Reviews tagging 'Classism'

City of Bones by Martha Wells

8 reviews

bonriki's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

erinbrenner's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

misterwisp's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It's pretty good. The enjoyable aspects are the world and the characters. The biggest difficult aspect is the slow pacing in parts, and elaborate excessive attention to small details can make things drag a bit. 

The world is centuries into the aftermath of some kind of magical eco-disaster that left behind a harsh desert. The cities are shaped by extremes of poverty and wealth. Acquisition, ownership, and trading of relics from the mage culture before the big disaster is the big shaping force in the society and culture. It feels interesting and unique. It's not just pseudo medieval Europe or anything like that. The characters are well written and felt worth investing in. 

The plot is a bit slow. Things take a long time to happen. Scenes often have a high level of description including specific breakdown of lighting conditions, the exact details of patterns on the furniture, and the minutiae of the clothing characters are wearing, etc. After a certain point it felt unnecessary and repetitive. 

Frustrations aside it was a good read and the pace picked up in the last quarter. Time spend was not regretted. The author has a creative imagination. There was payoff and the ending was satisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Classism

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, and Medical trauma

escapismforlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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

4.0

It was a long extra few weeks before I finished this standalone sci-fi and fantasy, but I finished and it was both super technical and somehow dramatic yet fun throughout. The audiobok definitely helped get me more invested with how this story is told. In particular to grasp the main characters voices and lifestyles in this dystopic city. They were chaotic but logical somehow for a setting that underestimates them for there positions. Which I automatically resonate with the complicated role they have to balance each are put in that's always nicely done in these genres and more so I ones with political infighting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Death, Rape, Trafficking, and Gaslighting

mleiv's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My favorite Wells’ book after the Murderbot Diaries. If you like spooky Remnant tech stuff, there is loads of that here. People living in the broken remains of an older, more sophisticated society. But threatened by terrifying aliens trying to come back and kill everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, and Classism

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

zed_dog's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.75

We love a scrappy, resourceful hero who uses others' underestimation of them to their own advantage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Classism

Moderate: Torture