Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

11 reviews

rebcamuse's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

What a very beautiful and disturbing book. It is not dystopic in a clichéd sort of way and the writing is poetry. It is memoir (fictional, yes, but memoir all the same). It is speculative fiction. Eunice Wong's reading is perfection, with just the right amount of gravitas with an equanimity that helps us understand (hear her talk about it here). What is sensuous in food and in life becomes ethically blurry when most of the world is overtaken by a smog of debatable origin and the protagonist, a former cook, goes to work for a mysterious employer on a mountain in Italy, above the smog (and above the rules of living below, it would seem). Privilege is redefined and reframed, disguised as innovation.

The imagery and descriptive writing is phenomenal. Zhang is deliberate in linking language across the story: the "calculus of loss" becomes the "connoisseurship of loss"--a subtle juxtaposition spaced several chapters apart, easy to miss. Metaphors abound: "...as I would not serve bitter greens without the consolation of oil, I began to keep back my less palatable feelings..." The insights, too, are plentiful: "Across the years it is hard to make out this version of myself, so blinkered by ambition that she sprinted through thirty years without asking, why?"

It was a slower "read" for me than I anticipated, but there is, forgive me, much to chew upon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

shubka's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This dystopic future seems all to real & plausible- which made it difficult to read at times. The food & cooking imagery is what kept me reading as the story unfolded slowly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, Classism, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

anitaconchita's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

siebensommer's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

how terrifying, how thrilling to be seen

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

wormgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Child death, Classism, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Grief, and Car accident

daniellemjoyce's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Racism, Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Violence, Eating disorder, Grief, Drug use, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

Minor: Murder and Pandemic/Epidemic

alleahwebb's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Classism, Confinement, Colonisation, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Physical abuse, and Violence

scifi_rat's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Animal death, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Vomit, Violence, and Toxic relationship

booksandabackpack's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Animal death

Minor: Bullying, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Racism

lorenag5's review

adventurous challenging mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Deportation, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Xenophobia, Slavery, Sexual content, Classism, and Fire/Fire injury