Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

45 reviews

italapas's review

adventurous hopeful medium-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

4.5

This is a nominee for the 2024 Hugo Award and I can see why. It's very engaging and enjoyable to read. The main protagonist's character arc starting in what is basically a cult, coming out of that and learning to be a member of the wider interstellar society is excellent.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Racism, Xenophobia, War, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

This does refer to forced pregnancy and implied infanticide. It's not a large part of the book, but is definitely there.

elee2013's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was fantastic and Kyr goes on the most dramatic character journey of all time 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

Moderate: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

Phobia towards genderqueer/nongendered people

avacadosocks's review

adventurous dark tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Death, Sexism, and Transphobia

Minor: Genocide, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

brekaboujie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was SO GOOD. Another point to add to my mental list of "why do I bother reading sci fi by men, women do it so much better". This is a great combination of flawed and interesting characters, extreme high stakes, wonderful twists and turns, great pacing, and a really clear idea from the author of what they wanted to get out of this story. The whole premise of Gaea and our introduction to a terribly biased narrator was brilliant. I had such a sinking feeling through the beginning of the book and going on that journey of discovery with the main character was GREAT, it was so tense and emotional and interesting. 

It was also super immersive - I was completely sucked into this world and every scene and section felt necessary and useful to the plot (seems a low bar but honestly such a relief after my recent reads which were not like that at all), and I loved how everything kept falling into place perfectly set up from the previous scenes and knowledge I'd been given. 

Also the end !!!!!!!!!! Heck yeah. Solid ending. Love a good ending. 

Final point - it's quite an intense book, and the version I read had content warnings at the beginning which was cool. I will say that everything was done really sensitively and well - very little explicit showing of the nasty content warnings, much more themed and just general knowledge of things Just Being Like That. It did remind me a bit of The Handmaid's Tale thematically, but imagine that's a side plot and it's not quite as bad and also they're in space and have guns. So nothing like it really. But regardless, there was a point towards the end of this bookwhere in my mind I literally went WOMEN YES WOMEN THE CONNECTION OF UNIVERSAL SUFFERING !!!!! So enjoy that moment if you read this. Great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, War, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, and Genocide

Minor: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Abortion, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

A lot of heavy themes but all dealt with sensitively! There is one scene where somone

shoots themselves in the head in front of the main character. This is sudden, and there is a description after of the image of the death. However, they move on quite quickly in the book and (bigger spoiler here on the actual plot) that person doesn't stay dead.

The rape tag is not explicit, people just talk about how that probably was what happened to someone in the past, and it goes hand in hand with the pregnancy tag, which the author calls "forced pregnancy" in their content warnings. This again isn't explicit, it just is accepted as normal in their society and only questioned fully towards the middle and end.

stardust_heidi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is SO GOOD. It took me a while to read, only because I’m reading a gazillion other things at the same time. But I think reading this in smaller bites was the best way to do it. The themes in this book are so relevant to the current times and political shit show. 

Kyr isn’t necessarily the most likable character, a fact she is confronted with many times throughout the book, but I found her character arc super compelling. I think the roller coaster of an arc she experiences is very relatable to someone stepping outside of this regimented, propaganda-filled upbringing; to find that the universe is nothing like she’d been taught it is…it’s a hard pill to swallow. To see her xenophobia morph into acknowledgment of personhood; to see the injustices endured by her fellow women, to learn what it is to love and care about individuals outside her circle — honestly, I found it such a fantastic journey.

It’s not pretty. It’s painful, ugly, and dark along the way to destroying this patriarchal shitshow. But I think the author did a great job and inserting these slivers of optimism and drive in order to make the world better for others. 

I was engaged the whole book. It took me on some twists I wasn’t expecting, though I admit I’m usually easy to please lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

charleyyyyy's review against another edition

5.0

🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵

💫🌟✨️This book made me forget that  I was reading✨️🌟💫

👽This book is soooo good and sooo enjoyable!! I never wanted to put it down and was always excited to pick it back up.
The plot is fast, twisty and action packed. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. At some points I was even yelling at the book because of all the emotions it made me feel.
 
🚀The themes were written and explored so well!! Especially those of radicalisation, reproductive rights, colonialism, and queerness. And how the society you are apart of can effect your view on all of the above, and your own place in the world.

🗡And the charicters were incredibly well developed and written!! I love Kyr, she's so flawed and unlikeable and well writen. She is such a great and interesting main charicter. Yiso and Clio are my other favourite charicters, of course. Yiso's friendship with Kyr was so sweet!

🌍The worldbuilding was interesting, I'm new to sci-fi but I didn't struggle at all with it. This world is the perfect setting to explore these themes in.

🪐The writing sometimes got on my nerves, some times there was too much telling instead of showing, such as :"'with the old one gone, that technology is-' he closed his fist, like crushing something out of existence." Or: "'wow, how deep.' Avi said with heavy sarcasm." The telling is unnecessary in these sentences, we can figure it out on our own.
Or sentences like this:  "Ursa would have told her to be less judgmental, but Ursa's opinion had stopped mattering when Ursa left." How many times do you need to say Ursa?????

💫But overall, the writing didn't take away too much enjoyment for me. So while this book has flaws, I still gave it 5 stars because of how much it emotionally impacted me, and how good the story telling was.

🌌I would definitely recommend this book if you like action packed sci-fi with a focus on important, heavy themes, and flawed main charicters.

🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Homophobia, Misogyny, Gun violence, Racism, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, War, Xenophobia, and Pedophilia

exaal's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"Some Desperate Glory" is an exciting tale with many twists and turns. Taking a page out of Ender's Game, this book explores the morality behind warfare, the conscription of child soldiers, xenophobia, and the fate of the human race. With LGBTQ+ undertones, the main character, Kyr, goes through drastic changes in character in this story that spans time and space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Xenophobia

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual harassment, Grief, Death of parent, Child death, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Pedophilia

Minor: Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, and Physical abuse

eyesofcrows's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A pretty good book. I liked a lot of the themes and the slow progression of “frick, I’m the bad guy” that isn’t all together rushed. There were some surprising things and twists that I wasn’t expecting and I actually enjoyed. I wished there was more detail of some of the cultures and surroundings and minute little things, but this is a YA book and I’ll allow it its brevity. 

I like how most characters aren’t individual bad or individually good but victims of the cruelty and surroundings they were born with or raised in. That’s vey cool.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring slow-paced

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

3.75

 

Context:

I borrowed Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh from my library through the Libby App.

 

Review:

Just to get it out of the way: Some Desperate Glory is billed as a “queer space opera,” but that’s not really what this book is. So, if that’s why you picked up the book, you might want to adjust your expectations. In fact, I would recommend letting go of a lot of expectations even as you start the book because the plot takes a giant left turn at around the 30% mark.

 

That being said, there is a lot about this book that impressed me. Tesh writes the main character, Kyr, as despicable and deeply unlikable at the beginning, but manages to give her a convincing character arc throughout the story. The side characters, too, are well-written and fascinating. The overall plot hooked me, and I found the ending section to be riveting. 

 

One of the biggest issues I have with Some Desperate Glory is the worldbuilding technological mechanism that allows the plot and character development to occur: it’s baffling—nonsensical, even. The more I try to think about how and why such technology might work, the more my brain hurts. The author even admits that it’s nonsensical in the book’s acknowledgments! Furthermore, Tesh uses this fantastical “technology” to create an unnecessary deus ex machina ending. If I didn’t like the core storyline and the characters so much, this flaw would have ruined the book for me.

 

In terms of the thematic elements of the book, I liked that the book used its (quite dark and disturbing) dystopian elements to condemn fascism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. There are a few missteps here and there—

for example, I found it impossible to root for a character, who, in a slightly different timeline, casually committed mass genocide of trillions of people

—and some lack of nuance as Tesh focuses on developing the story and characters. However, I couldn’t help but cheer on Kyr as she grows as a person and fights to save the world and the people she cares about.

 

The Run-Down: 

You will probably like Some Desperate Glory if . . . 

·      You want to read a story with flawed, complex characters

·      You like time travel/multiverse fiction

·      You want a gripping sci-fi story that keeps you on the edge of your seat 

 

You might not like Some Desperate Glory if . . .

·      You are sensitive to the triggers listed at the beginning of the book—seriously, things get dark!

·      You don’t want to read from the perspective of someone who is truly a garbage human being (at least to start)

·      You want to read about a lesbian romance (there is little to no romance in this book)

·      You hate when science fiction worldbuilding makes no sense

 

A Similar Book: 

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Similarities include:

·      A young, genetically engineered protagonist who is trained and groomed to fight in a war between humans and aliens

·      Discussions surrounding genetic engineering/eugenics, military propaganda, and genocide

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Ableism, War, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Genocide, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Pregnancy, and Rape

milliemudd's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, War, Child abuse, and Genocide

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Bullying, Racism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Abortion and Misogyny