Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

27 reviews

katbenimble's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.5

My biggest complaint about this book is that the sequel isn't our 🤣😭.
Overall, I loved the characters and the magic and also the revolution piece.  Will be very interested to see where the story goes in book 2!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Classism, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Minor: Abortion, Sexual assault, and War

smoore236's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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: Violence, Xenophobia, Sexism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Hate crime, Death, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual harassment, and Outing

beldaran1224's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

This is a fast read, and a good time. The author explores many facets of women's rights and specifically explores the variety of issues that are specific to women of all classes and circumstances and how all of those are political. This is done through the lens of a fantasy world with magic.

The world is well rooted in SWANA (South West Asia, North Africa) elements, which gives it a great deal of life and authenticity. The magic system is fun and will appeal to anyone who enjoys "elemental" magic.

The characters were perfectly selected as a lens to view the Daughters of Izdihar (the suffrage organization) through. I also particularly enjoyed the way the author wrote the responses of the various men in the story to the Daughters.

I look forward to the second book in the planned duology!

More details about content warnings: this book goes over a host of issues that women face, many of which can be traumatic for women who have experienced them. Among these are abortion, purity tests (and the sexual violation associated with them), sex shaming, and homophobia. The book does not treat them flippantly, but nor does it linger on them in graphic detail. At all times, the book condemns these things. The book deals honestly with very heavy topics, but it isn't interested in holding them up as entertainment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Police brutality, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

sammy_nor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Police brutality, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Grief and Classism

Minor: Homophobia

verinvaldez's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

2.0

I nearly DNFed this book but since it's so short and I was already halfway through I decided to finish it. It wasn't the book I was expecting, I was told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender in an Egyptian-inspired fantasy world and therefore was expecting a major focus on the magic aspect. However this is a book primarily focused on politics, women's suffrage, class and female weavers stuggling to control their abilities.

As other reviews have said, the magic system is the exact same as bending in ATLA. A certain plot point was taken directly from ATLA. 

Spoiler

There is a reveal where the waterweaver main character Nehal  accidentally bloodweaves and bloodweaving is highly forbidden and kept secret, I'm pretty sure the reason she gets kidnapped at the end of the book is because she is a bloodweaver and she is going to be used by the enemy kingdom as a weapon.

Which unfortunately made the magic aspect fairly dull because it was too derivative, I expected inspired by ATLA not exactly the same system.

Nehal was a very irritating character, highly stubborn and I found her impossible to like as she appears to be completely disconnected from reality, failing to understand the consequences of her actions and only proceeds to get even angrier when things don't go her way. Nico barely felt like a character, he has somewhat progressive opinions in this world but he just does whatever the plot is asking of him and most of the time he's just pining after Giorgina. Giorgina was the most interesting character to me because she is far more grounded in reality than Nehal and Nico are, however she wasn't compelling.

I am not invested enough in these characters or this world to have any interest in reading the upcoming second book in this duology. Absolutely nothing is resolved by the end of this book, it is all just setup for the next book so don't expect a satisfying ending going into this.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading a book where the setting is inspired by Egypt, the descriptions of the clothing were fascinating and the political ideas were interesting but the themes weren't married together well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Confinement

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Violence, Classism, and Biphobia

Minor: War, Gun violence, Abortion, Grief, and Kidnapping

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Police brutality, Misogyny, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Abortion, Grief, Child abuse, and Confinement

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I have too many thoughts so will update with a review later. 

My biggest thought right now: not sure why the magic system was literally lifted out of Avatar the Last Airbender with the only change being "bending" called "weaving" instead...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abortion, Classism, Grief, Gun violence, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

cacole's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Murder, Classism, Death, Police brutality, and Abortion

Minor: Homophobia

kefeshe's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-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

3.0

I found this very slow to start and a tad bit "put-down-able" it took a while to get fully introduced to the characters, where they lived in relation to everyone else and to understand the layout and history of this world. However! At about the 40% mark, it vet suddenly switches gear. Things are happening left right and centre and I found myself saying "just one more chapter" right until I finished the book! Lol! Overall a pleasant read and I'm excited to read the next one! Seems like a great vacation read because its entertaining without being too tensem

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, and Sexism

Minor: Abortion and Homophobia

glass_carousel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Classism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion, Vomit, Abandonment, and War