Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

3 reviews

ryyyaaan's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The only reason I am rating this so highly is because I found the story so interesting and captivating. The world building was also fantastic (most of the time). I really cannot empathize how much I enjoy the story, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have finished this book. There are a lot of grievances I have with it that probably would have stopped me from finishing it it I wasn’t enjoying the story so much. My major problem is the author’s liberal use of using sexist and racist tropes.

Also, the decision to introduce a blind character (I was thrilled to see some seemingly great disability representation!), only to very quickly have her blindness magically cured.

Most of the world building was wonderful, but one thing that irked me was the naming of certain things. There are a lot of great neologisms, but there are a lot that are just regular words with one letter replaced, like “chymestry”. And naming the planet Urth. Really? That was a cool word for about two seconds until I tried to pronounce it in my head. It’s just Earth. One final complaint, which is more a pet peeve of mine than an actual negative about the book, is the authors use of actual science concepts that he clearly only understands at a very basic level, but presents so pedantically as if he’s a genius for including them in his novel. I know I have a lot of negative things to say, but they’re possible to look past, and I really can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Excrement, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry

readwthsam's review

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.25

overall, i did enjoy this book! it was fhe first ever novel i’ve read of Rollins and i was not too disappointed. 

albeit i did like the cast of characters, i feel as if there were a tad stereotypical (?) and the pov switching was a little distracting and hard to keep up with in the beginning, which then made it quite difficult to catch on to what the main conflict was. however the overall plot itself was interesting

undecided if i want to read the second book later this year 

ps: also i read this for a school project hence why i dragged out how long i read it lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Rape, and Sexual assault

pvbobrien's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape and Death of parent