I enjoyed this book in the way that I enjoy a good action movie: there were lots of exciting and tense moments, good dialogue and good visuals. This helped to make this into a quick read that made me feel a lot of emotions, if only fleetingly. If it were made into a movie, it might be one I'd love to watch: a mix of almost silly James Bond action with the old magic world many people of my generation grew up in but had to leave behind due to its issues - with a good dose of queerness and some racial awareness added in.
The metaphors, painfully relevant to our current society and the rising transphobia in the UK, were delightfully unsubtle. However, sadly, the book seemed to come with its own set of issues. I was puzzled by how a book that's rooted so firmly in the theme of inclusion apparently still views being non-binary as something weird and "difficult to get right", without that ever coming back to bite any of the characters. And then there was the ending...

Major spoiler here, in case you're someone who clicks open spoiler tags automatically: I hope it will be addressed in book 2, but I really didn't like how the "solution" was to give Helena the death penalty, for no other reason than that that was "how things were done". I'm pretty sure (or at least hope) it will have consequences for what follows in book 2, but now it seemed to be treated very lightly. The final chapters felt very rushed and more like bait to draw you into the second book than like a proper ending to the first book. The very final event, however, intrigued me enough that I will have to admit that this baiting technique probably worked on me.

Please mind the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, War, and Racism