Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

4 reviews

animalculum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Sexual content, Murder, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

Minor: War

halberdbooks's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Despite being less than four hours long, this took me ten days to listen to. "Queer retelling" meant something very different in the 1990s. Something much less palatable. Something much more powerful. It's dark. It's disturbing. It's phenomenal. Beautiful prose. Visceral horror. Difficult meditations on consent, sin and guilt. This is not a book to be read by just anyone. But those who it is meant for will find it a deeply rewarding experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Body horror

Moderate: Racism and Adult/minor relationship

perkyanda's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-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

1.5

It is truly impressive that a book with such a cool concept managed to be so thoroughly boring from beginning to end. I like a good character story but dear god, it’s repetitious ruminations for over 100 pages. The same general thought is repeated and reworded consistently throughout the book. I get that as a device it’s effective in demonstrating his obsession but damn is it boring to read about. 

Technically decent book, but good lord it was so so boring and neither fun nor enlightening, 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Homophobia, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Colonisation, Death, and Gaslighting

midgeyu's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, and Homophobia

Moderate: Body horror and Suicide

Minor: Pedophilia and Racism

Homophobia: The book deals pretty intensely with the narrators internalized homophobia--particularly around his sexual desire--and concerns about what would occur if people found out he is gay. In one scene, he confesses his desire for another man, and is refuted cruelly. A lot of repressed sexuality oozing from every page, especially in the first half. However,

the emotional climax of the book is the narrator realizing that his desire is not inherently sinful, and that he is not a monster for his desires

Death: This isn't really spoiler, but I'll spoiler tag it anyway for those who know nothing about Dracula

the entire cast dies, including the narrator

Hate crime:

We learn that the narrator's lover was outed and brutally killed by a mob; his body was also desecrated

Suicide:

A supporting character jumps overboard to his death rather than face Dracula

Body horror: I'm not entirely sure this is the appropriate tag for this, but a lot of the horror elements do have to do with the body in various ways. Maybe avoid if you are squeamish in this regard. Pedophilia: The narrator mentions briefly that as part of covering his gay desires, he chooses sex workers who are young and aren't as developed (more boyish looking than womanly.) An exact age is not mentioned, but one can inferred they are underaged. There is later a brief mention of how its not uncommon for young boys to stowaway on ships and become "cabin boys" who exchange sexual favors for their passage. Also, the narrator states that he was young for his first sexual encounter--age unclear. He pursues a man who is older than him, again age unclear. Racism: There is a some period-typical racism/xenophobia, particularly near the beginning when a group of foreign men bring the cargo aboard the ship.