Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

20 reviews

megelizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

"Outside, the wind howls on, uncaring of humans and the dramas they act out. It will blow across this land long after all of us are dust. After Dunbriga is dust. And other lives call this place home."

I really enjoyed this book overall. Not being much of a fantasy reader, it took me a minute to get into and I did find some parts either to drag a bit or go slightly over my head, but the powerful and devastating explorations of siblinghood and historical truth and societal advancement and change really pulled me through and I ended up both invested and ultimately devastated. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the balance between meticulous historical detail on the one hand and invention and characterisation on the other is perfectly struck. There's a lot going on and at times I did feel as if it was really trying to be two stories when it could have worked as one, but ultimately it did all come together and I felt satisfied (if also heartbroken) by how things turned out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse and Rape

lorraine19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

Despite the plot moving slow at first, the multiple layers of story keeps it interesting. There's the Christian church dominating a pagan community, war with Saxons looming, and the personal stories with each of the siblings. I found the parallels between these elements fascinating. 

If you know The Twa Sisters ballad, most of the plot likely won't be a surprise for you. If you are like me and went in blind, you'll probably find certain points predictable and others completely shocking. Character development is there - some for better and some for worst. The most moving - and arguably he main character of this multiple POV story - to me is the middle child Keyne. Their development and story of self discovery and empowerment is absolutely beautiful. 

As someone that is a fan of multiple POV books, I felt like it was almost unnecessary here. However, I do feel like it did result in some points being more effective. I'm left with conflicted feelings about the ending (specifically regarding Riva) but I think that's up to the individual reader. 

Overall, interesting read - especially if you are into paganism, European history, or magic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Slavery

thewillowwood's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this was so sad man…like damn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Murder

gemstonejasper's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Twa Sisters murder ballad retelling. Tragic with lots of character development. Themes of identity, magic, power, and being true to yourself. 

Trans masc rep. Gender fluid rep.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

Boring, most characters were kinda irritating

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

In this retelling of a gruesome old song, a magical world on the brink of destruction needs saving, but who will be the one to protect it?

This was quite the story. I’m glad I looked up the Twa Sisters beforehand otherwise I think I would have had a massive shock about 3/4 of the way in. The book definitely takes a sharp turn. 

I wasn’t all that interested in it to begin with. I didn’t find the story grabbed me, but once it took a darker turn, I definitely felt more inclined to see how it ended. 

Interesting idea, so-so execution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Confinement, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

claire_riach's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

simonlorden's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

4.5

me: I don't see how this is a retelling of the ballad
me, later: oh shit 

also yay for trans character who ends up being recognized as his true gender <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Transphobia, Death of parent, Murder, and War

maeverose's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

TL;DR: Has similar themes to the winternight trilogy (old religion vs christianity, war, evil priest, similar tho different time period and setting). If you liked that, maybe you would like this. Though for me, I loved that and was ultimately bored for most of this book. It just didn’t hook me, and it didn’t help that I only really cared for one pov.

That being Keyne’s. As a genderqueer person I’m always interested in books with trans rep, and even though I don’t believe this is own voices I thought it was done really well. There is misgendering and transphobia from certain characters throughout, but it’s not a trans trauma story, and there are many characters who accept his identity (tho it does take them a minute to catch on), and his transness isn’t his whole character. It is a bit binary though, feeding into stereotypes of what a man should be, but given the time period it makes sense? So idk. Overall decent rep. (Loved chapter 23)

I didn’t care for Riva’s pov because it was primarily focused on the romance, which I didn’t like, and I didn’t like Sinne’s pov because of the jealousy plotline between her and Riva. I did appreciate that the author didn’t go full on ‘I’m gonna steal your man’ with that plotline but it still annoyed me. Especially because this is trying to be a feminist book but the two women’s povs we get are so tied to this one man and their feelings for him and their new dislike of each other because of it.

I’m also both disabled and disfigured (though in different ways than Riva or Os), and I found the rep in this book was neutral overall. Not offensive but not exactly empowering either. Anytime Reva’s scars were mentioned it was often in a negative context, but we were shown through Riva’s pov her struggles with it and how much it hurt when people did say negative things about it, and there were characters who didn’t treat her any differently because of it. Os’s mutism was handled the same I would say. I did like to see Sinne learn to communicate with him, and I thought their friendship was really sweet. I would just like to see a disfigured/disabled character be confident in their body rather than focusing solely on the negatives of it. My scoliosis has negatives; pain and physical limitations, but I also genuinely like how my body looks, and that seems to be a hard concept for some people to grasp.

As for the story, it didn’t feel like a lot happened even though things were happening. It felt slow to me. It focused more on character development and their thoughts and feelings than it did plot, which normally I like but because I only cared for Keyne and a few side characters it didn’t work for me this time.

The ending…

Riva and Cynric’s ending. On one hand I liked that it was so unexpected and atypical for most stories like this, on the other hand… he was never redeemed in any way. And he lied to her, the whole time planning on killing her father and her people, then nearly succeeded at that… so he doesn’t deserve a happy ending at all, and I don’t get why she still loved him through all that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Excrement

The worst of the gore is in chapter 40, but it’s moderate here and there throughout the book.

mostlyvoidpartiallystars's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

A beautiful, heartbreaking, but inspiring book. The worldbuilding is rich. I love the combination of magical realism & historical fiction, it felt seamlessly woven in. I appreciated the strong anti-colonial themes. The disability representation is decent - I started out hesitant over how it was being handled, but I loved the progression. 

Finally, a recurring section I'm going to be adding to all my reviews going forward: Do they bury their gays?

No. The only queer/queer adjacent characters are a trans man, a bigender person, and the trans man's girlfriend, who isn't queer herself, but is part of a queer romance given her boyfriend is trans. None of these characters die, and no queer romances end tragically

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy