Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

66 reviews

e_len's review against another edition

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How did this even get published? It would have profited from more editing, especially the developmental kind. Mostly it was between wtf is happening and meh.
-sometimes the author get's preachy
-casual racism: white toxicity, a white p ople kind of place (what does that even mean?). As a non-American reader, this casual racism is off-putting. Can you see it, if I say black toxicity or a black people kind of place (alsono idea what that would even look like)
-very unlikeable character, perpetually stuck in teenage rebellion. For example, she hates a little boy for reading well.
I quit when she left her 2 defenceless infants in the woods at night in September to go hook up. They are sleeping is not an excuse.
Positives: descriptions to make Baudelaire proud, LGBTQIA representation

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casthefanby's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0


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julieyael's review against another edition

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I don’t know if the French translation was not good enough, or if it’s juste the book that doesn’t resonate with me. 

There was too much incoherence for my taste.
Spoiler The pregnant person jumping from tree to tree, the « babies » surviving alone for days when they should barely be able to walk and so on…


Also the main character was not really loveable or relatable and I had a hard time understanding her reactions. 
There is a mystery and some fantasy, but it’s not worth (for me) the challenge of reading this until the end. 

And the content of the book has many hard subjects which I was not really expecting (I should have checked the content warnings before, because I was really uncomfortable with lots of things)

So, not for me, but maybe for someone else it’s a good book. 

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ash_ton's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.75

i read this for the LGBTQIA+ book club i'm a part of! i don't normally gravitate towards science fiction so it's always nice to be pleasantly surprised. 
i was not expecting the turn the book took. like, at all. wild

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hel_lothere's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

really really good. impactful and horrific

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mjadeh's review against another edition

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4.75


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delaneybull's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked it but boy it was intense.

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maksipad's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was incredible. Gruesome in exactly the way it was intended. I will be thinking about Solomon’s commentary on community, queerness, and the violent legacy of whiteness for a long time.

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tinyjude's review against another edition

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

3.25


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strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

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

5.0

I have never read a book like this. I have been wanting to get into more eerie books and this totally scratched that itch for me. If you are a fan of spooky but not horror this is definitely for you. There is a lot of gore and body horror stuff that left me thoroughly unsettled. It reminded me of “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. The whole story was dark and brooding with little flecks of hope and the writing made the characters and setting come to life. 

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