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shinysarah28's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Genocide
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and War
veronicats's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol
friends2lovers's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Excrement
lavendl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cannibalism and Alcohol
dosymedia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This is a crucible of suffering that follows the lives of career soldiers through two wars and their settling in the western frontier. That suffering is the point; its immersion uses beauty to make the inane hurt. Despite its choice of characters, those characters only underline the danger of this developing America, as each member of the queer family formed is uniquely othered and thus, at risk in certain company.
They themselves are held back from the reader. We don't come to know Thomas, John, or their adopted daughter all that well. We're thirty percent into the book before we are absolutely certain of Thomas and John's relationship, revealed unceremoniously with a kiss that is special due to its need to be hidden, and regular, since its ease implies our first witnessing of it is only one of many for them.
And I didn't mind that here, perhaps because Aidan Kelly so beautifully rendered Thomas' narration, it only felt like a quirk of Thomas' character to keep their private life from the audience.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death
kwitshadie's review against another edition
Graphic: Genocide