Reviews tagging 'War'

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

12 reviews

ran_sophia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The book's writing is of excellent quality and precision.  Reading it was a nice time for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Confinement and War

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

pedanther's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Murder, War, and Classism

Minor: Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

pengintoppa's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery, Cannibalism, and War

softiejace's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Addiction and Cannibalism

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Ok, wow, mixed bag on this one. On one hand, the mystery its self is very fun; locked room, treasure, a mysterious calling card, its all cool. On the other hand, good God is this one racist. Most of the ACD Sherlock stories I've read keep that good ole' English racism to a minimum, but The Sign of Four seems to have dialed it up to ten to make up for that. I don't think you can go two pages here without reading multiple paragraphs of Watson or some other character just using the rudest, most vile descriptions possible for Indian people. I can't say I didn't expect it, because I know just how horribly the English viewed Indian people at the time, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to read. I'm not kidding, though, the racism in this one is really really bad, especially because we don't get the usual Holmes thing of having the story at least somewhat go 'um, actually, the people society hates are actually just people and it is in fact the rich bastards who suck'. Just yikes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and War

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

pvbobrien's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Murder and Colonisation

Minor: Violence, Cannibalism, and War

stories's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

This tale has not aged well, but is certainly twisty. I do enjoy the vivid characters that Conan Doyle sketches. 

Not to mention the impact that Love At First Sight has on narrator reliability. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War

emry23's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Racism and War

Minor: Drug use

buzzcutduck's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I enjoyed the plot however it is incredibly racist which I know is inherent to the time it was written however it so racist I felt most uncomfortable reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: War