Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Le temps des sorcières by Alix E. Harrow

9 reviews

ali_k0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

The Once & Future Witches reports to follow three sisters bringing back the age of Witching. However, it's better told to be about a movement of women across the world who held onto the words and the ways so that those with the will could fight there way through life back to a time when they had power.

In the ashes of Old Salem is New Salem, a city free from witches and where every street is named after a saint, and hidden in those streets are women who have held on to the dying dregs of witchcraft by weaving it into their quilts and whispering it in each other's ears. All dream of a time where they have more then penny pinching and abusive husbands, but with the exception of low level house magic there is little left for them to use.

But the sufferage movement has women organizing, talking out of shadows, and the winds have blown three sisters back into the city. The sisters alone won't be enough to bring back the Lost Way, but with their new sisters (and romances) they'll find the way.

This book is for every spitfire with a habit for finding trouble, girls who draw their circles large enough for only themselves, anyone whose ever dreamed of being a magic librarian (I know I'm not the only one) or anyone looking for a story about organizing, finding a way when there's a will, and the power of intersectional allyship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Genocide, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, and Alcoholism

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Abortion, Abandonment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Classism, Colonisation, Torture, Animal death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Stalking, Suicide, Transphobia, Vomit, Sexual content, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Grief, Self harm, War, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

jnl0's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Excrement, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Racism, and Sexual harassment

eleanora's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, and Racism

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Ableism, Abortion, Alcoholism, Genocide, Murder, Excrement, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Racism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Animal death, and Hate crime

Minor: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Slavery, Deadnaming, Classism, and Colonisation

sneakysnam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Abortion, Child abuse, Misogyny, Colonisation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, and Grief

laisai's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Child abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Lesbophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Abortion, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

smoothgoat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Racism, and Torture

Minor: Abortion, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Miscarriage, Slavery, Transphobia, Ableism, Addiction, Blood, Colonisation, Infidelity, Outing, Rape, and Sexual content

blynecessity's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Was anyone expecting an alternate history about witches living in 1800's New England to heavily feature class conflict, women's suffrage, queer characters, sex workers, survivors of domestic violence, racial segregation, interracial relationships, single-motherhood, and civil unrest?? Because I was expecting something much more drab and "Blair Witch Project" when I picked up this book, and boooy am I glad I was wrong! 

I have a disclaimer I need to include here: I only spent 7 hours and 38 minutes on the audiobook, rather than the week or two that I would have if I'd read the 530 pages of the work. I think the pace of the book was pretty slow, even listening to it at 2.25 speed, so I imagine I would have had a much harder time staying immersed in the story if it'd taken me more than a weekend to finish. 

Anyway! I really, really enjoyed the story and the diversity of the characters. As is often the case when someone throws me a bone and has a some well-developed characters that aren't white, cishetallo, rich men in the story, I was left wanting a little more diversity (more on that later), but that's me seeing someone doing a good job and just being hungry for more!

This story is very much a family saga, with all of the strengths and only a couple of the weaknesses (like the slowish pace I already mentioned). It's also a really strong drama, and one of the best examples of an epic I can think of! (I looked it up, and this is def an epic, since

1. the story centers on a hero or heroes who complete something others have only attempted; 2. the story involves superhuman feats as a main plot point; 3. the story has a setting that spans across space and time / worlds; 4. the story involves otherworldly forces, like magic; and 5. the story has highly stylized writing

.)  

As I mentioned above, I came into this story expecting the 1800s New England witches to be a story about primarily white, cisgender, heterosexual, alloromantic women and girls, and what I got was so much more! However... I did have a couple critiques. They don't really take away from the 5 stars, since this story already has so much more diversity than I expected of the genre and setting, but just wanted to include those critiques here:

• I was expecting more immigrants in the story. I'm not suggesting I didn't love seeing all the things the author managed to highlight in the story, from unions to trans characters, buuut I'm about 90% sure there were more immigrants mentioned in the story than just that one woman and her six daughters, but I don't think we were even told where she was from? I guess we just didn't have a lot of speaking-time from any of the immigrants. Kind of a bummer.
• Mentions are made of Native American women and of the US's violence, colonialism, and aggression with some tribes in "the West", but aside from that one shaman who laughed when she gets sprung from jail (who may have been South American, now that I think about it), we don't hear from any indigenous women at all in the story.
• This is 100% better than any of the terms that starts with an "N", but the word "coloreds" was used a lot. Don't think I've seen a slavery-era / Reconstruction-era novel that does a job of this I super love, but it was hard not to notice.
• Speaking of term-choices, I'm pretty sure all the sex workers are exclusively called "whores", and even the bashful / polite sister doesn't call them "prostitutes" or "working ladies" or something like that. It may just be me projecting how I feel about the word, but I was just surprised because it's the only term I remember being used when there are other options... Maybe an attempt at a reclaiming the word? Or just using the term in its strictest dictionary definition?
• This last one is just because I've heard of how tangled the history of witch-persecution was irl with the history of widespread antisemitism in the US, but I was surprised there was no Jewish representation in the story. Especially because the story did such a good job of showing that magic wasn't evil and neither were witches, that magic was just what desperate women have needed to survive in a world that hates and fears women. Sooo since a lot of the propaganda around the evilness of witchery in our own world and history has been deeply antisemitic, I guess I kept waiting for the angry Jewish girl or the strong rabbi's wife to show up and also be depicted as a human and good and not any more evil than the pretty White women in the story. But this one is a pretty weak complaint, more just a character I wish had been in this story, since the author is showing us all a more human and misunderstood side of witches.

Oh, and the poetry! The nursery rhymes! The stories! I loved these so much. Every chapter was made about 30 times better with these little additions. Such a fun way to slip in some storybuilding!

Postscript:  

To Any who have a Physical Copy of this Book, 

Is there a secret message on the cover?????? Please advise, cannot find confirmation online and a drop of my blood on the screen did not reveal any messages.

Sincerely, 
A Person much interested in the Answer

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion and Colonisation