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Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'
La casa en el mar más azul. Edición especial: Edición especial con cantos tintados by TJ Klune, Carlos Abreu Fetter
26 reviews
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Colonisation
Minor: Torture, Violence
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Colonisation, Classism
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Yes
This book had tears welling in my eyes at one point. And no matter what I was just hoping for a happy ending. The ending did seem *too easy* though. Even if it is what I was hoping for.
I'm read this book alongside crime and punishment, so for what this is worth... It was definitely a breath or fresh air.
I'm read this book alongside crime and punishment, so for what this is worth... It was definitely a breath or fresh air.
Content Warnings
Minor: Body shaming, Confinement, Colonisation
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation
Minor: Abandonment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
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:
Yes
A world of dismal grey becomes cerulean for Mr Linus Baker when he is assigned to assess the suitability of a Level 4 orphanage that houses dangerous magical children.
This was a beautiful heartbreaking story of hatred born from fear, love and it's gentle change, and a man slowly becoming undone.
One star deducted because the story was inspired by the forced institutionalisation of native children in residential schools, and turning this trauma into a fantasy, with naive solutions and a magical happy ending to what is a complex problem, felt nonchalant. I do think, however, that this kind of story needs to be told to show how unintentionally ignorant we can be by sticking to the narrow viewpoint we've been told to live within- the rules and regulations we become accustomed to living by.
This was a beautiful heartbreaking story of hatred born from fear, love and it's gentle change, and a man slowly becoming undone.
One star deducted because the story was inspired by the forced institutionalisation of native children in residential schools, and turning this trauma into a fantasy, with naive solutions and a magical happy ending to what is a complex problem, felt nonchalant. I do think, however, that this kind of story needs to be told to show how unintentionally ignorant we can be by sticking to the narrow viewpoint we've been told to live within- the rules and regulations we become accustomed to living by.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Cursing
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Child abuse, Racism, Colonisation, Classism
dark
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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
It's hard to put into words why I didn't adore this the way everyone else seems to. It was a sweet book and I appreciated the gentle and positive queer representation. I guess the hype just led me to expect different things. It might also be because I DNF the audiobook version--the narrator just wasn't for me--and that initial experience made it harder for me to connect with the characters? I don't know.
I wanted this to hit me like Sangu Mandanna's The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which I realize was written two years after The House in the Cerulean Sea. Why was I swept away by that one enough to buy a copy for my comfort bookshelf, but not by this one? Especially when I love queer romances of all genders, I really thought that'd tip the balance for me. Maybe the spice level was higher in the other? Maybe because I don't do well with body horror, which felt fairly graphic in The House in the Cerulean Sea? (Probably folks who read a lot of horror would consider it tame, but it kept repeating a trigger for my C-PTSD, so I'm biased here.)
Spoiler about a problematic theme related to the children's make-believe adventures: I was very disappointed by the repetition of the "cannibal" theme they had in the children's fantasy adventures. I know it's meant to be a lighthearted "kids being kids" kind of thing, but the more Indigenous authors I read, the more something like that makes me cringe. All I can see is them playacting the story of "European colonizers and missionaries dehumanizing Indigenous people with unfounded racist fears." I know I'm a bleeding heart liberal killjoy, etc. but honestly, it's 2024, why are you writing "savage cannibal" themes into anything? They could have been imagining so many alternatives. It just was so dissonant with the book's overall message of celebrating differences and respecting the original inhabitant of the island.
Still a good book overall. I might pick up the second book at the library someday, when all the furor dies down.
I wanted this to hit me like Sangu Mandanna's The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which I realize was written two years after The House in the Cerulean Sea. Why was I swept away by that one enough to buy a copy for my comfort bookshelf, but not by this one? Especially when I love queer romances of all genders, I really thought that'd tip the balance for me. Maybe the spice level was higher in the other? Maybe because I don't do well with body horror, which felt fairly graphic in The House in the Cerulean Sea? (Probably folks who read a lot of horror would consider it tame, but it kept repeating a trigger for my C-PTSD, so I'm biased here.)
Spoiler about a problematic theme related to the children's make-believe adventures:
Still a good book overall. I might pick up the second book at the library someday, when all the furor dies down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Colonisation
Minor: Cursing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was written based on the 60s scoop. Indigenous populations have discussed often that it was not an appropriate thing for a white cis author to cover (and give a happy ending to) because it dismissed the trauma indigenous populations are still living.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Colonisation
Moderate: Body horror, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Cannibalism