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Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Lui che annegò il mondo by Shelley Parker-Chan

144 reviews

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m giving this a 4 for the quality of the writing, characterization, and the political intrigue. I love morally grey characters but my goodness these characters were too morally grey for me.
We hit the second child murder in the series and the violent rape scene and it was just… a lot.
I also think for all the horrible things the characters did and experienced the author could’ve leaned further into an ambiguous ending, it felt a little like the last 5 pages transferred from a more traditional happy ending after 400 pages of plotting and intrigue. Lot of trigger warnings in this one, so definitely believe those. I wanted to like the characters more than I did. If you’re really into political intrigue and like an immoral (or amoral) protagonist then you’ll like it. Normally I support gay rights and gay wrongs but this is a few too many gay wrongs for me, personally. Also… everyone is super into using sex to get what they want.

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adventurous emotional tense fast-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

My only complaint is I wanted an epilogue of Zhu and Ma being happily married at the end. But other than that, Shelley Parker-Chan is so fucking powerful to get me attached to a literal fucking incel 

There were a lot of BDSM undertones that I normally wouldn't care for but I felt the author had a riot of a good time writing them so I liked them too. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark 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

gay wrongs. what’s not to love

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slow-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

twists and turns! intrigue! gender! betrayal! gay sex! i loved the addition of more perspectives, particularly madame zhang’s. i don’t usually love military-heavy fantasy and this kept me hooked. 

the only things keeping this from a full 5 for me are:
1) ma is my favorite and she got less page time here
2) some big character deaths felt anticlimactic

this duology whips ass. gonna be thinking about it for a while 

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adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hey, umm how dare you, Shelley Parker-Chan??

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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