Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

92 reviews

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, and Transphobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Death

Minor: Confinement and Sexism

sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

Of the three main narrators, I only liked listening to the perspective of 1, the middle sibling. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the sibling trope where the oldest sibling is mature but has no self worth, and the youngest sister is reckless and boy crazy. What really was the nail in the coffin for me was the way Keyne's identity discovery/dysphoria was written. As someone who intimately knows those feelings, it was just exhausting to read throughout the majority of the book, and I had to stop reading for my own sanity. I'm sure this book has many readers who would benefit from and enjoy this story, I'm just not one of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria

Moderate: Transphobia and Misogyny

zghutcheson01's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

While I wasn't really interested in Riva or Sinne in the first 150 pages, by the middle and throughout the end all of the siblings had compelling stories and beautiful character arcs. I eas very wary when I recognized the Aurthurian references but it seems to be more references and I wouldn't call it an Arthurian story. I also was very familiar with the ballad "The Twa Sisters" before reading and I think it gave the whole thing a much more tragic lens considering the first few chapters bear little to no resemblance to the song.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death of parent, Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Biphobia, Physical abuse, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Religious bigotry

tashtasher's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, and Transphobia

Minor: Chronic illness, Murder, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Sexism, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

kalmia31's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Transphobia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, War, Animal death, and Deadnaming

lady_moon's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Rep: trans masc MC, bigender side character

To be honest I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the path each sibling had. S was annoying for the better part of the book but she didn't deserve this sort of ending. Riva started out well, I liked her in the beginning. And then came Tristan 😐 After they got together, Riva became insufferable. Her whole ending was definitely not what I wanted it to be. 
K was fine the whole time <3 In the beginning he was less interesting the his sisters but as the novel progressed, he was honestly the only POV character who hadn't annoyed the hell out of me. 

I'm not a fan of

siblings torn apart

kind of stories. I really didn't enjoy that. The author tried very hard to leave each of them in some sort of hopeful note but for me it's not hopeful when

sibling relationships are destroyed in such a way

.

I didn't quite get the ending with K. Like,

so he's immortal now? He had lived through the centuries? Or it was just him after many decades?

Anyway, I have certain opinions (obviously) but I'm really not feeling that strongly about any of that for it to matter to me. I'm happy how stuff turned out for K (I guess?) and that's the most important thing. Historical fiction with trans characters will never be not fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and War

Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

khazlettwrites's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Gore, Murder, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

catherinedsharp's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring sad slow-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

3.75

Beautiful text that wasn’t what I expected! With twists at every corner, characters you can’t decide whether to love or hate and a beautiful plot with magic, religion, war and a well written trans story.

Would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Death, War, Blood, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

becksusername's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Deadnaming, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexism, Transphobia, and War

abbymrendon's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, Gore, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia and Religious bigotry