Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Confessions of the Fox: A Novel by Aden Hakimi, Jordy Rosenberg

11 reviews

emath98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

I found the footnote narrator kind of annoying but loved the main story. Beautifully written kinky queer smut with very funny 18th century slang 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Deadnaming, Slavery, and Vomit

Minor: Racial slurs and Suicidal thoughts

infinite_harness9030's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

marioncromb's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

It's an impressive book, i appreciated the anticolonialist, anticapitalist, trans centred and  affirming (albeit magically rather than plausibly optimistic) lens.

I wanted to love this as much as i loved LOTE, which has similar alternate-history vibes but I just didn't. i personally found the obtuse academic style prose referencing Derrida etc in the sort of language that is only understood by philosophers to be alienating and a bit of a slog to get through. I understand that it makes sense for the realistic characterisation of Voth, and is realistic for the metapremise of the novel, but still, I didn't really enjoy the interjections/the personal story within the footnotes. I know that you don't have to like the characters to like or appreciate a work of art but it was an issue for me here. I often love the tangents of footnotes (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell my loveeeee) and i did appreciate the ways in which the stories mirrored each other. However I was half-expecting from this mirroring

the manuscript to have been written /by Voth/ due to the sheer coincidence of finding this very relatable manuscript on a niche topic they study whilstthey are having a life crisis due to their breakup. which i guess in a metatextual sense it /was/,  by /Rosenberg/, but it wasnt in the world of this book which made it lack in-universe plausibility. Or maybe it was just one meta- too far for me

Another personal issue i had with the book was its idea of queerness was often too easily found though queer sex, queer bodies, more than through all ways of being/loving/not-loving that are othered by society. As an ace person i just didn't relate to the horniness in the book that was often posited as some universally relatable and transformative queer experience. This is not to say that it shouldn't have been so horny, it is an important part of the characterisation and indeed of the queerness of the book.

I enjoyed more the stories within the story: enjoyed learning about the Fen-Tigers and enjoyed the imagined paradise society of the Maroons. The little details of Jack's woodworking/technical knowledge.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

fioona's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring 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? No

5.0

I’ve truly never read a book like this - Rosenberg notes in his acknowledgement that a key to the development of this book was the idea that “novels did not need to sacrifice a radical political worldview in order to be (hopefully) entertaining…” I felt as informed as if I had just read an essay on queer/anti-capitalist archival practices (which, in a way, I had) and as transformed as if I had just read one of the most compelling, compassionate, and complex narratives of liberation I had ever encountered (I had). One of my new favorites which I’ll definitely return to over the years - I already can’t wait to rediscover it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Confinement and Colonisation

opossumble's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Slavery, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

singlier's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg 4/5 🦊s 

This book is weird--part memoir, part unhinged rambling footnotes, part collective memory. It reimagines the life of famous Victorian thief, Jack Sheppard, as a transgender man, exploring the intersections of his identity with period-accurate racism, incarceration, destruction of land, government corruption, and colonialism. It is also a story-within-a-story: told in the footnotes of the memoir is the story of Dr. Voth, a transgender man and college professor, currently grappling with the loss of his love and his debilitating OCD, who imprints onto Jack and uses the footnotes as the pedestal for self-reflection and anti-academia rhetoric. 

At the end of the novel, I can't say I understood everything. It is committed to its appearance as an authentic 18th century text, which means it is dense and difficult to parse. The footnotes only add to its difficulty: calling upon a vast array of knowledge from Marxism to queer theory. The plot too, often feels scattered: caught between a mysterious conspiracy of government corruption and Jack's unquestionable love for his partner. But, with all this, I still found myself thoroughly enjoying it. I could not predict where it would lead me, but I enjoyed the journey there. 

Minus points for a lot of mentions of piss, even though it does (eventually) become plot relevant.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? No

4.5

Thank you to One World Books for the free copy of this book.

 - CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX is one of the strangest, most fascinating books I’ve ever read. I loved the structure, with the body of the book being the “lost manuscript” and the footnotes being the professor telling his story alongside the manuscript.
- There is so much going on here, I hardly know where to start. Everything from the historical erasure of trans people to the prison industrial complex is pinpointed and torn down in a frenzy.
- For me, things got a bit muddled at the end of the book, but overall this book is well worth the trip there. Do pay attention to those content warnings though, as it’s pretty grossly graphic throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

readingtrees's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad 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? Yes

5.0

i'm a pretty sensitive bean, but was still able to read this book. highly highly recommended for anyone looking for a (broad arc of book)

narrative/historical fiction, from the perspective of trans masc individuals, engaging with/resisting legalized violence

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Transphobia, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Slavery, Trafficking, and Lesbophobia

ninjamuse's review against another edition

challenging slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Transphobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Forced institutionalization

carbs666's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Deeply researched and lovingly crafted, this book is like nothing I've ever read before. Confessions layered on top of confessions, the inherent queerness of the disobedient archive, funny and insightful and personal footnotes, unreliable and fantastical and multiplicitous narration, a utopia outside of time, an escape. It's good. You have to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Police brutality, Medical content, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, and Medical content