Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

61 reviews

dweeks417's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-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? No

4.5

The world building of this book is solid, and I really liked the differences in how cultures perceived a dragon's place in the community. The school classroom bits could get a bit tedious - long paragraphs of lectures that served as exposition for the history of the world. I honestly skipped over a lot of that. I really loved the creativity with the different dragon species. They're so varied and colorful!

Anequs is a kind, wise, and brave woman, but she didn't develop very much as a character. She remains pretty static throughout the book and never really makes any mistakes, which made her less interesting. All the other characters - including Theod, Karina, Aponakwe, etc - have moments where they realize they were wrong and make amends, or when they face consequences. Anequs doesn't have that growth because she is apparently infallible. 🤷‍♀️ I was also a little disappointed in the lack of exploration of Anequs and Kasaqua's relationship. We don't spend a lot of time with them just together. 

Overall, this is a really solid steampunk fantasy, and I'll read the rest of the series when it comes out. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, and War

lpdx's review

adventurous slow-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Death, Genocide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and War

Minor: Confinement, Transphobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

magicant's review

I just cannot handle the colonization and bigotry within the book due to my mental health. I plan on coming back for this book though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

nboyd31's review against another edition

adventurous reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Blood and War

Minor: Biphobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

sproutedpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring 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

4.5

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is incredibly rich in its worldbuilding, and with a narrative voice that is especially satisfying to read. Oral storytelling is a vital component of this novel, being the way that a considerable amount of expository worldbuilding is conveyed. There are lengthy stretches of exposition, but because these moments are most often presented as educational moments to Anequs, the protagonist, it very rarely feels like a hindrance to plot progression.

Though decidedly set in another world, this novel feels very much like an alternate history fantasy novel, as there are many clear parallels to real-world events, cultures, places, etc. There is also exploration of the disparity in colonizer and indigenous views of societal expectation, community, and utility, and the struggle to retain cultural identity in the face of (violent, subsuming) modernization and colonization. Nampeshiweisit (Masquisit dragoneers), Anglish dragoneers, and their distinct approaches to working alongside dragons, provide a really interesting fantasy vector for further exemplifying this.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is particularly remarkable in how effectively Moniquill Blackgoose manages to portray the European-inspired fantasy elements as foreign and confusing , despite the likelihood of readers having already had an overexposure to European-inspired fantasy media, European mythology, etc.

Thank you so much to author Moniquill Blackgoose, Del Rey, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this novel to read and review! All opinions within this review are voluntarily given and entirely my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

Minor: Genocide

Anti-indigenous and anti-Black racism, indentured servitude, mention of past slavery, mention of past genocide, threatened hate crime, police brutality (in this case by guards)

autumn33344's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gun violence, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide and Alcohol

welgan's review against another edition

challenging inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

My rating are based purely on my own enjoyment of a book. Don't get me wrong : this is a great book and story. But it was hard to read sometimes, because as much as dragons are imaginary, the violence (both physical and social) to indigenous people, queer and neurodivergent people, and women, in the XIXth century is very much real, and sometimes its depiction felt too real for me to only enjoy the story. Which I'm grateful for, in the end, because I want to learn ! 
I'm grateful also for the strong character of main character Anequs, and the fierce fire of righting some wrongs which is always satisfying. I also appreciate a good bisexual and polyamorous representation!
The writing style kept me engaged with it's flaw, and the world building of a parallel world where things end up a bit different than our own history was very interesting, as was the science based magic.
I regret that dragons don't play a more important role in the story, in the end : this is before everything else a story about society and injustice. The dragons give a flavor to it, but not its substance. I think I was expecting a deeper connexion between dragon and dragoneer, like in Eragon ; I also think the author did a great job at keeping the dragons around in every scene, they're not forgotten, but they're simply not the main subject of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Blood, Murder, and War

relin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Hate crime, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, and War

koreydobbert's review against another edition

Low intrigue with the book. I thought the author had an interesting idea but I was not very interested in the way it was done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Racism, and Xenophobia

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

Loved this book! Really looking forward to more in this series when it eventually comes out. The worldbuilding was very interesting and I enjoyed it a lot, and all the characters felt very well developed and complex. Anequs was a great narrator and I enjoyed being in her head, and I loved

how her knowledge of her people's traditions is what allowed her to succeed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Gun violence and Hate crime

Minor: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, and War