Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

8 reviews

joannalouise's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

swilkes's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Rape and Slavery

fuguballoon's review

adventurous challenging dark

DNF the audiobook. Reading the reviews on here, I see a lot of us did not enjoy the narrator, and I strongly agree. There are also so many characters with long names that it was difficult keeping track of everyone while listening. Maybe would try again with a hard copy, but probably not.

Apparently, this book is funny, but I did not find it so. (Maybe I didn't read far enough? But IMHO if a book is billed as funny, there should be some humor in the first third of it.) Mostly, I found it violent and dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Violence

stephyrm's review

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Vomit

naturalog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Rape, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, and Cannibalism

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

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

4.0

This is a very strange book. I think it accomplished what the author wanted it to, and I think I liked it. I certainly looked at the world through a slightly shifted lens for a few hours.

You Dreamed of Empires is experimental historical fiction that reads like fantasy. I mean that in a complimentary way.

I will probably revisit it at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Rape, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Incest, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

hamohero's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

I did quite enjoy the cheeky narration but I barely understood what was happening without the historical/literary knowledge along with the lack of punctuation, huge cast with multiple names, and the sudden shifts in setting/povs.

Also tw:

mention of rape p111 and reference to said rape p129

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

clynns's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

Like taking mushrooms. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, and War