Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

33 reviews

th18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Heres a few points I noted down whilst reading:

• Fast pace and seemed more YA than anything, too many modern references for me personally but each to their own. 
•  This also felt like the second book of the series at the start there was just so much unexplained things thrown in.
•  Whilst the book did deal with modern topics such as race and trans rights, I wish it also talked a bit about harmful beauty standards due to Elle literally hiding her true self from her husband. 
•  I feel like the amount of swear words was also unnneeded.
•  I love the idea of queer witches and empowered modern women but I feel like the talk about adulthood was very bleak
•  The writing and worldbuilding also felt quite underdeveloped which was disappointing 
•  Finally the use of the d slur was completely unneeded

 Although I've only mentioned the negatives, I did have an okay time reading this and it was quite engaging but it could definitely have been better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Death, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Classism, Cursing, Car accident, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Transphobia, Child abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Racism, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Outing, Kidnapping, Self harm, Infidelity, and Abortion

miniingrid's review against another edition

adventurous 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

Tiene puntos interesantes y que son necesarios visibilizar. Pero ha intentado acaparar tanto que la mayoría se quedan en poco más que una mención.
La historia es un cliché detrás de otro, y quiero creer que el dumping superficial de la diversidad en los personajes de debe a que es la primera novela de la serie. Quizás sea el tono, que me parece muy básico y simple.
En general me gustan las novelas de fantasía/ciencia ficción que tratan temas importantes y duros, pero sin perder ese punto de desconexión con la realidad que te permite evadirte aunque solo sea un poco. Aquí se recrea tanto en la transfobia sin aportar una réplica al mismo nivel, que me parece una oportunidad perdida y un simple (pero perfectamente comprensible) desahogo. Y me ha dejado con la sensación de estar leyendo a las terfas de Twitter más que una novela de fantasía.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Violence, Animal death, Infidelity, Outing, Blood, Grief, Hate crime, and Kidnapping

Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cursing, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Outing, Child abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Animal death, Classism, Grief, Car accident, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

jessicasophie's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Hate crime, Outing, War, and Transphobia

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

hello first five star read for this book. nothing makes me love a book faster than a magical world that also deals with bs like racism (or in the case of this book racism AND transphobia). loved how it was dealt with, i really liked most of the characters and i absolutely did not see some of the plot twists, need the next books now

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death, Hate crime, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation

blueberries's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This author uses trans people for entertainment value & gives TERFs equal time to talk in this book. The constant misgendering is a reason to avoid it: it's painful to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Confinement, Murder, Outing, Racism, Child abuse, Hate crime, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

jaji's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I think I mostly enjoyed this book. There were a few things holding it back from being a great book for me.

I loved that we had middle aged women protagonists - something not often seen in Urban Fantasy or fantasy generally. I don't love how they seemed more like charcitures.

I also appreciated the attempt at intersectionality, although I think the racism discussions were a little ham fisted.

It was all over the shop with pacing and its because theres a lots of unnecessary scenes. So much so I had to stop reading for a bit and switch to something a little more cohesive. That makes the beginning and middle very choppy until everything takes off in the last third. It did really hook me once it got going but because that didn't happen until the last third is really why it's 3 stars.

The other thing that stopped me from really getting into it was a bit of a culture clash. I felt for the longest time that the villain was almost cartoonishly evil, that everything was seriously over the top (like the kidnapping attempt).

However, I failed to realise just how entrenched and visible the TERF politics are in Britain (I'm not from the UK). Perhaps if I were British this wouldn't seem that extreme or over the top? Once I had the context I felt the villian made more sense. So no stars off for that but it did impact how much I enjoyed the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Misogyny, War, Violence, and Hate crime

keya_caivalur's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Hate crime, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Murder, Torture, Outing, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Bullying, Outing, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Grief

morganpearcy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

I mostly enjoyed this book. It was really refreshing to have a Trans protagonist - and a young one, at that - and to explore through fiction some of the Trans experience. If you like fantasy, witches, magical realism with a strong feminist flare, this is a solid choice. 

I would like to point out that any time a character is living at an intersection of multiple marginalized identities, I typically check to see if the author has any lived experience part-way through the book. Especially if something feels off or the character seems to be 1 dimensional. 

The Trans protagonist

Theo

was dynamic, flawed, loveable, relatable and believable. Juno is a Trans woman. That explains it and really made me happy. 

Leonie, the Black, Lesbian witch, is not so dynamic or believable. The character felt off to me:  flat and like a conglomeration of regurgitated Black women’s labor from Abolitionist spaces. The way she related to her white childhood friends and her partner felt really wobbly. I could tell the author was writing from a not-lesbian, white lens. Sure enough, Juno is white. This did not sit right with me and was a source of irritation and eye rolling throughout the book.

There’s a lot to like here. The racial overstepping is a pain point. I am undecided about reading the next in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Racism and War

White writers attempting to write Black and other characters of color should be added as a trigger warning here.

breezer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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: Transphobia, Hate crime, and Fire/Fire injury