Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Los sonámbulos by Chuck Wendig

17 reviews

chaptersofchase's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

Wanderers 🚶🏽🚶🏼‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️

Genre: Science Fiction
Trope: Dystopian
Format: 🎧
Audiobook Narration: ☆☆☆☆☆
Pub Date: 7.2.2019
Star Rating: ☆☆☆.5

Let me start by saying that when I ordered this book, I didn’t look at how many pages it was. When it arrived, I thought, ‘Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into?’ because Wanderers is 845 pages!! So, instead of reading, I decided to listen to the 35-hour audiobook __  If you haven’t had a chance to read Wanderers yet, I highly recommend it as it kept me entertained and motivated to stay busy with projects. 

I was fully invested in the story from the start - I’ve always loved dystopian books/shows (even if they make me incredibly anxious). Still, Wanderers was even more interesting as the author gave us scientific background on other outbreaks. At one point, I had to stop to see when the book was published (2019) because it was so eerily familiar to the start of the pandemic we’re just coming out of. Truthfully, I’m blown away by the amount of research the author, Chuck Wendig, had to do before writing this. 

At some point in the book, the story takes a more graphic turn (please be aware that there are many triggers throughout the book). This graphic turn seemed more in place with the author’s other book I’ve read (Book of Accidents - horror). While I was still invested in the story and characters,  I had to skip entire sections as they became too much. 

Overall, The Wanderers is perfect for the dystopian book lovers. I will eventually read the next book in this saga, Wayward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, and Sexual violence

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Powerful book especially in the post 2020 world. Hard to believe it was published in 2019. Definitely hard to read at times but one of the few books I had trouble putting down at night because I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Dementia, and Cursing

rely's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved the plot. I liked mist if the characters but Shana drove me nuts. She took me out of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Antisemitism, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Classism, Cursing, Misogyny, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

gwimo'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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Murder, Suicide, Sexual content, Sexism, Homophobia, Drug abuse, Dementia, Death of parent, Rape, Racism, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Self harm, Pregnancy, Outing, and Gun violence

jenny_d's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

1.75

Man... this book could have been a LOT shorter. Lots of repetitive phrases. A few characters that could have been entirely left out, like Pete, without changing the story at all.

I feel like the rape scene in the bunker could have been a fade-to-black kind of thing instead.

There were parts of the story that were pretty good, but by the time I was two thirds of the way through I had lost a lot of interest in the story. It felt like a slog after that. Plus there were so many things about it that were way too squicky for me .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

brigidc's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This book made me so unhappy. It wasn’t the sci-fi fantasy that I felt the back cover’s description portrayed, instead it was dark and gruesome and miserable with no redeeming positive themes or moments. It’s not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Torture, Pregnancy, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Body horror, Blood, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Hate crime, and Death

I read this a year ago and added all the content warnings I could remember (over 20) but there were probably some I forgot. In addition to a (minor/vague spoiler)

luckykosmos's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

I have very different feelings about this book depending on the angle taken. This book may have aged poorly - it feels weird to say that, only a year in, but one pandemic and chaotic election season later, I spent half of this book going, "That isn't how that goes!" I had issues with suspension of disbelief from the beginning for that reason. But, adding on to that, the handling of racial politics felt... clumsy. It was a plot point, but not a motivation, and not addressed beyond 'these people are dangerous' (except for Bo and Matthew, which I'll get to in a moment). That section of the book could have been taken out and tried by a different author, maybe one with a less white, cishet perspective (because, yes, I don't feel great about the non-cishet rep either), and I feel like little would have been lost.

That being said, this is a wonderful book when it comes to examinations of leadership and faith. Science and religion weren't pitted against each other, but there were different interpretations of the situation based on whose perspective we were in, and for this reason, Matthew's perspective was my favorite - watching him falling into something he didn't believe, and contending with the different ways he lost Autumn or Bo. Watching Bo's radicalization as Matthew lost his faith was interesting - though, again, the exact nature of that radicalization, the white supremacists, felt weak. 

I hated the ending. I hated the final reveal with Black Swan. I can't decide if it was decided from an ecofascist angle, or a poorly optimized artificial intelligence (though this could give it too much credit), but from how the past few months have gone and the ecofascist conversations at the beginning of the pandemic, I could not suspend my disbelief long enough to justify it. Maybe I would have a different perspective eight, nine months ago. I wish I saw in this book what authors I love saw, but I don't think Chuck Wendig was the author to tell this story, and I don't think it dropped at the right time. 

(I may have rated this higher if it were shorter, but to feel so lukewarm after almost 800 pages is disappointing)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship