Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

7 reviews

crazytealady's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

A great comfort read! 

I just love Dan Brown’s writing style. He is so descriptive - you really dive into his world and it feels like you’re there. I’d also have the urge to write down every place in the book so I can visit/revisit them - like the Vatican Necropolis! 

I’m probably biased since I love stories about a) Italy b) the Vatican c) mysteries or who-dunnits d) symbolism - this was my cup of tea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Blood and Kidnapping

Minor: Ableism, Racism, Sexism, Islamophobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit and Medical content

Minor: Fatphobia and Islamophobia

laurajordensharris's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

The breadth and depth of architectural and physical detail is good but the science is iffy, which normally wouldn't be much of a downside except that the author clearly went to a lot of effort to make it as accurate as possible--I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it might've seemed more accurate twenty years ago. I'd say the twists were pretty predictable, except that somehow, even though I suspected

the camerlengo ever since Chartrand mentioned the walk they'd taken together, Janus's true identity still caught me off guard because the author had spent the last hundreds or so pages advancing the Kohler-is-Janus theory

, so kudos for that. Vittoria is, unexpectedly, a better developed and more capable character than Langdon, so ally points for that--and then a whole slew of them taken off because the Hassassin and Kohler are, respectively, absolutely skin-crawling racist, Islamaphobic, and ableist stereotypes. On a pure narrative level, it's mediocre; in its representation, worse than mediocre. Also, more malapropisms than a Bush speech. There have to be better "solve-conspiracy-puzzle" thrillers out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racial slurs

m4rtt4's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I admire Dan Brown for his ability to create these kinds of page-turners full of interesting facts. I'm not a huge fan of action books or movies where everything is centered around villains and violence, but all the nerdy stuff in this book surely made up for it :)

On the other hand, I really dislike Brown's way of writing characters, everything from creating backstories interesting enough to describing them in present day and action. I mean, of course Robert Langdon is as perfect as Brown's wanted him to be (bet he created him as a perfect version of his own self), but oh god, ARE THERE MORE TO FEMALE CHARACTERS THAN THEIR BODIES? Obviously there should be, but I wouldn't recommend using Brown's books as a guide to writing women. Or, tbh, any other characters either, so very one-dimensional, stereotypical, (and even racist) he made them all (apart from Langdon ofc). Especially the assassin — his actions and overall villain-ness didn't frustrate me nowhere near as his personality was written to be.

So, overall the story was adventurous and entertaining if you just treat most of the chacters as "necessary implementers to the required actions" and ignore their personal traits. Wouldn't recommend if you dislike science and/or history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Sexism, and Suicide

caro221's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

Im Not Sure, I really Like it the First half but Then Well what
The only poc were a camera Woman who got talked down to by a Rookie News Guy and a murderer/almost-rapist.....

Victoria lost her dad, got almost Killed, knocked Out almost raped and then she Just jumps Landon....
Landon got almost crushed, Shot, drowned, knocked Out, Fell from the Sky and then drowned almost again....

The plottwists Well I think at 2/3 that I suspect the CERN Guy, and the bretrayl from the guard came Out of nowhere
And Then Just everybody dies...nice

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

willemke's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, Torture, and Religious bigotry