Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

15 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Grief, Slavery, Gun violence, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, War, Death, Confinement, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Chronic illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Kidnapping, Trafficking, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Alcohol, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape

Execution by hanging. Power imbalance in relationship (representative of colonizing government/colonized subject).

risaleel's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racism, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, War, Death, Police brutality, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Addiction, Blood, Confinement, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Gore, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Animal death

kyladenae94's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.5

the beginning felt a bit…scrambled, but i’m glad i trusted the tikky-tokkers & stuck it out. i hope the threads set up in this book—

Spoiler

the “reveal” of what happened with cheminade feels a bit stilted to me, and we still don’t know how touraine got knocked out & also What About Cheminade’s Husband, he seemed nice

—will be tied up in a future book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Torture, Gun violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual assault, War, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

saenz's review

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

A book about finally finding your own way after a life of submittion, and boy oh boy it is the farthest thing from easy. Loved the world and struggling and then succeeding to love the characters. Painful and lonley to read, but a wonderful book, definitely worth it in the end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Slavery, Murder, Racism, and Colonisation

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Rape and Child abuse

gingercat99's review

adventurous 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death, Blood, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault

reeno's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Murder, Xenophobia, Genocide, Death, Ableism, Trafficking, War, Violence, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual assault

theirgracegrace's review

emotional inspiring 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

4.75

The Unbroken asks the question: what about those parts of the fantasy world that are the "colonies"? Set in a queer-positive fictional setting that mirrors French-controlled Saharan Africa, Clark's characters live in the awkward space of either benefitting from or being the product of the colonial state. Clark cleverly deconstructs how the colonial state of Balladaire's oppression has separated the people of Qāzal from their culture and their heritage and made many into soldiers to further that oppression. A book that I cannot stop thinking about and eagerly awaiting the sequel of!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Confinement, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Excrement, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Stalking, Torture, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Pregnancy

whailey's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Trafficking, Torture, Grief, Police brutality, and Slavery

strabckr's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

I’m not really sure how to feel about this book. Technically, it was very high quality, i just didn’t enjoy it as much on a personal level.

The writing was descriptive & visually engaging, the world-building was clean, the characters were solid & grounded, the plot itself was not only entertaining but held a level of believability, objectively speaking, this was a very good book, I’m just not sure that I connected with it on an emotional level. 

I, myself, am a high Fantasy junkie, so I thought this book would be perfect for me. I went into it slightly blind so I was really taken along for a ride, and yet, it didn’t grip me. I wasn’t emotionally invested, and even though I liked the cast of characters, I had no connection to them (even though they had a lot of relatability). I am also someone who favors fantasy because of its magical element, and since that wasn’t a prominent factor of the book (in terms of its “fantastical-ness? I don’t know) I guess that didn’t really excite me either. It was also kind of depressing but then again, is more of a personal preference than a criticism. 

I think the bottom line here is that this story just wasn’t for me, and that’s okay! not every novel is going to be made for me because there are a bajillion people on the planet, and I’m still able to recognize this story’s objective merit while also validating my subjective thoughts & feelings. 
with that being said, I’m probably still going to pick up the second book, as I’m still curious to see what the story will hold as the world itself is highly intriguing & the potential is there. 

P.S if you’re going into this thinking it’s going to be a sapphic romance at its core, be warned! the romance is a sub-sub-sub plot, like seriously.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Colonisation, Violence, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Xenophobia, War, Torture, Slavery, Racism, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Cursing

Minor: Sexual assault

madamepincers's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

4.75

Incredible world building and magic system and I can't wait to read more. Only drawback for me was characters who consistently make Very Bad Choices and change their minds/seem to adhere to different moral codes at different times, but given the context, I think their confusion and issues with determining their own priorities was believable. But it happens to be a major pet peeve of mine so 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Trafficking, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Torture, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Death of parent