Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Bat by Jo Nesbø

11 reviews

yetanothernastya's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Barely made it through the book. I decided to pick it up because I have heard many people praise Jo Nesbø’s later books. This one, however, is a weird one, at some point it was so bad it was good, but overall I would not recommend this book. Every character is a caricature. Women are either fat, annoying and undesirable by the main character or sexy, young, and cheerful. They are also very “written by men”, I laughed so hard at some intimate scenes, it felt like a teenager was commissioned to try and imagine how adults date. There was so much racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism within the first 30 books, I almost DNF the book. The story itself was kinda boring and not well told or developed. The choice of a killer and their motives also made me go “this is definitely written by a white dude in the 90s”. Honestly, skip this one and read the ones in the series that are actually good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Colonisation, and Classism

h3ykatrina's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

e11en's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.5

Readable, but it was all a bit ick. The Australian characters were farcical and all of the lengthy exposition on Australian politics and history felt very forced and preachy. I did not like the ending or the ‘big reveal’. There are also a few scenes where someone kicks a dog and it’s treated like just a funny act(?!) but honestly that made me more uncomfortable than the gruesome murder scenes. And although I’m sure the book is actually quite progressive considering it was published in 1997, there are a lot of ways in which it hasn’t aged well. Lots of casual fatphobia, for instance. There is also a lot of homophobia and racism although I’m sure it’s all largely representative of this time in history. And the use of some offensive terms that are considerably outdated. 
I’ve really enjoyed Nesbo’s writing in the past. I’m open to trying another Harry Hole in time, but this one was *not it*. Give it a miss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation

midwifekt's review against another edition

dark

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

2.0

You can't keep great white sharks in captivity*. That was silly, and easy to find with minor research, and how am I supposed to take anything else seriously? 

In non-shark problems, I realize this was published a million years ago (1997), but yikes. Cannot say I recommend in this year of two thousand and twenty three. 

*Monterey Bay Aquarium had a research program in the mid-2000s, and the longest they could keep one was for 198 days. I was privileged enough to see one while it was there, but you just can't keep them alive in captivity. They get aggressive, and don't eat, and die. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Rape, Suicide, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

slimepuppy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Despite the blatant homophobia, transmisogyny and fatphobia, this book could have been way more fun - except when it finally begins to pick up the pace, the story grinds to a halt as the main character spirals, taking all the moderate fun time the reader was having with him down the drain.

Not terrible, but it took too long to get actually intersting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Rape, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs and Injury/Injury detail

capra's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, and Colonisation

ekmook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I don’t even know where to begin with how deeply offensive and problematic this entire book was…even for 1997.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

splaex's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The plot ccasionally feels a little messy and convoluted but overall very enjoyable reading experience.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Rape, Kidnapping, Murder, and Colonisation

nieva098's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Colonisation

oddreads_nicolestins's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I truly enjoyed this one! I don't know why I was expecting the story to be based more in Norway- BUT I was pleasantly surprised that the book was based in Australia. What really made this book 5-stars for me, was all the details and nuance about the Aboriginal characters. Nordic reads can definitely fall flat by lacking diverse characters (for example, having very similar characters skew either good or bad could turn a story into a pile of sameness after 300 pages, depending on what you're into of course). By adding the views of more than one Aboriginal person, as well as having them represent different tribes and having different upbringings/lifestyles, I was able to really get a feel for them as people and so (without naming names) I was actually shocked/saddened when the plot twists occurred.

There were also other characters that Nesbø gave life to that might've been abbreviated or omitted completely by another author. For this I appreciate him and think if you appreciate character-driven crime reads, then his books are for you! There's also plenty plot to go around! Excited to start book 2 for #nordicnovember

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Drug use

Moderate: Death and Trafficking

Minor: Suicide and Colonisation