Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

7 reviews

blue_txt's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

 There's a review on here, by Kendra, in which they suggest that Sim Kern's characters were ideas. I think that's spot on. This book is a hard read - the first 1/3 alternates between expositions of Maddie Ryan's backstory (with toxic relationships reminiscent of Colleen Hoover characters) and didactic dialogue. Every conversation is pedantic lecture from a different character representing some concept to teach Maddie, who I guess is supposed to represent the "reader", a white Christian cis woman.
I've never wanted to experience fictional leftist in-fighting.

I don't enjoy books with thought-experiment based plots, so I knew it wasn't going to be a great read for me. I guess I expected more from the characters since the plot was so paper-thin. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Classism, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicide, War, Death, Confinement, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

bobbi's review

challenging reflective slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Vomit, Gun violence, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Deadnaming and Transphobia

mxfahrenheit's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Police brutality, Vomit, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Colonisation, and Deadnaming

Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

miggyfool's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Rape, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Physical abuse, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

mayarobinson831's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I could not put this book down.
The settings of the story were both familiar and felt fresh when examined from this angle. I cried. I laughed. I gasped.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, War, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Drug use, and Alcohol

howard's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really wanted to like this, and I did like most of it.

The most impressive thing this book does is have political conversations in real time between characters with different political opinions. This is a great way to cover these topics and gives the reader different viewpoints to consider, though there is usually a character who the text clearly thinks is "right". 

I also really liked the characters. Everyone felt really fleshed out and real, even the characters who were assholes or I didn't like I felt like I understood where they were coming from/why they are the way they are. Gestas is a gem I love him.

I'm not sure how the narrator Maddie reads to BIPOC. As a white person who has been on a journey of anti-racist awakening, I sometimes related to and found Maddie sympathetic. I liked her, and I think a lot of white people will see themselves in her, problematic though she is. 

The way this book is told is really weird. It's told as a memoir retelling of the events 5 years after they happened. In part 1 it bounces back and forth between timelines 6 months apart, but it also reminds you that it's being told from the future. This whole device felt really clunky to me and every time we were reminded of this narrative device I kind of rolled my eyes.

The last 40 pages are where it really fell off for me. The story of the Free People's Village as a character ends pretty abruptly and the rest of the book is wrapped up in Maddie's personal life and a "where are they now" montage of all the rest of the characters. While Maddie's personal life was present throughout the book, it definitely took a backseat to what I though of as the main plot; the Free People's Village and it's legacy (although thinking about this now maybe that's not fair because part 1 is mostly about Maddie? idk it just felt like a really abrupt tone change)

The final pages are basically a manifesto about activism and why it is important to continue doing the work even though it can feel hopeless. Unlike the earlier conversations with multiple POVs this felt more like a force fed moral of the story with no room for the reader to use their own critical thinking. While this isn't unimportant, I think there could have been a better way to handle the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Police brutality

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Animal death, Classism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and War

amandadevoursbooks's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective 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

Thank you, NetGalley, Levine Querido, and Sim Kern for the e-ARC. The opinions below are my own. 

Imagine a world where Al Gore won is a great premise. The promise of this book is to explore a social movement, the relationships within it, and the impact it has on its participants. While it did that, I had some major issues with the story that I couldn't shake.

Maddie is a young 20 something, divorced, ex-Catholic teacher. She's in a band based out of a crusty band house owned by a white dude in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The white dude in question is her boyfriend. She has a crush on her bandmate, Red (Xe, xim, xir). The drama. When a new hyperway is threatening the neighborhood, Maddie joins the local organizers to save the neighborhood. The story follows the arcs of the relationship and the movement. 

I liked how Kern envisioned the alternative timeline. The impact of green washing on poor Black and brown people. I loved how real the coalition of organizations felt. I particularly appreciated the inclusion of Native people in Texas. I, like Maddie, was taught these people were "extinct." I also liked the setting. It really felt like Houston and a nasty band house. I loved getting to know the other characters through Maddie.

There were some issues with pacing, and I don't tend to like books with lots of heavy foreshadowing. My biggest issue was the choice to center Maddie in a story about Black and brown people. At every turn, she was coached, mentored, loved, and chastised by Black and brown people. 

It turned into a huge "magical, wise global majority mentorship" trope.

The author even acknowledges it right at the end during a conversation with Shayna. When Maddie is like 'look at me, crying and getting comfort from you a Black woman', and Shayna is like 'we're friends...not strangers on the internet.' It was a little late for me.

 

Every relationship Maddie has taught her something, and the entire story served as Maddie's teaching tool. It was like reading Babel or Yellowface without Letty and June being unsympathetic characters.

Maddie made mistakes I've made, but the story expects the community to reform her not for her to do it herself. In the author's note, Kern thanks one sensitivity reader. Given the intersectional nature of the story the book wanted to tell, it needed more, including from an asthmatic. 

Final thoughts: this book wasn't for me. It's a compelling story. I know it will find its readers. I'm just not one of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault