Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine

17 reviews

cryinginasexual's review against another edition

emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Loved it!! The characters are immediately very likeable and the focus on cultural differences through a mainly linguistic lens was super interesting. The ending felt satisfying and I’m excited to read the sequel!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Police brutality, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia, Gun violence, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Grief

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Police brutality, Confinement, Injury/injury detail, Death, Grief, Medical content, War, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Cursing

strange_little_ranger's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Colonisation, Blood, Cancer, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Police brutality, War, Grief, Gun violence, Alcohol, Injury/injury detail, and Vomit

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Suicide, and Police brutality

Moderate: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Violence, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Blood

acemummerz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Grief, Violence, Murder, Police brutality, Colonisation, Death, and War

ratatouilllie's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Violence, Medical content, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, and Genocide

maddiebusick's review

challenging tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Grief, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, and Injury/injury detail

Minor: Police brutality, Alcohol, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Classism

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

While this did take me a bit to get into, I ultimately found the mystery of this very enjoyable, particularly with the ending and what it explored. I do think I'll like the second book more with how this left off, and now that I feel more acclimated to the world. The one thing holding it back a bit was besides our main character and a few of the side characters, many of the characters seemed very similar and some of the character interactions and trust don't make sense given that this book takes place over 2 weeks. But otherwise, a well written exploration of cultures and political intrigue. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Xenophobia, Murder, Medical content, and Gun violence

Minor: Police brutality

dreareads_'s review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious tense slow-paced

4.75

 "Nothing touched by empire stays clean"

I came into this book expecting a cool sapphic SciFi story and  was taken aback by my reaction towards this book. I knew that it played with themes of colonialism but I was not expecting to be moved by Mahits own experience. By the idea of loving parts of your colonizer while simultaneously supporting and fighting for your own people. In many way, it made me think of my own feelings towards to US while being Puerto Rican. 

I really loved the characters, and would love to be best friends with Three Seagrass!

The political intrigue of this books was masterful. It was exciting to uncover the conspiracies that make up the Texicalaan Empire, culminating in an ending that was fairly unexpected.  The creativity and thoughtfulness that went into this books was fully engaging. This was such a great book!

4.75 stars because I have some nit picks.

1) At times it felt like the plot was taking place AROUND Mahit, instead of WITH her. There were moments where everyone was making decisions that Mahit had very little impact on. Thankfully this changed towards the end but still something that was very evident throughout the book.

2) The world is built on the complexity of language. In many occasions we are TOLD that the Texicalaani language is full of depth but we are rarely SHOWN. Honestly, I understand why we aren't shown (It would've been unreadable) but I would've appreciated a few more examples.

Still. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Classism, Blood, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Murder, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

jnl00700's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Suicide

Moderate: Genocide, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, and War