Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

6 reviews

andrew_corduroy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was a challenging listen, as many fantasy books are with all of their names and places. But damn if I wasn’t just hooked and felt like I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Homophobia, Colonisation, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, and Outing

indeedithappens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

searobin's review against another edition

2.5

The book itself was ok, aside from the plot...

I did not love the queer indigenous woman suppresses her sexuality and aids the colonisers to fully colonise another nation in order to somehow maybe save her own nation eventually story line

I got a bit lost in all the dukes and dutcheses and territories, so some moments were probably less poignant than they were supposed to be, but I got the gist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Animal death, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I was a little skeptical about this book because I keep seeing it recommended alongside other books I didn't like very much, and the 'take an empire down from the inside' storyline can often be kind of cheesy. I'm glad I gave the book a chance (even though it hurt me severely) - this was a tragic story with fascinating characters that never lets you forget for a second the cost of empire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, Death, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Torture, Xenophobia, Animal death, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Vomit, Child death, Pedophilia, Ableism, Addiction, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

jjjreads's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Abandonment, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Acephobia/Arophobia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, War, Mental illness, Alcohol, Transphobia, Colonisation, Misogyny, Outing, Deportation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

plushmaya's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

My problem with this book is a problem endemic among war books: it loses itself to the story beats the author wants to hit while neglecting to meaningfully engage with its themes. This pattern is particularly disappointing in Baru Cormorant, a book that sets up ostensibly complex ideas of colonization, identity, eugenics, and power but refuses to spend much time with them. Dickinson has set up an interesting concept— a woman injured by empire deciding to become its agent— but fails to reach a meaningful conclusion. A war starts. It doesn't mean much. Characters are numerous and opaque, including Baru herself, and they die frequently, swiftly, and without much fanfare. This style of killing players off could be effective and meaningful, given the war narrative, but for all but a few cases, we aren't given enough information to care. Dickinson decides to set up mystery by revealing nothing to readers. The final twist feels especially lackluster: without enough information to know what's coming and dread it, it has none of the emotional payoff it was presumably intended to have.

This isn't to say I hate the book completely; the prose is fine and some characters are eyecatching. Tain Hu was clearly meant to be one of the more interesting characters and it works, although she remains a bit bland from Baru's perspective. Purity Cartone is probably the most fascinating character in the book, despite possessing a small part, because Dickinson follows through on what he sets up in ways that both provide a satisfying conclusion and further questions that tie in to broader ideas about both Falcrest and imperialism.

This book would be good for those who enjoyed R. F. Kuang's The Poppy War (I didn't), but best skipped by those who prefer war stories like Samantha Shannon's Priory of the Orange Tree. Maybe the sequels are better; I'm not left interested enough to read them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Drug use

Eugenics discussed throughout, and some characters explicitly describe their eugenicist goals.