Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Trădătoarea Baru Cormoran by Seth Dickinson

43 reviews

indeedithappens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

fauxpunk's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I will never be ok again 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and War

jaythemself's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Homophobia, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, and War

Heavy themes ubiquitous with colonism/imperialism but treated respectfully by the author

storiedleaf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

The tide comes in.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and War

searobin's review against another edition

2.5

The book itself was ok, aside from the plot...

I did not love the queer indigenous woman suppresses her sexuality and aids the colonisers to fully colonise another nation in order to somehow maybe save her own nation eventually story line

I got a bit lost in all the dukes and dutcheses and territories, so some moments were probably less poignant than they were supposed to be, but I got the gist.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I was a little skeptical about this book because I keep seeing it recommended alongside other books I didn't like very much, and the 'take an empire down from the inside' storyline can often be kind of cheesy. I'm glad I gave the book a chance (even though it hurt me severely) - this was a tragic story with fascinating characters that never lets you forget for a second the cost of empire. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

iellv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

Beautiful, stunning, gut-wrenching writing. Brutal and unflinching and yet still painfully human, for all of that talk about machines and scalpels. I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did; I’m hilariously terrible at math and accountancy, but I do have a weak spot for buff women, pathetic men, and geopolitics. The book is so much more than these things, because it focuses on the horrors of empire, and the impossible choices it might present you. Terrifying and intoxicating. The illusion of control and freedom and all of that in the face of omnipresence—the hand that moves all. IMO the book EXCELLED when it came to these things where it obviously fell flat in others (pacing, lesbianism, women, emotion, introspection, consistency, even etymology and the usage of certain words—although these were lacking, they didn’t bother me so much… but you can already tell from my rating. If you come into this remembering Seth Dickinson is a cishet? white man, I think you’ll find this to be a pretty solid effort lmao. Seriously. Consider other similar works written by cishet white men. This was great compared to those! It’s not even white mediocrity; I do genuinely still believe the book is often brilliant.)

Gosh I wish I had more to say and I wish I could be more articulate about it, but this book ripped my heart out and made me swallow it and laughed at my expense, probably. Maybe I’ll post a better review when I reread it.

KINDLY HEED ALL CONTENT WARNINGS.

RIP Muire Lo, Unuxekome, Lyxaxu, and Oathsfire, my nerdy/disappointing/cringefail men. I would have liked to give Muire Lo a little kiss, plague and all. Sorry you ended up being secretary to the worst girlboss to ever girlboss. RIP Ihuake and Nayauru, baddest bitches. RIP to all the horses bc I definitely did not like reading abt animals dying in so much detail. 
Lastly… nvm I don’t even want to think about Xate Olake and Tain Hu. Damn you Seth Dickinson.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and War

peachprince'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Eugenics, genital mutilation

yourwitcher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, War, and Classism

Minor: Torture

bruisedtigers's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was disappointing after seeing it so highly praised and discussed. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half falls flat, and the conclusion didn't land for me at all. There are too many characters, very few of which are unique enough to easily tell them apart, and that made all the war games difficult to follow. I kept mixing up who belonged where, what they offered, and their personalities didn't stand out. It might've been better if (major ending spoilers)

Baru's betrayal wasn't a 'surprise twist' -- and the reader experienced her struggle more directly through the whole war. Instead, since it's all her POV, she abruptly just becomes less insightful as a narrator, and you can put two-and-two together. Justice for Tain Hu, the only really good character. If I didn't already know she died, this would've probably made me much more upset about it. I think they needed to actually be together for more than one night for that betrayal to really cut deep. Instead, it feels gaudy.

I probably won't pick up the sequels, unfortunately. Highly suggest looking up content warnings as well. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Outing, Colonisation, and War