Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

36 reviews

krishnak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

I loved the universe that the world was set in. The characters really draw you in and the pacing of the book is good so that it doesn't feel like anything is dragging on. I will probably have to read this book again to fully understand what was going on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

sohva's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and War

maxxdangers's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, and Transphobia

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

emmjay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Rich but very easy to grasp fantasy. For such a complex world the author makes it easy to understand. Xiala is my favorite character and I hope she’s in the next book a lot too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Death, Racism, Torture, Death of parent, and Alcohol

maeverose's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and Alcohol

midnightgremlin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery

amandadevoursbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.75

It took me 150 pages to get into it. I'm so glad I kept reading. The world immersive. The characters distinct. The cultures reflected by the characters are fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

yellow_star's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

Spoilers: This opens with child abuse... child torture? Skip this book if you don't want to read about a parent lovingly stabbing their child. The rest of the book is not more cheerful. Please do not read this if you get devastated by books. If you are used to Grimdark books though this has an interesting plot, I just can't get past how dark this is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Minor: Racism

lolajh's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

Such a beautiful and interesting book that had each chapter being in a different place of the world in the book and a different point of view for each character, with the point of views being shown being Xiala (a queer woman), Serapio (a blind man) Naranpa (another queer woman) and a few minor chapters from Okoa’s point of view. 

Xiala was an amazing character to learn about throughout this book. A pirate captain who had to work hard to gain the respect of her peers due to her being a female captain as well as a Teek, which is a female-only race in this world. She is targeted by racism, sexism and homophobia and is very confident and accepting of all her identities. There are minor flings and attraction between her and women throughout the book, and the highlighted romance being between her and a man. Seeing a heterosexual relationship with queer characters was really interesting because of how different love is experienced compared to typical heterosexual relationships. Xiala is also so strong independent from her love interest with her own goals and ideals. Her character arc was wonderful and relatable. Loved it 

Serapio’s chapters were of great interest because of how the author describes his perception of the world being blind. This is done so well that when the chapter ends and switches to a different character I am still experiencing Serapio’s blindness and get confused on why appearances of things are being described because of how immersed and realistic his blindness is conveyed. Serapio’s disability also does not in any way weaken him; he is a strong physical fighter often underestimated by his opponents and him being able to see again is never a goal of his - it’s just accepted which was lovely to see.

Then Naranpa, my beautiful underrated queer ball of sunshine. In many reviews she is described as naive, which she can come across as at some points, but I just think she is a person trying to see the best in everyone and just has a lot of bad things happen to her. I love her very much. Naranpa’s chapters were also interesting because of her assassin ex-lover Iktan who is nonbinary and goes by xe/xir pronouns that are never disrespected by the characters except for

at the end where Okoa describes xir as a woman which I personally think took away a lot of xir character and I can’t really understand why the author decided to put that in

Iktan is  my absolute favourite character of this book. Xir character was so interesting because of how badass and talented and feared xe is and if ONLY we got an Iktan pov so I could know how xe thinks and seeing xir having a character arc with different ideals that aren’t just what Naranpa thinks xe is thinking. There were also several more nonbinary and trans characters in this book going by they/them or xe/xir. One of these characters, Powageh, explained xir identity as being a “third gender” which wasn’t my favourite wording of it as it puts a binary onto something that is literally not binary. Something like “neither man nor woman” would have been better phrasing, but gender can feel different for everyone and if “third gender” feels like the right wording for xir then to each their own. Anyway, still loved this book and the diversity of the poc and queer characters all in a fantasy and science fiction world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Transphobia