Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Perishing

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Perishing by Natashia Deón

16 reviews

directorpurry's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

3.25

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nehaanna's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’m not entirely sure what this book is attempting to accomplish. This is literary fiction with a speculative aspect and a fantasy-esque twist that fails to make any sense until the last 50 pages and is so poorly strung together. This book fails to draw the reader in, preferring to use complicated time jumps, stream of consciousness type writing, and sloppy philosophical waxing to make some point. Sprinkled along the way are references to historical injustices towards minority populations with reference to recent historical events of the 2020s. However, the social commentary is poorly done in my opinion. Nothing in this book seems to be executed well, everything falls abysmally short of the author’s well-meaning intentions for what this book could have been.

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odessablaine's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious slow-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

4.0

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sarah_speaks's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective 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

2.25

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adiajamille's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

It was fine. A lot of the language was inappropriate for the time period. It felt like they had a lot of ideas but weren’t sure how to execute them in a cohesive manner. Much of the historical events mentioned just felt thrown in In an attempt to be impactful, but fell flat. The base idea was cool, and could’ve been great. Just needed a little more time to let the ideas simmer and flow.

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greybritton's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

This is a phenomenal book — one I quite literally couldn’t put down. I expected it to be more fantastical, but (despite the sort of magic realism inherent in the premise) it is deeply rooted in reality. It is an unyielding book that boldly shines a light on the shameful, fractured history of America; and it is sure to shatter the white fragility of any reader. It is committed to themes of identity, grief, and justice, which are universal, but focused in on the Black experience in a truly heartfelt, nuanced, powerful way. The book’s exploration of friendship and self-love is truly remarkable. I believe it is an important, enlightening, moving read for anyone of any background. And I encourage you to approach it without expectation; only with an open mind and heart.

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