Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Love After the End: Two-Spirit Utopias & Dystopias by Joshua Whitehead

15 reviews

wordsareworlds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A short anthology that packs an amazing emotional punch. Out of the nine stories, I think my favorite was Andwànikàdjigan but it is really, really hard to choose. The last story is a companion to the author's entry in Love Beyond Body, Space and Time, and I wish I had that entry close by to read them together, but I think it would stand alone well too. 

I loved the inclusion of Native language in these stories, which I found easy to grasp the meaning of in context when it wasn't spelled out, and the overall thematic throughline of connection to, and responsibility for, Earth. The way love carried through and lifted up the characters, even when other things could easily have been overwhelming, filled me with joy.

I wish I could give this a full 5 stars, but unfortunately Nameless was a complete miss for me, and with it being part of such a short anthology and the second-to-last entry, I was left on a less enthusiastic note than those first few entries. 

Would definitely recommend for anyone looking for a short and satisfying set of SFF stories, and hope to read more from these authors very soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism and Animal death

Minor: Addiction

alanahcw's review against another edition

5.0

I really enjoyed these stories, and will be looking for more from these authors!

I have to note: Story for a Bottle by Darcie Little Badger is similar to the new Fallout show; timely that I read this at the same time as watching

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction and Cannibalism

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, and Colonisation

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Colonisation

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I never really like reading short story collections because it takes me so long to get into them and then by the time I'm invested that's right when it ends. Then that's on loop the whole book. But that said I did really like this collection! Super super interesting worlds, some of which I really wanted more of, but the stories were all a great length on their own. Lots of beautiful writing and apocalyptic stories with at least some hope in them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Medical content, Murder, and War

heavy CW for apocalypse and climate crises/climate anxiety

ka_cam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A quality collection of short stories- many are pretty dystopian and post/apocalyptic, so be aware of that going in. I especially enjoyed the stories that explored themes of human consciousness and AI (and indigeneity and/or queerness can be related/within that) and explorations of what kinship and belonging could mean in different futures. Some were more interesting and creative to me that others but all in all a good read and I’d like to follow the contributors for more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

spinesinaline's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Medical content, and War

libraryghost's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: War

maeverose's review against another edition

hopeful

3.5

This is a very beautiful and  needed collection of stories by queer indigenous authors. As is expected with short story collections, they were hit or miss for me. I’m including my ratings and content warnings for each story in this review so if you don’t want to see the content warnings feel free to skip it.

A note on my ratings: I rate books/stories on my personal enjoyment level, not on any objective writing or storytelling factors. (1= hated it, 2= not for me, 3= just fine, 4= really liked it, 5= loved it)

• Abacus by Nathan Adler (3⭐️)

Cw: sexual content (very minor)

• History of The New World by Adam Garnet Jones (4⭐️)

Cw: sexual content, slavery, murder, racism, xenophobia, violence, injury, colonization, abandonment, pregnancy

• The Ark of the Turtle’s Back by Jaye Simpson (3.5⭐️)

Cw: transphobia, sexual content, slavery, infertility (sort of), grief, medical content, colonization, pregnancy/baby talk

• How To Survive The Apocalypse For Native Girls by Kai Minosh Pyle (2⭐️)

There’s nothing wrong with this story it’s just not for me, largely because of the narrator’s voice. They sounded very young and naive for 16 and it irked me.

Cw: transphobia, f slur, child abuse, fire, murder, minor mention of war

• Andwànikàdjigan by Gabriel Castilloux Calderon (5⭐️)

This story made me feel so much and so strongly in such a short amount of pages. wow

Cw: murder, death of loved ones, grief, fire, descriptions of scars similar to self harm scars (but not self harm), descriptions of cutting for non self harm reasons, gun violence, colonization, blood, confinement, death of a parent

• Story for a Bottle by Darcy Little Badger (2.5⭐️)

Cw: kidnapping, confinement, animal harm, child abuse

• Seed Children by Mari Kurisato (2⭐️)

Cw: blood, death, cannibalism, injury, gun violence, religious bigotry, violence, murder, vomit

• Nameless by Nazbah Tom (3.5⭐️)

Cw: war, murder, alcohol, addiction, vomit

• Eloise by David A. Robertson (4⭐️)

I don’t know how I feel about this one. I really liked the writing style and the concepts

but I’m confused why Emma wanted to forget Cassie. Unless I missed it they never explained that and it felt like something that should’ve been explained.

Cw: grief, depression, cancer

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Infertility, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and War

A heavy theme of climate crisis in a lot of the stories

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer and Sexual content