Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

8 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

4.0

This would be a solid 5 stars if it weren’t for one  thing that rubbed me the wrong way…

Spoiler

That  being the way Kite murdered Frank and everyone just kinda forgot about it. Like that made him irredeemable to me. I would’ve loved the whole romance plot line and been totally happy with the ending if it weren’t for that one thing. If the author is autistic I’d be willing to look past it, even though I still think it was an odd choice, but if she’s allistic that gives me the ick. The way he was physically restrained, slapped and literally murdered while having a meltdown? Just to keep Joe from remembering who he was. That is not justified on Kite’s part. At all. And Joe just seemingly forgets about it after a while??

I also didn’t love some of the ways the author described Kite’s scarring and Clay’s disfigurement and ‘childlike’ behavior from his trauma. It could just be Joe’s/Kite’s thoughts not the author’s, but it bothered me a bit. It wasn’t horrible though.

Otherwise I really liked this book. I heard someone suggest it as a book similar to The Binding (which I also liked until I found out the author was a terf), and this definitely has a similar feel to The Binding, though a pretty different plot. I knew very little going in and I think that’s the best way to read it. Despite how mostly negative this review is I would recommend this if the synopsis sounds intriguing. Just check content warnings!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, War, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Misogyny, Rape, Child abuse, Gore, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Racism, Ableism, and Fatphobia

graphic: Amnesia, Intrusive Thoughts, minor: Eugenics

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Death, Gun violence, War, Kidnapping, Sexism, and Animal death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Suicide

augustar14's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Murder, War, Grief, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, Racism, and Sexism

quirkilybookish's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

An excellent time travelling/alternate universe historical fiction that really sucked me in! It jumps between times and perspectives and has some epistolary writing as well, all of which was very fun to piece together. I picked up a copy in Edinburgh and the world-building was extra special having explored the city and castle it describes. And who doesn’t love some gay sailors/pirates? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Racism, and Self harm

Minor: Murder, Suicide, Sexual violence, and Child death

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

A brisk, clever time-traveling, alternate-dimension-hopping adventure. The characters are immediately likeable and memorable, although they don't have much interiority;

Spoiler

even after Joe/Jem regains all his memories, it's difficult to place his relationship with Kite in the context of his marriages to Alice / Madeleine, and what Agatha and Jem also felt for each other is a mystery

. Pulley's style is delightful, lyrical and lucid at the same time. It feels strange to be rooting for the British Navy, here buckling under French colonialism; on the one hand, a keen attention to historical detail is counterbalanced by the narrow scope of telling a story of British soldiers fighting French occupation with barely a mention of Britain's own empire. I'm still discontented with the way some threads are tied up:

Spoiler

When does Kite reckon with the consequences of killing a teenage boy? A freak change killing off Toby and Alice and dropping children into Kite and Joe's laps seems like a cop-out way to give them a nuclear family.

But overall, a thrilling tale with immediate, powerful characters that turns on the tropes of amnesia and the horrors of war.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, War, Colonisation, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Classism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol and Genocide

On rape:

Spoiler

though the narrative seems to acknowledge that the main character is forced into sex by his wife, it stops short of condemning her.

On racism:

Spoiler

The aforementioned wife is one of the only Black characters in the novel, and also killed off in order to give the white and white-passing main couple her children.

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War

rebeccarudisill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is not the kind of book I normally would give 5 stars. There’s a lot of things in here that I don’t usually enjoy - violence, suspense, danger to children. But it was just so compelling. I had to know what happened next! The plot was complex and surprising and somehow uplifting and funny despite all the horrible things happening. Screw your courage to the sticking place, and read this book!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

This book is an incredibly tough read. Their are VIVID descriptions of war and the carnage that ensues. I had to take it very slowly. Be warned!

jamieleepilk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hooooolllyyyy shit, this book. End of review. Bye.

God damn. I adored this twisty turn story, full of action, romance and different timelines all smushed together in one epic book!
The characters are extremely well written and complex, you can't help but fall in love with them. You want to know everything about what happened and is happening to Joe as his life and his memories don't seem to match up. The world is so vivid it's easy to escape into even though I did find myself at points having to force myself to stop reading because I just didn't want it to end. All the twists and turns in this book kept me guessing and I really liked the notion of not knowing what the outcome was going to be. This book was an utter masterpiece and a joy to read.

This is my first time reading anything by Natasha Pulley but I will be immediately purchasing everything she's ever written to correct the error of my ways as she will 100% become an auto-buy author after this

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Medical content