Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

3 reviews

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Thank you to the 2025 StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge for bringing Boy Swallows Universe into my awareness for which I listened to the audiobook.

The prompt was: 
Read a book published between 2010-2020 that fits your reader profile but excludes your most-read genre.

I had to exclude my top genre, Young Adult and include all aspects of my reader profile:

.Mainly reads fiction books that are emotional, adventurous, and dark.

.Typically chooses medium-paced books that are 300-499 pages long.

I feel like my reader profile works to mention here since this book fit perfectly! I loved it.

Initially I had a difficult time following the book as I was not sure who was who or the settings but that became much easier and the characters were all really well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia, and War

atringas's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

This novel contains multitudes. Truly hard to describe, and honestly I’m struggling to quantify my feels about it myself. Beautiful in its imagery, brutal in its realism, touching, mystical, realistic, exciting, slow, there is a bit of everything going on in “Boy Swallows Universe”.
The book truly reads almost more like a number of smaller novels together as it chronicles the life of Eli Bell, and is mostly stronger for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Xenophobia

ardour's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

praises the police!