Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

56 reviews

thethingwithfeathers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

tardisbookcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

alilbitofeveryth1ng's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Rape

kendal_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kylosten's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Genocide, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

ewinnk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content

tahsintries's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

ladybeldaran's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.75

This is a fantastic book. The first part goes a bit slow as the world and the characters are being set up for us, but once the plot picks up, I couldn't put the book down until I finished it (no, really, I kept taking little breaks at work, I stayed up way too late, etc.).

One thing I loved about this book is that the setting - which is otherwise brutal and filled with oppression, is completely queernormative & gender equal. Additionally, though the world is highly stratified according to a blood-based caste system that is an allegory for racial inequities in our own world, there is no anti-blackness in this book. All of the characters are Black, and you'll find no negative language about features associated with Black-ness at all. It just goes to show that you can engage with real-life oppression without re-traumatizing those suffering from those systems of oppression - I have a lot of respect for el-Arifi for managing this.

The characters are fascinating, and we continue to learn more about them and their pasts, while exploring the ways in which they are changing and responding to the events of the book. You'll find multi-faceted characters here. Both of our main characters have their flaws, but I was invested in them from the beginning. There's a surprising amount of mystery in the book, which I think is handled better than average for an epic fantasy book.

I think el-Arifi manages to juggle the personal stories extremely well with the epic, sweeping political events taking place, and this reinforces the book's core message about inequities - that the personal IS political. The setting is fascinating - we don't get to see much in the first book, which takes place almost exclusively in the city we start in, and I'm excited to (hopefully) see more in the second book.

In short, the moment I finished this book, I decided I couldn't wait for my library to receive the recently published second installment and went out and bought it myself. (And I'll still check it out when my library gets it, because this author deserves the circulation!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, and War