Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

18 reviews

aparker89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ktb97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! While the metaphor of bringing “baggage” with you when starting a new life seems a little too on the nose, this novel surprised me with its creativity. Don’t skip this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Racial slurs

Minor: Child death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Colonisation

ruthlessreads'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? Yes

5.0

I didn't read a summary of this book beforehand because I love LaValle & decided to trust the process. As always, LaValle didn't let me down. Right off the bat, I loved the prairie gothic vibes of the book and the multiple classic lit references--you know I'm a sucker for a metaliterary experience. The initial mystery of Adelaide's chest reminded me a lot of the Magnus Archives so, with all these things going for it, I was completely hooked on Lone Women from the beginning.

By the end of the book, I was grinning & saying, "wow" to myself over & over. LaValle delivers a masterful example of writing fantasy/horror that includes contemporary morals without beating it's readers over the head with what the author feels is The Point™️. Of course, his wonderful writing style is a huge contributor to the ease with which he's able to do this. LaValle is succinct but descriptive and his characterizations make even the most background characters feel real, like someone you don't know personally but have heard rumors about and seen around town.  LaValle brings an incredible cast of powerful female characters together in a windswept and severe landscape to confront the horrors of the early American West, "polite" society, and the weight of family secrets to find a new kind of family, understanding, and way of survival.

Overall, it was fast paced, thoughtful, adventurous, scary af, and thoroughly captivating. Lone Women is a deftly crafted historical horror -- I wish I'd read it much sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

libellumartinae's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I feel like this book has so many interesting traits, starting from the fact that it discussed about a period and geographical area I personally didn't know all too well, which made me very curious about it and I literally devored the book. My main problem is that I felt like this book many times didn't deliver on many of the secrets kept, enough that they felt like they were more interesting as secrets than as revelations, making me a bit frustrated with some of the choices that felt forced and a bit politically correct.

Either way I think it's a very interesting book which I'd highly recommend, especially for the historical background.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

amandalachelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Slavery

finalfires's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

I really loved the mix of genres in this book, the setting, the mystery and the concept. However, the pace sped up too much in the last 150 or so pages, and I feel like the story wrapped up too neat and perfect. I’d give the first half of the book 5 stars and the second half 2. The first half feels like a really cool, well written feminist western horror. The second half feels a tad fanfiction-y. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

pineapplesurvivor's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Colonisation

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative 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

I really liked this! 

Ominous build-up, creature horror, found family, realistic portrayals of racial dynamics on the “frontier”, heartwarming ending; the author put it all in here without it feeling too jumbled or heavy. 

will definitely be reading more by this author; the prose was lovely!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

hmatt's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I really like this concept. The characters are diverse and feel very well-developed, and the storyline is interesting.

What holds it back for me is the pacing, which felt a bit up and down. This might partially have been how I read it, but it's one of those that start slow and then all of a sudden wrap up. With the very in-depth characterizations, I think it would have benefitted sticking to the slower pace and being longer. 

I also did not like the narrator for this audiobook - it felt too obviously like they were reading off a page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse