Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

19 reviews

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

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this book on a friend’s recommendation and honestly bless her, because it was phenomenal. It’s the kind of story where I had no idea what was going to happen next, and I mean that in the best possible way. Every time I would be like “ah, it’s this trope”, and then pages later Tesh would flip everything on its head. I was sooooo invested and truly hooked by this fresh, original approach.

The plot was not the only mind-blowing thing about the book. It was also packed with existentialism, posing questions such as: what choices in the past lead us to our current reality? Are there certain outcomes which are inevitable in every reality? Who gets to decide what is for the “greater good” - who gets to even DEFINE the “greater good”? I love when books pose these ethical and philosophical questions and then the whole narrative is an exploration of them. Some may be answered, some may be left open, ultimately beyond the scope of the story to answer. But in every case the reader is challenged to consider things they may never have before.

Tesh also tackles extremist indoctrination as a main theme, as MC Kyr (along with most of the SCs), experiences this having grown up on Gaea Station, a military post containing the humans who survived the destruction of Earth and seek revenge from the alien perpetrators. This was heavy to read about. Gaea’s society is founded on eugenics (specifically relating to race and ability), as well as misogyny, sexism, queerphobia, and bioessentialism, and the sexual violence these engender. And Kyr, at the beginning of the book, is the poster child for Gaea. Her character arc is inexplicably wrapped up in deprogramming her indoctrination as she is exposed to the world outside Gaea. It is truly astonishing how much Kyr changes over the course of the novel, and how much she discovers about herself when free from oppressive social constructs. Kyr is by no means perfect at the end of the book, but she also isn’t the same person she was in the first chapter. It is important to note that Tesh as the author always presents the above topics (eugenics, sexual violence) as abhorrent. Even when Kyr doesn’t understand their horrors, you as the reader know that Gaea is deeply, deeply wrong, that Kyr is deeply, deeply wrong, and Tesh does too.

I wouldn’t say this is “found family” like the synopsis proclaims. Every relationship in the book is too complicated and messy and often filled with both love AND hate, to fit neatly into a usually wholesome and straightforward trope. And that’s to this book’s credit. The characters all feel real because none of them can be perfectly squared away into an archetype, their understandably complicated reactions to one another birthed out of the complex situations they find themselves in.

I am so glad my friend recommended this to me and that I decided to give it a go. The only criticisms I can think of right now are that I wish the commentary on eugenics and disability had been made more explicit, and that the ending felt a touch deus ex machina (but maybe that was ironically intentional). Regardless, this book deserved its 5 stars.

Rep: queer MC, queer SCs, Afro-Latina SC

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Animal death, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Sexism, Racism, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit, Abortion, Rape, Torture, Blood, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Sexual content, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Self harm, and Drug use

Major: queer used as a slur 6 times, loss of a loved one, bioessentialism, eugenics, misgendering Minor: suicide ideation

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.

hanz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Transphobia, Genocide, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Ableism, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion

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

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Really loved this, it kept me on my toes the whole way through and the characters were so interesting and compelling. The audiobook was amazing too, the narrator did a great job with all of the voices. Wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Grief, Death, Xenophobia, Cursing, Violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Genocide, Rape, and Pregnancy

Minor: Police brutality, Racism, Incest, Abortion, and Outing

waqupi's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexism, Suicide, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse

Minor: Gun violence, Abortion, Racism, Homophobia, and Rape

haleywofford's review

adventurous dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, War, and Torture

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Blood, Rape, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

buff_dude's review against another edition

dark inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

Neon Genesis Evangelion if it were told by an infinitely more empathetic storyteller (and minus the fanservice).

This book discusses some important topics, including radicalisation, child soldiers and grooming, and it keeps these issues at the centre of its plot without desensitising the reader from them by heaping all of them in at once. It's not just an information dump either - the characters are genuinely engaging, which makes it all the more impactful when you see the effects of their soldier upbringing.

The plot follows the de-brainwashing of the protagonist, including the realisation of her anger towards an abuser, and love towards her friends and family. There's nothing quite as inspiring as seeing her embrace herself and break out of a sea of trauma.

That said, I'm not about to pretend that the world building was flawless. There were large swathes of exposition that I'm not even going to try understanding. I still don't know who was on which side of what war but the main point of the book was war bad so I suppose it's not a big deal. The plot itself tends to get messy around midway to 3/4 of the way through the book, but power through it and you will be rewarded. (I have a whole set of sticky flags around that bit with the same note: what the fuck is happening.)

Overall an eye-opening read worth the time. If you're considering picking this up and care about characters being lovable, note that a lot of them, especially the protagonist, are not, but this is mainly due to a very very rough upbringing that they learn to grow out of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: War, Child abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Transphobia, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion and Animal death

sarasreading's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.75

Before reading I knew the MC would be a terrible person, and I think that helped with my expectations. I didn't know much else about it though, and it drew me right in. There are a LOT of conversation points in this book, and while the book was already on the longer side, I almost wish it were even longer? To delve into those a little more deeply. 

I also would have liked even more world building, especially regarding the Wisdom, because I found it fascinating. I also would have liked some character relationships to have more time. AND more time for the ending as it felt a bit rushed and just cut off at the end. Maybe an epilogue? 

I guess I'm saying I would have liked this to be a couple of books lol! 

But I enjoyed it. It always left me guessing and kept me on my toes, and I enjoyed how the unlikable main character learned and grew out of the extremist world view she was brought up with. 

CW: There are so many, and they're listed in the beginning of the book. Heed them if you need them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Suicide, Murder, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Grief, and Ableism

Minor: Abortion