Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Ministry of Time

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

76 reviews

clothildev's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The premise was interesting and I enjoyed the first half of the book, but kinda lost interest once the romance started, I found it cringe tbh for some reason

I will say that I didn't see that plot twist coming, but the ending was messy and it got annoying that the narrator was feeling sorry for herself for so long 🤷‍♀️

Also didn't care for the chapters about Gore, so ended up skipping them every time, sorry not sorry!

Content Warnings

alexjamiestaples's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

jmetzler125's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I had complicated feelings about this book. The first 2/3 of the book felt like a total slog, and I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters during that time. But it picked up in the final third and managed to tie together all of the pieces that it had spent the first part setting up, even if the ending was a bit confusing.

I also found the sexualization of and obsession with a real person from history (especially one who seemed like just a normal guy, rather than a public figure) to be a bit icky, along with the power imbalance in the relationship in the book. However, I think the book actually grapples with this in some ways.

For a while, I couldn't decide if I liked this book or not, but ultimately it's a fun time travel romance that also explores identity and somehow makes all of that work together. I do feel like it could be polished a little bit more though.

Content Warnings

kastrel's review against another edition

4.5

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

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I chose this book for a book club, and I was very excited to read it after a friend's recommendations. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting - overall it felt more like a romance in a scifi setting, rather than a scifi book with a romance. But that isn't a complaint! The dialogue was really pithy and funny, I often almost laughed out loud, and I grew to love the characters very deeply. There was more sex than I was expecting as well!

There was a lot of quite revealing and thought provoking discussion of British racism, microaggressions, the immigrant experience, multi-generational trauma, handling conflicting opinions, etc. This isn't a light read, it's got its hard-hitting moments and it kept me guessing. There were a few twists, a couple of which I got shortly before the reveal (very satisfying, the perfect time to get them in my opinion).

The very near future setting allowed some grimly accurate predictions of the climate disaster, which were not much fun! And the modern main action is interspersed with sort of flashbacks to the events of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus (google them if you don't know). I knew I would find these very unpleasant, because they really push my buttons on the sort of stuff I don't like, but even so, I thought they were really shocking and once I'd finished the book I felt like the unpleasantness hadn't really had a pay off? They were quite at odds with the rest of it and I'm not really sure why they were included in the way they were. I also thought the ending was quite rushed/confusing/unclear, unfortunately. It didn't quite stick the landing. But overall, it was a really gripping, funny, clever, thought-provoking read, and I'm fascinated to see what she does next.

Audiobook notes: the main action is read by Katie Leung, who I've heard before and absolutely love. The HMS Terror bits are read by George Weightman, who I've not come across before but honestly I could listen to him read the phone book, he's delightful. I didn't listen to all that much of the audiobook because I was too impatient to read it, but the bits I tried sounded great, I would recommend.

Content Warnings

larareads's review against another edition

4.75

emotional hopeful sad 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

Content Warnings

addr_07's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

scripturient's review against another edition

3.75

dark informative mysterious 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: Complicated

I think this book suffers from its own synopsis which makes it sound very scifi-mystery. It is weak on the science fiction of it all, no explanation for the time travel or even how it came to be, no proper explanation on the "project", but it is strong on the history, which I enjoyed. The main character stayed a bit too far out of reach for my liking, unnamed, undefined, but the expats were engaging and interesting and I wasn't bored for a second. The ending felt a bit rushed after the big finale,

but I was glad to at least get a glimpse of a resolved-ish ending, I would have not enjoyed being left hanging in the aftermath of whatever happened with the Ministry.

It did somewhat take away from the social/post-colonial commentary a little however, that ultimately, the focus was shifted so much to the romance rather than what was going on in the world at a larger scale.

Content Warnings

allisonpicksbooks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

Prompt 48 - a book that features a married couple who don't live together - March 25, 2025 - I love a good time travel tale and this one is no exception. The story is unique, told from the point of view of a "bridge", a person employed by the government to help time travellers adjust to our timeline. It has intrigue, romance and adventure. I feel like this book is going to stick with me for a long time.

Content Warnings