Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Vindens skugga by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

8 reviews

kcjulia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Although I loved the literary mystery and setting,  the ubiquitous misogyny and violence is hard to handle. Women are not treated well in this book…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: War

breadwitchery's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Misogyny

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and War

pipn_t's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Surely the author could have set the historical scene without so many racist remarks and sexist attitudes.  Also got tired of everyone beating each other to a pulp.  It was an interesting story, which is why I read to the end, but one of the major plot points revolves aroundc content I don’t like reading about (

incest

) so I felt rather like I wasted my time on this whole thing as it kinda ruined my enjoyment of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, and Antisemitism

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

1. this book would not pass the bechdel test.
2. the twist almost made me shit myself. 
3. “the day was turning out to be longer than The Brothers Karamazov” is so funny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Racial slurs, Rape, Antisemitism, Abortion, and Classism

wortwahl's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I adore Zafons writing. He uses words to paint vibrant but also dark pictures amd makes it an incredible journey to read The Shadow of the Wind. However...did he really have to include incest? It's such a beautiful story, but that storyline just put a damper on it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Incest, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual content, Police brutality, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and War

sherbertwells's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-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

2.0

On the streets of fascist Barcelona, a boy unravels the mystery behind his favorite book. Some stories can survive the fact that their authors don’t really understand women; in this one the plot threatens to buckle under its own accumulated misogyny.

“I imagined Julián Carax at my age, holding that image in his hand, perhaps in the shade of the same tree that now sheltered me. I could almost see him smiling confidently, contemplating a future as wide and luminous as that avenue, and for a moment I thought there were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss and that the light that smiled on me was borrowed light, real only as long as I could hold it in my eyes, second by second” (147)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Blood, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and War

cewritespoems's review against another edition

This book is just jarringly sexist and once the narrator turns 16, I couldn’t read more than a page and a half before running into another description along the lines of undressing a woman is “like peeling a sweet potato on a winter’s night” or lengthy descriptions of breasts. At first I thought the author was just trying to characterize a few characters as womanizers… but every single man except one minor character in this novel can’t speak one sentence without objectifying every woman around them. I just want to read the actual mystery and the gothic elements but it’s impossible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Homophobia and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Excrement

kayleyhyde's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and Excrement