Reviews tagging 'Deadnaming'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

31 reviews

agooding's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Transphobia, and Vomit

Minor: Deadnaming

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

In this retelling of a gruesome old song, a magical world on the brink of destruction needs saving, but who will be the one to protect it?

This was quite the story. I’m glad I looked up the Twa Sisters beforehand otherwise I think I would have had a massive shock about 3/4 of the way in. The book definitely takes a sharp turn. 

I wasn’t all that interested in it to begin with. I didn’t find the story grabbed me, but once it took a darker turn, I definitely felt more inclined to see how it ended. 

Interesting idea, so-so execution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Body horror

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Confinement, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Grief, Transphobia, Murder, and Misogyny

claire_riach's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Sexism

fifix's review

adventurous dark emotional 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 was the most enjoyable retelling I have ever read, I absorbed it like it gave me life. It was a perfect blend of a folk story retelling, magic, and historical setting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Deadnaming

kbrinkman93's review

dark 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

This boom gets extremely graphic and weird. It's very disturbing.

mostlyvoidpartiallystars's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

A beautiful, heartbreaking, but inspiring book. The worldbuilding is rich. I love the combination of magical realism & historical fiction, it felt seamlessly woven in. I appreciated the strong anti-colonial themes. The disability representation is decent - I started out hesitant over how it was being handled, but I loved the progression. 

Finally, a recurring section I'm going to be adding to all my reviews going forward: Do they bury their gays?

No. The only queer/queer adjacent characters are a trans man, a bigender person, and the trans man's girlfriend, who isn't queer herself, but is part of a queer romance given her boyfriend is trans. None of these characters die, and no queer romances end tragically

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Sexual content, Murder, Ableism, War, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

kalmia31's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Transphobia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, War, Animal death, and Deadnaming

lady_moon's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Rep: trans masc MC, bigender side character

To be honest I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the path each sibling had. S was annoying for the better part of the book but she didn't deserve this sort of ending. Riva started out well, I liked her in the beginning. And then came Tristan 😐 After they got together, Riva became insufferable. Her whole ending was definitely not what I wanted it to be. 
K was fine the whole time <3 In the beginning he was less interesting the his sisters but as the novel progressed, he was honestly the only POV character who hadn't annoyed the hell out of me. 

I'm not a fan of

siblings torn apart

kind of stories. I really didn't enjoy that. The author tried very hard to leave each of them in some sort of hopeful note but for me it's not hopeful when

sibling relationships are destroyed in such a way

.

I didn't quite get the ending with K. Like,

so he's immortal now? He had lived through the centuries? Or it was just him after many decades?

Anyway, I have certain opinions (obviously) but I'm really not feeling that strongly about any of that for it to matter to me. I'm happy how stuff turned out for K (I guess?) and that's the most important thing. Historical fiction with trans characters will never be not fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and War

Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

khazlettwrites's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Gore, Murder, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

catherinedsharp's review

adventurous inspiring sad 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? Yes

3.75

Beautiful text that wasn’t what I expected! With twists at every corner, characters you can’t decide whether to love or hate and a beautiful plot with magic, religion, war and a well written trans story.

Would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Death, War, Blood, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury