Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

27 reviews

cwbillings's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful reflective 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? No

5.0

I am absolutely floored by this book! Easily one of my new favorites. She weaves together inspiration and iconography from fairytales, ancient and modern, to create something wholly unique and beautiful! This story follows classic fairy tale formulas while at the same time offering something new and just as enchanting! I found myself often highlighting and denoting passages and phrases that really struck me because the author is masterful at explaining seemingly complex feelings and thoughts. Her writing is simply stunning. I definitely shed a tear over this one and laughed out loud through it too. It’s genuinely funny and touching. Highly recommend!
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a_bow's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This reads like a Grimm's fairy tale and feels more like a summary of an epic story. There is not a lot of world building or any real magic system. It's fast paced, fun, and allegorical. It had me thinking about how the patriarchy really hurts women from all facets of society. There is not a lot of character development and while I appreciated the main character being a 30 year old woman, I felt like she was very naive for a 30 year old. I felt like she did very little in her adventure and relied all on the other characters' skills. I would have loved if she took her feminine rage on a solo mission and just strike fear into people. Like she just snapped and you really see just how fed up she is with men who abuse power, with men who are bystanders to those abusing power and do nothing, and to women who internalize the mysingony and happily perpetuate it, and the women who don't like it but also dont do much to stand up to it until it personally affects them. I want to see her struggle with her faith to a religion that claims all are equal yet creates a caste system where powerful men are in charge and many times exaggerates/misinterprets the text to take even more power. I want to see a 30 year old woman who has seen it all/heard it all, who has had enough of the bullshit explode on everyone and everything. I want her to use her wits to steal, kill, seduce, threaten, barhain anyone to get her way. Overall I found it enjoyable I just would have loved more! It's like if Paris Paloma's.song Labour was turned to a book. 
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laurareads87's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Nettle & Bone is a fairytale-like fantasy novel following a young princess on a quest to save her sister from an abusive king. 

 There were some things I really liked about this. I appreciate a good unlikely ensemble cast, and I particularly liked the dynamic between the dust-witch and the godmother; I also really liked Bonedog and Finder of course. This was my first T. Kingfisher experience and I liked the writing style for the most part – I’d definitely try another of her works on the basis of this one. The world-building was compelling and I would’ve loved to learn more about the kingdoms and the surrounding territories. Without giving anything away, there are some interesting ethical ambiguities to the ending that I can appreciate. 

 There were also some aspects to this story that really didn’t work for me. The protagonist, and by extension the book itself, skewed YA (which isn’t how it’s marketed); Marra definitely didn’t read like a thirty year old, particularly not given the context. Some of the dialogue felt borderline patronizing (like I was being spoken to as a reader) and the humour really didn’t land for me (it just make the tone feel very inconsistent). Most of all, though, the bits of the book I found most interesting (the magic making Bonedog possible, the Blistered Lands, the dynamics between the Kingdoms) were skimmed over and the bits I found significantly less interesting were foregrounded (particularly the emerging romance which I think would’ve been better just left out). I liked the very beginning few chapters of the book better than the rest. 

Content warnings: sexism, intimate partner violence, physical abuse, violence, murder, death 
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alexiconic's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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

5.0

adventurous, fairytale-esque, mysterious, and decidedly dark and mysterious. its everything a fairy tale would be: magical, with odd creatures that go on a quest, in a kingdom far away. but it’s also an adult upgrade, with mature heroes who have their own worries and fears and who have to deal with them to reach their goals, with a dark start to the story and enough cruelty to make a realistic setting. 

reading this book was like escaping into a fairytale all over again. i deeply loved it. 
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cryptidenthusiast's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

I was so hooked on this book, I couldn’t put it down! Kingfisher did a fantastic job taking the stereotypes of a fairytale and twisting it on its head. Marra is the kind of main character you can’t help but love and pity all at once, and the ragtag group of friends are great. There’s a good balance between humor, macabre magic and imagery, and a heavy story about a woman’s role in a society that doesn’t care about them. 
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manaledi's review against another edition

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

3.5

This is remarkably cute and lightheaded for a necromancer fantasy. The world building is thin, but it gets away with it because the details of court politics are tangential. It's a story about family and unlikely misfits and never gets all that deep 
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h_s_bloom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

Personal Rating Scale Metrics
  • Characters: ✬✬✬✬✬
  • Plot: ✬✬✬✬✬ 
  • Pacing: ✬✬✬✬
  • Writing Style: ✬✬✬✬✬ 
  • Diversity: ✬✬✬

This was my first book of 2024 and it was such a great way to kick off the year!

Summary: Marra is the third daughter to a royal family within a comparatively small kingdom which controls a major harbor/trade route. When Marra's eldest sister, Damia, dies shortly after being married off to the prince in a powerful neighboring kingdom, the middle sister, Kania, is sent off to replace her thereby ensuring the safety of the smaller kingdom. Fearing the possibility of Kania failing to produce a male heir, Marra is sent to a nunnery for safe-keeping. Marra is content with life as a nun, busying herself with embroidery and other tasks perhaps not suited to a princess. Upon the birth of Kania's first child, a daughter, Marra learns the truth of Kania's predicament and vows to save her.

Marra is such a lovable and engaging character with such a fun voice and I appreciate that she is a bit older than your typical MC at 30 years old. She really is such a joy to follow along with throughout her adventures giving her honest and bemused commentary along the way. The author does a great job with balancing humor throughout the story despite the serious nature of Marra's quest (Spoiler :
Marra learns that the prince is subjecting Kania to psychological/physical/sexual abuse which only abates while Kania herself is pregnant. As such Kania endures several failed pregnancies which are taking their toll on her body. It is believed that the abuse will worsen once a male heir is produced and she is 'no longer needed'
). Marra is joined on her quest by a grumpy gravewitch and her demon-chicken familiar, a disgraced soldier previously kidnapped and enslaved by the fae, and her own fairy god mother who is not entirely who she presents herself to be.

This book is very much what it promises itself to be in that it is ripe with fairy tale vibes but in the brothers grimm kind of way. There are occasions in which the pacing just seems a little off in that some storylines read as side-quests for lack of a better term. There also it a bit of time-jumping in the beginning of the book which I don't really agree needed to be there. I think Kingfisher may have been trying to grab the readers with a dark and spooky intro where Marra is creating Bone Dog, but I honestly think I would have preferred this book be a bit more chronological. That being said, I was never bored! The writing style is incredibly atmospheric and engaging, I wanted to keep reading all the way up until the end!
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hailstorm3812's review against another edition

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

4.0

This is a delightful story with such a unique set of characters. I love that everyone was above the age of 30 and felt really real. They're all just kind of weirdos banded together with a mission which is my favorite genre. i also think it plays with fairy tale lore very well and i love the complicated sister relationship and of course Bonedog is amazing. It did make me cry.
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ad1t1s's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

3.25

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megsbookishadventures's review against another edition

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

4.25

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