Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Fifth Season

A bit of a ramble about why I loved this book. It was pretty much perfect and I don't think I can write a thorough review that does it justice.

The most original sci-fi/fantasy I've read. Great prose. The second person narrative was weird at first, but it's really beautiful and switched between that and third person. The themes are dark and handled with finesse. The representation is thorough, authentic, and intertwined seamlessly into the story. The characters are all complex and interesting. The society and political structure of the Stillness is as well. Just a perfect book.

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anniehayez's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

I really can’t put my thoughts into words other than to say this is a perfect book. I think this is the most unique, intricate, heartbreaking and awe inspiring story I’ve ever read. A true masterpiece. (Please see content warnings)

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rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense

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? It's complicated

5.0

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stephkitten's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

Took at bit at the beginning to grab my attention, and definitely took a little while for me to kind of get my footing and become interested in figuring out WTF was going on, but once it did, I'm in. A different style of storytelling than I'm used to, but I appreciated how the multiple narratives slowly came together into an AH-HA moment. Definitely deals with some very dark topics. I now want to read the whole series to find out what is going on and how it resolves. So many unresolved mysteries.

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glitterdeww's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Knowing how much praise it's garnered since it's debut, I have felt intimidated by The Fifth Season for years now. I am INCREDIBLY glad that I finally read it! What this book accomplishes is outstanding. The commentary on life and death, ages ending and beginning - Resurrection, and what that looks like from the smallest of instances to the grandest of scale - is truly and utterly brilliant. She portrays a world of classism and racism that is EQUALLY fantastic and believable that will gut you in it's heartbreaking reality.

Beyond Jemisin's incredible world and character development (which, if you know you know, omg! Lol) I found the structure of the story, from first page to last, to be remarkable. I'm fairly certain that if I was not told how well done this book was, I may not have dug into every scene to the extent that I did upon first go through. But goddamnit lol I cannot get over the level of precision in her story structure. The breadcrumbs she leaves... The explanation and then LACK of explanation to guide the reader into drawing those conclusions... The crafting is perfection.

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ches2496's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad medium-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

4.0

The good:
The world building was intricate and well thought-out, and the mysteries kept me reading and wanting to find out what happened. It’s also why I will continue the series!

The bad:
I wasn’t a huge fan of the second person used for certain perspectives, but I could work with it.

Trigger warnings explanation:
This book was pretty dark. Although the violence wasn’t graphically depicted, generally, there was a lot of violence against children. Which made sense for the plot, but was also difficult to read. There was quite a bit of sexual content, although usually not graphically described. Things like the breeding of humans made sense for the plot. It was referred to, but not described graphically. There was at least one moderately graphic scene involving a three-way. There were also two brief references made to sexual violence against children.

Conclusion:
Overall, it was an interesting, albeit dark fantasy with unique world-building and an intricate plot!

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ctara2123's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

This book punched me straight in the face.

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faithaforman's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Excellent storytelling with dark moments that will take your breath away.

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