Reviews tagging 'Murder'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

11 reviews

patlo's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

GORGEOUS retelling of the historical events of Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés entering the city of Tenochtitlan and meeting with the court of emperor Moctezuma.

It's rare that, as I'm reading a book, I wished it were MUCH longer, or a series. But this one is an entire world, and reimagines a dense and complex world that many of us have some passing familiarity with. It's trippy hallucinogenic; it thrives in court politics and religious variety; its characters are all well shaped. The reader's head swims in a fast paced, dense story with color and flavor everywhere.

Think multicultural Game of Throes meets Hunter S. Thompson packed into a 220 page novella.

TIP: Don't skip the author's notes to the translator in the first pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Murder and Rape

feministy's review

adventurous informative 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

5.0

This is the revenge fantasy novel I never knew I wanted. Holy shit this was so good. 

It's not like anything else that I've read before. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Violence

arijones91's review

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder and Rape

ukponge's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape

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

klabardee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Excrement and Sexism

30something_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.75

Honestly, this was a fever-dream (in the best way possible.)

A hallucinogenic and fantastical rendering of Mexican colonial history.  

I found that I best enjoyed this as a tandem read with the audiobook. It was very interesting to see the exclusion of quotation marks throughout the entire book but the narrator provided such great differentiation between characters during the dialogue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Drug use, Death, Colonisation, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

ritual sacrifice

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

simonmh's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

• 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

3.75

Short novel about the meeting of Moctezuma and Cortes. In reality, this very quickly led to the end of the Aztec empire, but this isn’t a book about historical accuracy.

I think the premise is great and while I don’t speak Spanish, the translation reads nicely and the author clearly has a sense of humor.

I enjoyed the book, but something about it just didn’t quite sing to me. The book starts largely realist and then transforms with meta moments where the author interjects himself or characters hear 20th century pop music. It all sounds in my wheelhouse, but it somehow feels incomplete.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Rape

jrpal's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism and Incest