Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

7 reviews

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This book is brutal, gory, and completely depressing. It chronicles the aggressive settlement of native lands by white people, the political violence the tribes enacted in response and also sua sponte, and the slow vanishing of native culture. It's compulsively readable - Gwynne goes back and forth between decades, smartly telling history through the lens of different actors - and incredibly informative. This is a period of U.S. history that I don't know much about (which is obviously intentional by the education system) and it was all very interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Addiction

brandiereadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emmiestrick's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

An excellent account of one of the most impressive original American cultures and its people. A necessary read for anyone interested in the true history of this land. Engaging, inspiring, and deeply saddening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Kidnapping, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Rape, and Cannibalism

readingwithrebeccanicole's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Violence and Kidnapping

Minor: Child death and Rape

pirateenthusiast's review against another edition

1.25

A well researched book. I learned a lot, but this is where the positives end. The language used in this book is repeatedly and horrendously racist. I'm not sure if this was the authors intention or not, but he portrays the Comanches and Native Americans as a whole as "backward stone age hunters". Gwynne claims to be providing an unbiased neutral book that shows both sides in an accurate light. He certainly succeeds in not straying away from the violence of the Comanches with his brutal and graphic descriptions, yet when he describes the violence of the other side, the terms are much more vague, giving the reader the wrong impression. Here is a list of words used in this book and the frequency that they appeared.

Native: 32
Indian(s): 1,177
Savage: 28
Primitive: 19
Redskin: 3
Squaw: 25
Indigenous: 1

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs and Rape

Minor: Animal death

owlgal369's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I greatly enjoyed this book. The author presented the dark story of an empire's end in a nuanced and sensitive fashion, but was not afraid to give the reader the full details of the horrors both sides suffered during the long war between white settlers and the Comanche nation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Murder

folieassdeux's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Grief