Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

3 reviews

sfdogmom's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.25

I found this book to be very chaotic and it kinda felt like nothing happened until the epilogue. ½ 🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child abuse, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Police brutality, and Torture

Minor: Addiction

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Murder, Police brutality, Drug use, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

macaronoui's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Book is set in Tiankawi, a half submerged city where fathomfolk and any non humans are treated  atrociously. The humans have built sky scrapers and fancy safe buildings, while a lot of the fathomfolk live in shanties. 

In this dystopian story, there are a lot of parallels with colonialism and imperialism. The story does get very bleak with many parallels to historical events.

It is interesting to see the difference in approaches to trying mend their situations (following rules / force). 

That said, the worldbuilding is really good. It’s easy to imagine what the different parts of the city look like. The attention to detail is much appreciated. 

Even though we have this magical world with sirens and dragons, it still seems structured like a very patriarchal and heteronormative society which is a bit of a bummer. 

It would have been very helpful to have either detailed descriptions and or illustrations of all the different fathomfolk (kelpie, kappa, sirens, rusalka, merrow-maid etc). 

Between Cordelia, Nami, Kai, Mira, Trish and the drawbacks, there are simply too many characters and points of view. A bunch of repeated between the different characters and the pacing is really slow at times. I think the book would have been better with less characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Kidnapping, Torture, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Classism, Ableism, Blood, and Trafficking