Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon

23 reviews

melitta's review

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Consent between the two was too dubious for me. It was basically rape, but the author twisted the characters to make it seem not so bad.

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singingshooter's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0


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charhollyx's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing 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

4.5

I really liked the first but I enjoyed this one a lot more. Quality humour and funny one liners with a light hearted, shockingly interesting plot - great read

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yaoipaddle's review

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

2.0

This series is sci-fi horror and I love dissecting it.
I listened to the audiobook version which I highly recommend.

Barbarian Alien specific review:
The characterization for Liz is all over the place. She was likeable as a headstrong but supportive person in the first book. In the second book she veers from whiny, "not like other girls", love obsessed, rude and vindictive.... she's all over the place. I'm most upset at her characterization because I liked her so much in the first book. Hell even Georgie is barely tolerable in this one. Liz is also so disrespectful to the aliens in this one and it yet again reeks of weird racism.
The sex in this one was better than the sex in the first book.

Liz Quotes:
"There is no ownership. You are mine and I am yours." What the hell.
"As we check the traps, I mentally think of ways I can sexually torture my alien." mentally think???
"If I'm going to be fucking miserable, I'm going to take them all with me." this was moments after she said she was going to fake being happy so as not to drag down her other friends.
"Totally weird, but I'm into the hair pulling." You are being double-penetrated by a 7ft tall alien.

None of that matters. Ice Planet Barbarian is a horror series review.
People can argue day in and day out about the romance or relationships in this book, but it's useless. They are all victims of the parasite inside of them.

They admit they have no say in the matter of their mate, but they have no say in anything. The parasite controls every aspect of their lives. Not only does it choose their mate based on who will procreate best, but it fucks with their brains. The parasite changes Liz just like everyone else. She can no longer eat cooked meat. Instead it changes her to only enjoy raw meat. It makes food you enjoyed your entire life taste... like nothing because it wants to change you to enjoy eating raw food. (How very like a parasite that lived in a creatures heart before moving onto humans. Remember how the aliens always talk about how the heart is the yummiest part of the kill?)

Liz asks Raakosh if the other tribe will like her. He says they will accept her simply because she is his mate. The parasite rules them all. All it cares about is growing its numbers. Spreading to more and more people. They do not even choose their community. Who they spend time around. They are lucky the parasite doesn't make them rip each others heads off after they can no longer bear young.

I cannot blame any creature in their book for their actions as much as I can blame those bugs that jump to their death in water so the worm growing inside them can escape to mate.

These books are more fun to read if you stick with it for the horror of seeing how their lives are all controlled by a weirdo worm.

also liz seems like shed be racist to someone who didnt speak english well.

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hannibanani29's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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emilycruz1016's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

5.0


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rensreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

i wanted to like this book. it had a strong beginning but i truly could not push past the stockholm syndrome shit going on. it was even worse than in the first book. liz rags on georgie’s relationship a lot without taking a closer look at her own and that irritated me so much because she’s such a strong and stubborn character. but she isn’t perfect and she fell for the dark, tall, and brooding man with the tragic past and parental issues that kidnapped her after she had just escaped another set of kidnappers. way to really stick to your own independence there, liz.

i did like that she mentioned all the shitty and unexplained things the sa-khui are keeping from the humans, unknowingly or not. especially this line: “I thought we were supposed to be equals but maybe the goal is to keep us all barefoot and pregnant and sewing.” bc that is essentially what the sa-khui are doing. she’s aware enough to stir up dissent but not self-aware enough to look at her own relationship and see that its toxic and unhealthy. raahosh is a very shy guy when you get down to it but we can’t just write off the fact that he forced their relationship on liz by shoving the khui into her when she was unwilling. whatever happened to people’s right to die on their own terms? mates a big thing in this universe dixon created, obviously, but they’re also the cause for a lot of dubious consent and plain, unforgiving non consensual sexual assaults too.

again, just more violence against women.

dixon’s writing is also very inconsistent and juvenile too. liz knows the name of the sa-khui’s language without ever being told it by georgie. raahosh acts like the concept of love is normal in their culture and then mentions later that its a big deal to liz without ever mentioning who he learned that from since it wasn’t from vektal or liz, the two most likely to explain that to him. in the epilogue raahosh turns from this mine-mine-mine possessive dude to oh-my-god-what-if-she-hates-my-guts kind of dude and the shift in his character was drastic enough to really catch me off-guard. there was so much being waved away and then explained later but, in the process, it made the first instance all the more confusing since you’re left wondering how characters even know that information.

the spice was alright. it was the only reason i finished this but i wont be continuing with this series any longer and will probably unhaul the copies i got too.

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now_booking's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I definitely see why this series is popular. I enjoyed sharp-tongued, super confident and capable Liz’s relationship with gruff, silent, bad-tempered Raahosh and thought it was a great match. The premise is that Raahosh resonates with Liz but feels doubtful that he will be able to win her over in a tribe when he’s always been a second class citizen so he kidnaps her to improve his chances. But Liz is not anyone’s kidnap victim and she shows him that winning her over won’t be as easy as that. I loved their clash and compatibility in personalities. There is some sexist-adjacent, dubious consent sort of does-no-mean-yes stuff going on in this, so beware if you might be at all sensitive to that kind of content, but Liz is never shy to set Raahosh or really any man straight on any foolish perceptions they may have about women.

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a_libra_library's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

Book one was pure smut but book two gives a little more plot and world building... plus smut. I actually love this kind of sci-fi romance. 

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kbairbooks's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So. *sigh* It’s weird because in book one Liz did not come across as sarcastic and angry and just kinda awful… But she totally did in this book as well as in the first novella/short story. But it was really interesting seeing the differences in the characters and the romance and I’m still gonna keep reading of course but book 2 was just so different from the book one in an unfortunate way I’m really glad book 2 was not book one because then I probably wouldn’t have continued on with the series as always sex was fun and I’m excited to read book 3.

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