Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

22 reviews

_david_'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

3.5

This book had some great moments and I do recommend reading it if you liked the rest of the series! I think the author nailed the use of multiple characters to tell the story about a whole culture. It created beautiful dialogue and told an interesting story about the value of tradition. I adored the characters, especially Isabel and Tamsin since they remind me of my own relationship.

I have two reasons why I've rated it lower than the other Wayfarer books so far. A small downside of especially the beginning of the book is that there are a lot of similar names for characters and a lot of characters without a very clear identifying feature at first. I can imagine that it's very hard to go through this book slowly since you might forget which character did what. The other, bigger downside is how some characters' stories ended. I didn't mind the endings themselves, but for a few of them they were told about it by others. The book expressed its morals by a very much "tell don't show" way. I think it's a shame, it made the book feel very biased, I think the same story could've been told without the very explicit dialogue. The moments I mean are:

Isabel talking to Kip and 'Pop' talking to Tessa. I think the museum scene for Kip and the talk with George for Tessa would've sufficed.

Having said that, I still really enjoyed the book! It's just the weakest in the series so far to me and I wanted to reflect that in my rating. As I've expressed in the beginning of this review, it contains some beautiful moments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Bullying, Grief, and Confinement

Moderate: Alcohol, Xenophobia, and Racism

Minor: Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Classism, War, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Violence, and Drug use

In the first chapter

Aya is unharmed. She screams because she sees something shocking.

the_reading_wren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

4.75

This one is less adventure and more reflective than the previous books in this series, covering heavy themes. Chambers guides us through these topics with masterful writing, while enveloping us in a world so well developed it feels like a home from home.

I think it was a work of genius weaving the reader’s role of bearing witness into Sawyer’s storyline in such a profound way…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal death, War, Bullying, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

Minor: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Murder, Racism, Confinement, and Cursing

arinheck's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This has been my least favourite Wayfarer book thus far. And yet, it made me laugh out loud and cry just as much as the others have. Although it was a bit slow to get going, Becky Chambers has yet to truly disappoint.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Sexual content, Colonisation, and War

strange_little_ranger's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Colonisation, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

Plot: 3.75★
Prose: 3★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 4★/4★
Characters: 3.25★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 3.25★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Drug use, Grief, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use and Grief

Minor: Bullying, Medical content, and Sexual content

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

This book is a wish for a kinder future. It's optimistic while still being firmly rooted in realism.

Sawyer's story arc and death, while upsetting, was realistic. It was a great catalyst for the changes made to the way that the fleet treats the returning descendants of former residents. I'm glad that we got to see more of Sunny and Eyas as friends beyond their work. Tessa being able to create a home in which her family feels safe and Isabel training Kip to continue the living memory of the fleet feel like a perfect way to round off the book.

one of the things that I love the most about these books is that our heroes aren't fighting to save the universe. They're not struggling against a catastrophic war. And in the rare cases they're escaping apocalypse/catastrophe, what we see isn't statistical odds and the military. We see people surviving and thriving.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Death, Colonisation, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol

novella42's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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

5.0

In some ways, the darkest of the Wayfarer series, but also the most beautiful. The most human. The central themes of this book remind me of Alice Walker's short story, Everyday Use. What do we preserve? What do we carry with us, and why, and how? What matters most when we're grappling with our own mortality and purpose and connection to other people who live like we do, in frail, mortal bodies in fragile, finite spaces?

I agree with some reviews that this book is slower than the others, and that the teenage character can be hard to empathize with because he's struggling with boredom and purpose. But the payoff. For me, the payoff is everything. I cry throughout this book and feel so peaceful at the end. Like I'm a little bit closer to finding my own purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, and Chronic illness

Minor: Death of parent, Deportation, Colonisation, Racism, Sexual content, Genocide, and War

There's a prominent scene in the book that needs a tag but isn't among those content warnings listed. Car accident is technically the closest, and I think it could be triggering for someone who had experienced that. But it's more specific, so I'm putting a slightly more detailed one behind a spoiler.

The opening chapters of the book deal with a large-scale disaster that kills tens of thousands of people. It's handled with the gravity and respect it deserves, at times zoomed away and at times very close and high definition. I think anyone who had lived through a natural or manmade disaster, especially in an urban area, would be deeply affected by these themes. It's very well written and the book follows the mental and emotional healing of several different characters, but it's worth a tag.

innerweststreetlibrarian's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this too, but found it a slower read than the previous ones. It was a bit more challenging to keep track of all the different characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Grief and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

overbooked207's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

📖 Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers Book Review 📖

9th and last book of August 2022 and 26th of the year:

Like all Becky Chambers books, this one had amazing world-building, lyrical writing, a great audiobook, queer representation, a queernormative world, great sex work representation, and beautiful conversations around humanity and how important communication and learning about different cultures are. There are a lot of point of views, and it was a bit confusing at first, but as the book went along, I got used to it and grew to like it and the characters. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favorite, but I highly recommend the whole series, and I can’t wait to read more books in it! TW for death, mass death, child death, death of a parent, alcohol, drug use, sexual content, xenophobia, grief, vomit, and medical content📚🚀🔭🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Grief, Child death, Vomit, Alcohol, Sexual content, Death of parent, Drug use, and Medical content