Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

6 reviews

trailmixraisins's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This Ursula K. Le Guin classic is a short and bittersweet parable-like story. She uses vivid and explicit depictions of colonialism in the setting of an alien planet years in the future where humans have developed the technology to travel through space. Selver, an Athshean man, and his society are irrevocably changed after humans settle the planet to harvest wood to be sold on Earth. Though ultimately hopeful, the toll of human violence and hatred on the non-violent society puts its continued existence in jeopardy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Murder, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

octliderro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Rape, Torture, Slavery, and Xenophobia

some_random_person_hi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

A brilliant exploration of violence/ war and its effects. Currently, the only reason it's not 5 stars is bc I personally enjoy books more when I get attached to characters but this book is more idea/theme-focused than trying to get readers to root for the characters. Was in no way a comfortable book to read but that was intended so I'll let it slide. Davidson was quite hateable though, and ended up swearing in annotations quite a bit during his chapters. Will reread for ecolit so I'm looking forward to seeing how my views change.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Grief, Murder, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Misogyny, Genocide, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Rape

Minor: Confinement and Suicide

Davidson POV chapters have very intense misogyny, racism, genocidal inclinations, toxic masculinity & sadism in general.

becksusername's review

adventurous challenging dark sad fast-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

5.0

Wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Genocide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Violence, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, War, Vomit, Sexism, Torture, Blood, Murder, Slavery, Confinement, Death, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

bradblaz's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

erikwmj's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Torture and Rape