Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

30 reviews

finntheknight's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Blood, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Outing, Vomit, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Classism

hatchetbat's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

If you want to understand trans rage: Read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Transphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

tea_coffee_sam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Violence, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, War, Body horror, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Ableism

ezwolf's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I want to say that I can understand why this book has done so well and so many people have spoken highly of this book. But it really just wasn't amazing for me. I think part of it is because I'm not really a huge fan of post apocalyptic stories that are set so close to the actual event, plus I have been avoiding stories about pandemics for obvious reasons. A friend highly recommended I read this so I decided to give it a shot, but I just wasn't as enthused as I had hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Transphobia, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Gore, Terminal illness, Genocide, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Alcohol and Classism

birdieex's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. I can't even find the words right now. Trans joy; trans rage; a queer kid finding his community; queer kids in general, banding together to destroy their oppressors. As someone with religious trauma, this hit deeply. I had to stop reading several times because it dug into the deepest parts of my soul and ripped everything to the surface again.

The gore was excellently written. I could imagine every horrifying little detail. And I loved the plot twists throughout. I almost wish it was longer, simply because I loved the characters so much. I was pleasantly surprised at the representation of the mixed emotions that can come with abusive relationships. Love and revulsion often go hand in hand, and it's often ignored that we can feel both at the same time, especially while healing from trauma.

I loved this book with my entire heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Blood, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Child death, Sexism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Torture

Minor: Sexual content, Classism, and Dysphoria

torismazarine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Death, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Biphobia, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, and Hate crime

biancafrancisco's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

I don't usually like gore and there's so much of it in this book, bur it was beautifully done.
The way the books touches so many themes - genocide (quite relevant to today), religious as a tool of imperialism and oppression vs individual expression, eco-facism, the weaponization of ideology to frighten people into obeying, a  contageous virus, trans experiences, and the MC's relationship with his body, how it is gendered but also through its mutation (this is done in a very reflective and surprisingly tender way) - and a ton more, was really interesting. 

The three things it could have done well with were:

 1. A better fleshed out world, it seemed a bit weird that we barely knew what was happening outside the city and that even within it was like only a group of teens and some kind of nationalist type group existed;

2. Better fleshed out characters, in the middle of all the action I feel like there was a tiny scene or two thrown in there about them hanging out and getting along, but we barely saw any of their personalities beyond "this is their sexuality/identity, this is their ethnicity and here is one personality trait". I recognize this can be hard with so much else going on, and it is a debut so I'm confident their next works might improve on it;

3. It really bothered me that, for people who have been surviving for 2 years in shitty conditions, they showed zero attempts to improvise and adapt?? Are you telling me they couldn't have made reusable pads (this one really stood out to me) or any type of agriculture, etc? One of the kids came from a doom prepper family! And either way, people are nifty and crafty and it would've been so interesting to see the ways the ALC organized and became self sufficient. It just seemed really unrealistic that they basically depended only on the Vanguard's supplies. Also, the initial "there's not really anyone in charge here, we're all contributing" was such pandering to this idea of an anarchist community when during the rest of the book no one, besides the Watch a bit, had any say in any decision - might as well have kept that out. I understand these weren't the main themes the book was meant to focus on but it wouldn't have been that hard to add a thing here or there to make it more plausible. 

These weren't egregious enough to bother my reading experience. On the contrary, I loved reading this book and did it almost all in one sitting. The message came across really well and I liked the premise and setting of the world. It kind of reminded me of The Last of Us - gory but very meaningful. There was so much love in this story and a lot of moments stuck with me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Transphobia, Body horror, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and War

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Classism and Colonisation

cosmicpanda's review against another edition

dark emotional tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Death, Misogyny, Death of parent, Violence, Transphobia, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Blood, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Child death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Classism

carolines_spines's review

dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Body horror, War, Transphobia, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Classism and Toxic relationship

winterhartarts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

Was a little slow for the first roughly half of the book, and most of the main characters felt slightly undeveloped at that point. However, once the halfway point happens, this really turn wild, and I was far more engaged until the very end. The world building kept me through the first half as well, so there’s a lot to be said for how the author fully actualized this kind of post-apocalyptic world filled with zombie amalgamations that all at once resembled ones from the games in The Last Of Us series and specifically the big blob from the game Inside. Imagery was always on point too, and I really felt engaged during times it was utilized. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Eating disorder, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Vomit, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Dysphoria, Death, Deadnaming, Child death, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Body horror, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Ableism, Grief, Gore, Classism, Homophobia, War, Cannibalism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Slavery, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Colonisation, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship