Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

21 reviews

cayliehausman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

An absolute must read series for anyone who enjoys fantasy, or social commentary. 

Wow, N.K. Jemisin knows how to rip your heart out of your chest and delicately place it in front of you on an offering plate. THIS. FINALE. WOW. WOW. WOW. The plot was brilliant, the ending even more so.

I can’t wait to dive into more of her books after finishing this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

chasinggrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

What do you even say about this book, the ending to this trilogy? All I know is that it is cemented (get it?) as some of the best writing, storytelling, and character building that I’ve experienced. 

This story explores a breadth of themes: motherhood (reluctant, surprising, unfortunate, all-encompassing), oppression, climate change, revenge, found family, survival, hatred, guilt, and GRIEF. 

So much grief, so much love. My heart absolutely shatters for the main character - we follow her entire life in these three books and I don’t know if I’ve ever truly understood a character more than I have come to understand her. You fall in love with her broken, imperfect self. 

But I also deeply understand the other main POV in the second and third installments. I get her - she demonstrates the consequences of experiencing endless tragedy and oppression in childhood. Her decisions make perfect sense when you know her, just like the decisions of the main character. I saw myself in both characters time and time again. 

I’m also pretty sure I’ll never ever ever get over the “love interests” (questionable title) of these books. Innon, you will ALWAYS be famous to me!!! Lerna, you were too pure for this story. Baster, you bastard, I love your crazy ass. Any time I read about these men I was close to tears! 

All of this being said, there are of course have imperfections in this trilogy that I want to state:

• Hoa’s POV frustrated me in this book - I found myself not caring enough during his chapters, even though they are the most important to understand what the fuck is happening and why. I feel like the author could have explored literary devices other than lengthy flashbacks to communicate Hoa’s purpose. 
• The literary device used in Book 1 made me obsessed with the series, and I found myself missing it in Books 2 and 3. 
• I know this is ultimately a story about motherhood, but for a girl who never actively wanted children, this bitch gets pregnant a LOTTTT. By the fourth one I was OVER IT and I found the last one to be so unnecessary. We already know that Lerna is a great guy, we didn’t need this emotionless realization of procreation.
• It took 3 books to understand what the fuck the whole war is about, and even now I don’t think I get Steel’s POV or reasoning for manipulating Nassun. I couldn’t explain to you all the sides/motivations of this war if I tried. 

This trilogy is fucking emotional and I can say now that I get the hype. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

dkamada's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

kalagrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

A very satisfying ending to the trilogy. Sad but hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-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? Yes

5.0

Sobbed my way through the last chapter. 
This author is a genius. The world-building is wildly thorough. I know that I need to re-read this series so that I can understand it better because I do feel like some of it went over my head. She has such a powerful understanding of humanity and families that keeps wrecking my shit. 
This last book was honestly hard to want to read--because I just didn't like reading Nassun's POV (it's still excellent! I just wanted to spend time with Essun, but I know how important Nassun's POV was there)--but every time I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pregnancy

wormgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Colonisation

f18's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-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? Yes

5.0

Tempted to take away a star just for

just throwing away Best Character Lerna like that D: At minimum he deserved for Essun to be looking at him when it happened.

But I'm not that petty. I'm not...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Incest, Vomit, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

azariamckay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

WOW!! I officially finished the Broken Earth Trilogy and Ms. Jemisin gave us soooo much in this last book. What an epic way to end a trilogy! I can’t wait to reread this series 🩷

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Genocide, Racial slurs, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

abijmieds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

I rarely give a final book 5 stars, but this book wrapped up the trilogy in such a memorable and satisfying way. You have to pay attention through the final third, but it really pays off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

martinatan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Really stuck the landing on this one!!! I was so skeptical reading through the middle part that the ending wouldn’t be satisfying but it turned out to be thrilling, heart wrenching, really intriguing and only a little confusing. I felt myself a little lost in the buildup of more lore every so often but that was more because I got distracted often while reading, and I had read The Obelisk Gate over a year ago. I think all the characters’ endings felt true to their character development, although

Lerna’s death was so surprising and sad and just a twist of the knife that felt it was done to in just further push how tragic Essun’s life has been as a mother and a partner

. But idk that’s my first impression having just read that scene 30 minutes ago. In terms of actual lore and thematic development as well as experimental writing style, this was a really spectacular conclusion overall to the trilogy and helped solidify the cohesiveness of all three books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Minor: Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail