Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

3 reviews

competitive_reading_is_a_sport's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

Trigger warning: child harm 
This was definitely not the right book for me. I don’t require a happy ending to enjoy a book—-especially not a horror story, but the ending of this book was more devastating than horrific for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder

The ending of the book ruined the story for me. After frantically trying to find their kidnapped infant, the parents learn that the baby was murdered and the corpse was stuffed with drugs in an effort to smuggle them on an international flight with the fake parents carrying their “baby” as a passenger.

persimmon_lover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

To start off with, this book is kind of racist in many ways. I don't think any of that is intentional and I think that writing it off due to undertones of racial prejudice in the novel is not a good thing to do, and that the racial insensitivity is not a product of hate whatsoever. The story itself is scary and chilling, but not THAT scary. I get really scared by horror novels and although there are many disturbing and grotesque parts of this story, it didn't profoundly frighten me. Like lots of Dan Simmons' other stuff that I've read, it is literary with good prose style, unexpected twists and turns, and a strong "message" that, while maybe a bit corny, is well said, hopeful, relates to the themes of the novel, and comes together nicely. The book wasn't what I was expecting and I can imagine many people not enjoying it or not finding much of value in it, but that I felt that it was good.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

asbat's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

Never a book I would have picked usually, and this very much reflected this. I didn’t find the story that interesting. There was a significant lack of female characters with any individual personality. I did like the last line about listening to other stories rather than the constant negative or painful ones.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt