Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

42 reviews

kingcrookback's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

This is a compliment: The last twenty percent of this book made me want to scream. The way Dickinson seeded the reveal, just enough to barely rouse suspicion at first, and the way it all started adding up, terrible but unstoppable. I sometimes felt like I was watching someone start building a cage, only to suddenly understand that they're building it around themselves. God, it was almost unbearable, so effectively constructed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Outing

strawberrybex's review against another edition

4.0

Ooh there’s a lot that’s really great abt this book. I had slightly mixed feelings abt some of the pacing, but by in large a solid read. 
please do look through the trigger warnings though! they are very real. and like add on pretty extensive discussions of eugenics (as like a mechanism of the big evil empire but. thorough and frequent)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and War

imperialism, colonialism, colonial violence, genocide and cultural genocide, race science and eugenics. also threats of sexual violence include like. threats of FGM. also conversion therapy

third_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book makes me unwell. It's so, so well done and also so upsetting. Really excellent in many ways. This was my second time reading it, and like all my favorite books it truly hits differently the second time through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Torture, Grief, and Death of parent

emeraldrina's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

A masterpiece of world building and intrigue. Each time I picked up this book I was so immersed that I forgot I was reading. The world is both complex and believable, the characters all beautifully complicated, and the plot just the right amount of knotted mystery to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat without being confusing. At times the strategic planning was a touch over-explained, but that might just be because I have a background in the subject. And it wasn’t redundant enough to put me off or make me feel bored. Other than that, the writing was stunningly beautiful, and yet never so present that it was distracting from the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, and War

Minor: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

indeedithappens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

• 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

4.0

I loved the political intrigue. I loved the parts of this book that leaned more into being a character study of Baru. I liked Tain Hu and thought that she was handled very well. I just sometimes felt like there was too much emotional and narrative distance between us and Baru, and I’m also not sure how much I care about reading the sequels anytime soon.

That being said, anti-imperialist speculative fiction is my shit, especially when it’s queer, so I absolutely gobbled most of this up. 

Extremely strange encountering the word “sodomite” in a high fantasy novel, though. I will be pondering that choice for a while I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racism and Murder

Additional content warnings for murder and drowning. Also, the homophobia is VERY intense here.

btrz7's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Alcohol

noetherian's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

A book that paces along the fence between depiction and glorification of imperialism's abuses. There are interesting ideas, compelling characters, and a world with history, but it's all chaff for the machinery of whatever may happen in the sequels. If the ends justify the means, how is one to determine whether to keep reading this series? I suspect fans of economics and war will love her better than I could.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Minor: Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Eugenics

searobin's review against another edition

2.5

The book itself was ok, aside from the plot...

I did not love the queer indigenous woman suppresses her sexuality and aids the colonisers to fully colonise another nation in order to somehow maybe save her own nation eventually story line

I got a bit lost in all the dukes and dutcheses and territories, so some moments were probably less poignant than they were supposed to be, but I got the gist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

blackcvrrant's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

upon finishing this book i am experiencing so many agonies and torments 10/10 would recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence