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jenna_justi2004's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Colonisation, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Slavery, Toxic relationship, War, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Torture, Confinement, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt
lexihworth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Alcohol, Slavery, Death, and Cancer
Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Murder
Minor: Miscarriage
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide attempt, Violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Murder, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Racial slurs, Blood, Cancer, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Cursing, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and Misogyny
Minor: Drug use and Sexual violence
bandysbooks's review
- 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
4.0
Riot Baby follows two siblings, one of which was born during the Rodney King Riots. They are surrounded by a system that victimizes, criminalizes, and then incarcerates their peers. When they reach a breaking point, we start to see hints of powers they’ve both been containing.
This is in some ways a dystopia, but in some ways it isn’t. We have a system that is set up to function against a certain group of people. The reason that I won’t call it an outright dystopia is because those injustices are just slight escalations of the things that already happen on a day to day basis in the states.
What’s most impressive about this book is how it can delve into such deep themes in such a short page count. It all made sense as written, but also left me wanting more of the story. All in all, a solid read.
Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Racism, Violence, Blood, Classism, Police brutality, and Torture
vonni's review
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Racism, Self harm, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Cancer, Medical content, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Gore
dybbuk's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Death of parent
danajoy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racism, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Cursing, and Child death
booksthatburn's review
Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, Animal death, Death, and Child death
thesaltiestlibrarian's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Ella and Kev are siblings in a harsh world similar to our current Earth. Kev is born right when the 90s LA Riots really take off, thus landing him the nickname Riot Baby. Ella has a superpower that does a whole bunch of stuff and doesn't seem to have well-defined, if any, limits. When Kev ends up serving time for an attempted robbery, Ella comes to visit him on the astral plane while he's incarcerated and showing him the things that she's seen. The hope she has for a brighter future for black society.
Sounds good, right? Sounds really interesting and like a home-run. It's not.
The biggest drawback in this book is that Onyebuchi couldn't decide what he wanted it to be. It doesn't feel at all like science fiction until 2/3 of the way through, and it's not even 200 pages. Ella's powers do bring about that fantasy element, but there's no limit to what she can do and no real repercussion to her using her powers. Magic has drawbacks. It has boundaries. It has a price. Ella learns to control her anger, which teaches her control of her magic, and then there's no more problems she has to face with it. It turns her hair silver, but that's it. She can touch people and see their entire life, feel what they felt. She can see the future in multiple timelines. She can fly and transcend space-time, feel the future of the entire Earth as she walks it, teleport...
It's kind of exhausting. Being overpowered needs to have a setback, or your character becomes impossible to connect with.
Now Kev...Kev is in prison for a lot of the book. Then at that 2/3 mark I mentioned, he's sent somewhere out west where he and other parolees are given the opportunity to work for a company that specializes in robotics. There's a chip inserted in his thumb that has his identification, but can also control him. Global warming is a thing that's happening. Kev's storyline feels like a mess, honestly. The technology isn't clear, the science-fiction mechs and cyborg parts show up out of literal nowhere, and the chip in his thumb somehow has the capacity to release chemicals to sedate him without having been filled with them or needing to be re-filled.
You can't just slap the label "science fiction!" on a book and have it be so. It's like Onyebuchi put a bunch of ideas on a target, blindfolded himself, and just went bananas throwing darts at it. Then used every single thing that the darts hit. Superpowers? Yes, please. Mechs and super-tech prostheses? Check. Racial issues that lightly connect to the plot somehow? Gotcha. LA Riots? Climate change? Incarceration of black boys? Police brutality and racial profiling? Maybe-nuclear holocaust? Single mother-hood? Astral projection???
Throw it in, hit pulse, boom. Done.
The reason other sff titles work when dealing with heavy topics is because they don't try to be everything. ALL SYSTEMS RED deals with personhood and sapience, but it doesn't reach beyond to try and include every problem that revolves around why humans left Earth. THE EMPRESS OF SALT AND FORTUNE covers ground like misogyny, the ethics of revolution, and political corruption, but doesn't ask us to envision the entire planet it takes place on. THE ECHO WIFE tackles the seriously close-to-home for me topic of domestic abuse survivors, how that leaves scars on people, but it lets us decide for ourselves whether or not we believe clones are people.
A book can't do everything, especially in under 200 pages. And we the readers really aren't asking them to do everything.
Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and Gun violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Blood
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Miscarriage, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Child death, Animal death, Confinement, and Racial slurs
Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Rape, Domestic abuse, Cancer, and Panic attacks/disorders
Use of slurs is reclaimed. Institutionalization refers to imprisonment/incarceration.