Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

31 reviews

sarahgruenewald's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book may have been one of the most violent and depressing books I've ever read ... And written so well it stands above as a new favorite. Five stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Torture, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism

keenanmaree's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

There are some great scares here, and some really well done character moments. Overall though, this book is too long (so many things are repeated unnecessarily), every woman is written really badly (but hey, at least

the author makes it clear that Big Tits survived!

) and the ending was terrible. I don't regret reading it but it's hard to recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Incest, Excrement, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

coelagirl's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Really really excellent book- especially the audiobook version, the prefromace Tom Sellwood gives is incredible. I'm not normally a horror enjoyer but the  multiple perspectives and historical subject matter got me. There were both scenes of incredible tension (carnivale, Blanky's escape, Franklin's  death, etc.) And knawwing knowledge that everyone would die and no matter how good any plan Crozier made was.   Very emotional. Would have been 5 stars if not for the ending- just stop reading at Hickey's final chapter; you won't get all the answers but we don't have all the answers for the real life Franklin expedition either! It's fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

The Real Life Franklin Expedition fictionalized in this book was Actually lost during its voyage in the late 1840s. This book contains the period typical misogyny and racism you might expect from victorian colonialism, as well as a book from 2007, plus men doing horrible things to survive in an inhospitable landscape they are not prepared for while being hunted by a creature behind imagination. Things get as bad you can possibly expect them to get.

adrizeuza's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

This is probably my most disappointing read of the year. I had somewhat high expectations for this book, since I tend to enjoy slow paced novels and am obsessed with exploration disasters and The Terror tv series. The biggest saving grace of this audiobook was the narrator, if not for him I would have definitely DNF'd this 4 hours in. The middle 10h were a painful sludge. Around the 22h mark it finally began to pick up. I had to listen to this on 2x speed. I was expecting to feel the dread of the crew intensify as the book progressed, but the repetitiveness of the dialogues and of the descriptions completely ruined the tension building for me.
Whilst I was listening to this LONG audiobook, all I kept thinking about was how good the tv show was. How good the adaptation decisions were. And how ?? Dan Simmon's decisions in writing The Terror were in comparison. I lost count of how many times the question "... why?" popped into my head.
Geniunely cannot understand how nobody edited this down to a 400 page book. There was no reason for this to be so long. Crozier's POVs were extremely repetitive and not that interesting after a while, most other POV's did not do much to advance either the plot or our understanding of the ships' or characters' dynamis. So... why??? Even some scenes where there was supposed to be tension were completely dried out due to the dragged out descriptions the author made. Also, shout out to the cringiest sex scenes and sexual descriptions I have EVER read in my life.
Dan Simmons clearly knows how to write. And he researched the hell out of the Franklin Expedition. But my biggest grip with this book comes down to the choices he made. The reviews about women's poor treatment are real. I cannot stress enough about how poorly and superficially women are portrayed. Especially Lady Silence, and all Inuit women who show up, are so grossly objectified BY THE NARRATOR. Another choice I have a massive problem with is that with SUCH A LONG BOOK how is there not ONE POV of an Inuit character, namely Lady Silence who is one of the driving forces of the plot?? Don't even get me started on the end of her arc.

Why would she f*** and basically marry + have children with an old rude white coloniser riddled with diseases after 700 pages of not indicating that she gave a damn about him??

 
Anyway. I can't wait to rewatch the show!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Classism

owarcher's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Cannibalism

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Racial slurs

cbug412's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is off the chain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

athryn's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

This was thoroughly enjoyable. I really enjoyed the historical detail, although of course more info came out after this book was written, so some stuff is a little inaccurate, but that's perfectly fine too.

Overall a great story with a lot of twists and turns. I actually felt cold reading this. It's sometimes a bit of a bummer, but also I love seeing hubris take people, especially colonial era Brits.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nexadon's review against another edition

challenging dark funny sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I hope Dan Simmons never writes about indigenous people again, because he failed at every turn with their inclusion in this book. Disregarding that (if you can) The Terror is wonderfully gritty and foul, a great read for people who love it when men shit themselves to death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

thissydknits's review against another edition

3.0

Took me until I was halfway through to to like any of the characters, but I absolutely fell for Irving, Peglar, Bridgens, Goodsir, and Blanky. I was absolutely rooting for the Tuunbaq though. I didn’t really like how Crozier and Silence ended up together seemingly at random but I can see what the author was trying to do with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual harassment