Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

11 reviews

underthemoon_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-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

3.75

4.5 stars for pure entertainment. -.75 because the book seems to want to communicate a clear moral but fails to consistently state what that moral would be either structurally or in text. I've never read a book about eugenics where the author's own opinion about eugenics is this unclear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Violence, War, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Medical trauma

Minor: Excrement, Cannibalism, and Dysphoria

insideunder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

A vivid young adult sci-fi dystopian novel with interesting world building and a main character who absolute goes through it. I like Darrow, especially since he has a character flaw - rage - that I find cathartic and relatable. His anger makes him impulsive and passionate, and gets him in trouble as much as it helps him. The performance of this audiobook elevated the story for me by at least one star. Wasn't sure I'd care for another War School story, but this one managed to have enough new and interesting ideas to keep me on my toes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Excrement and Cannibalism

ashlynregan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.5

Close enough welcome back Katniss Everdeen!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katharina90's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

I could never really get into this. It was boring, I didn't like any of the characters, and the writing/language wasn't my thing. 

I didn't care for the audiobook narration either.

Not going to pick up the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Cannibalism, and Colonisation

a_bow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Excellent example of how unchecked capitalism negatively impacts everyone, including those it benefits. It's in the same vein as Hunger Games.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, and Abortion

casualk's review against another edition

funny

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and War

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Mental illness

kaylanicholsmith's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Hmm... where to begin with this....

I feel like I was really excited to get to this finally because of all the hype that I've heard over all the years and it was... fine? This book is kinda dense. You get thrown right into the world of Darrow, the main character, and you are learning as you go. There is nothing about the world, the language, the setting that is really explained to you. Darrow, as a character, kinda expects people to just know what he is talking about. Sometimes this narrative style works for me and other times it doesn't. Ultimately, the writing style as a whole just wasn't my favorite. I kept trying to remind myself that we are primarily reading from the perspective of teenage boys (yuck) but it just felt over the top with the juvenile quality sometimes. Also, my biggest pet peeve in books, any genre, is when the author has to insert fart jokes or fart commentary (usually as an insult to another character). I just can't stand it. The amount of times the author used "turd" could also warrant some kind of an award.

Despite the issues with the writing my biggest question with this story was the handling of sexual assault. On one hand, I feel like the author did do something a little different than a lot of other male fantasy/scifi writers - the female characters were not only there to be sexually assaulted and serve no other purpose. However, on the other hand, the amount of sexual assault still felt gratuitous and the female characters underdeveloped. While there is nothing graphic on the page, there is ample talk about the sexual assaults taking place, and not all of it is condemning the actions taking place. Granted, sexual violence is quite commonplace in war situations and the bystander effect is a terrible thing that happens everyday, but the author didn't really seem to tackle the issue quite as head on as he might have thought he was. Perhaps that was because there is SO MUCH going on in this first book - I think that we cover about 2 years in the course of this first book - and it flies. There is no real delving into any of the social issues that are being raised in the book. Everything felt super surface level.

I haven't totally written off the rest of the series but I'm in no major rush to continue on. I wonder if, as the story continues to build, that the commentary will become stronger and the writing more palatable but who knows. Maybe I never will... we'll see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

brook_price's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

1.5

This book was definetely not for me. I've heard the sequels are better but yikes, the portrayals of women and any character other than the hyper-masculine, stunningly handsome, muscular main character were so lackluster and kind of insulting. Also, the treatment of rape was infuriating. I get that the characters discussing and analyzing the incidents are children and that the proctors watching over the games are indicative of the dystopia that hired them, but damn, the handling of assault was messed up. It was as if the women didn't matter. I got straight-up pissed off a couple of times reading this book. To make matters even more irritating, I thought the battle royal element was so boring. The stakes weren't outlined well and the pacing was way too slow. I don't think I'm the target audience for this story, so take my notes with a grain of salt, but ooofff, did not like this book. 1.5 for interesting character names at least.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Blood, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, and Classism

I personally did not like this book

coincidental's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Slavery, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation