Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

La Gloire à tout prix by Emily Tesh

60 reviews

frogggirl2's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

This book wants to deal with a lot of weighty, dark topics (genocide, misogyny, facism, racism) but it does it in a very superficial way because this is YA so it can't really get to where it needs to go to meaningfully discuss these themes.  This book is very simplistic.  

When you give characters do-overs, it removes the tension from the plot.  This book would have been much more interesting if the first true ending of the book was the actual ending of the book.  Far too happy and ending for everything that goes on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Incest, Genocide, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicide

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Suicide, Homophobia, Transphobia, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Confinement, Sexual violence, Torture, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion and Bullying

mo345's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Blood, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Grief

Minor: Medical content, Cursing, Alcohol, and Abortion

The xenophobia tag refers to opinions some characters in the book have about aliens.

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Outing, Torture, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and War

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/4.5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 4★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicide, Violence, War, Homophobia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Gore, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Racism

Minor: Bullying, Blood, Abortion, and Alcohol

poisonenvy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

SECOND READTHROUGH, 2024:  Man, this book still slaps. 

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Where to start with this review? I loved this book a lot.  There are a number of content warnings so if you have triggers you should make sure to check them out. 

Following the destruction of Earth, the last scraps of humanity have gone to live on Gaea, a space station that is barely self-sustaining.  Kyr has grown up on this station, trained since birth to be an obedient solider, bent on fighting for humanity against the aliens who have destroyed the planet. Gaea is a radicalized, fascist society, and the novel follows Kyr as she slowly becomes deradicalized. 

This book was great. The characters were all fantastic. It's really easy to hate Kyr. It's really easy to hate a lot of the characters. The process of unlearning all the things they've been taught is long and it's not easy.  

I found that the ending got a little overambitious with some of the things that it wanted to tackle; it lost some of the nuance that makes up the first 3/4ths of the book. Regardless of that though, I still found this to be nearly a five star read. The characters were fantastic, with lots of depth and nuance and so, so many flaws. The prose was great, and I found a lot of the descriptions to be very cinematic. The plot kept me hooked; I didn't want to put down this book the times that I had to.  

There are definitely flaws with this story, but none of them really took away my enjoyment for the novel as a whole. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Genocide, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Rape, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship

sissix_'s review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Holy shit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Suicide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, and Ableism

miraclesnow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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: Sexism, Death, Suicide, Xenophobia, Violence, Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide

Moderate: Colonisation, Abandonment, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Rape and Outing

analenegrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-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

This fantastic one-off "social science fiction" captured so many moral dilemmas in it. Kyr as a character was written fantastically, unlikeable, yet the necessary person for this role. Tesh is able to capture what is so dangerous about fascism, fanaticism, and bio-essentialism while also giving the reader a space opera. It captured so many elements of sci-fi that I enjoy. 

The feminism of this book is so important as it takes a character who is a staunch believer in her bio-essentialist community and learns to see the amazingness of the women around her and the women who came before her; especially those who beared children for their community.  

An important line that stood out to me was, “She wasn’t Earth’s child. She was Elora Marston’s and Yingli Lin’s and Ursa’s, and she owed her duty not to some abstract unknown planet but to the women who’d come before her.” 

Often we not only forget the women who came before us, but forget the women around us, forced to live a bio-essentialist life. This book is an important reminder, especially in a post-Roe world, the importance of who we consider when we discuss feminism, intersectionality, and bio-essentialism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, War, Body shaming, Classism, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Confinement, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Abortion

solari's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.75

Absolutely amazing one of the best books ive read this year. As if Orson Scott Card and Margaret Atwood had a queer lovechild. Refreshing take and excellent character development. Watching Valkeyi's character development was astounding to read and resonanted with me personally. I read the entire thing in under 48 HOURS.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, War, Violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexism, Murder, and Gun violence

There are lots of things discussed in the book that may be off putting. Please read the authors note before reading the story.