Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott

5 reviews

aceofknives's review

adventurous emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Colonisation, Medical content, Alcohol, Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Child abuse

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Sexism

readiac1999's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I almost passed this book over given the other reviews but I'm so glad I didn't! I can understand the frustration with the writing given that it was at times a bit vague but based on the approach that the book is trying to take of creating a plausible narrative for an uncovered artifact it's remarkably told. Her acknowledgements show she was clearly wedded to telling an approximately accurate story. The vagueness, I think is Stott not wanting to veer too far away from the little that is known about this period. A remarkable work of critical fabulation about a period that I would not have otherwise cared to read about! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

angryglitterwitch's review

dark informative mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

The writing wasn't great but it was very readable and enjoyable - I finished it in one day. I wish the background characters had been as fleshed out as Isla, even Blue seemed a bit underdeveloped. It was thoroughly researched and I enjoyed the threads of reuse/blending of the physical environment and mythology by the characters. The hook was great, it was just a bit lacking in realisation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Animal death, Slavery, and Sexual violence

ruthmoog's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

4.0

The research that went into this book is amazing, and it's well worth a read just to land yourself in a time and place in history that isn't often described.
I loved exploring the Roman ruins of London, and I had been thinking about what happened to them after playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla so it was a treat to explore them with the characters.

The key women of the book are badass, their journey is difficult as they forge forward with their taboo abilities, all the while caught between their tradition and the cultures they live in, and a fear of ghosts - and enemies.

The story didn't pull me in as much as the history did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

Drowning/Water injury

golem's review

5.0

So intense and so good. Wonderful as an audiobook--thrilling and tense and satisfying. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much had I not listened to it. I very much appreciate the low-key queer (f/f) and even lower-key m/f romances and the possibly non-binary soothsayer, as well as the Black representation and many mentions of African heritage in Roman/post-Roman Britain.

I found the ending

too abrupt--what happened to all of Vort's other men??--and also I wasn't keen on the didactic zoom-out relating the book to all of women's history in Britain.

I didn't like this book because I think that British women are unmemorialized or neglected by scholarship, an authorial point of view that will annoy many of us whose ancestors did not colonize the whole world, steal its tombs and papers, and teach it British history. As a book about a very particular historical mystery--how did that Saxon brooch get into the Roman ruins of Londinium? How did misfits, migrants, and queer people survive in post-Roman Britain?--it is magnificent. It is also a fantastic story about trauma, ghosts, and love and survival in ruins. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual violence