Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

22 reviews

anjasshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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: Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, Colonisation, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Drug use

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

This is just as wonderful as everyone says it is. This sort of slice-of-life thing in a Sci-Fi setting really works for me, but it's the characters are really that shine here. If you love a big cast you can emotionally invest in, this is the book for you. I can see why some might find it a bit boring, but for me it was damn near perfect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Torture, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Blood, Child death, Grief, Alcohol, War, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement and Cursing

addie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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: Grief and Violence

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Torture, and Sexual content

Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Gore

aceofknives's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Terminal illness, Police brutality, and Confinement

Moderate: Vomit

cookiecat73's review against another edition

lighthearted relaxing medium-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gun violence, Torture, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Violence, Acephobia/Arophobia, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Incest, Classism, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Vomit, and War

maeverose's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

TL;DR: It was okay. Most of the focus is on the characters and worldbuilding, which I liked, but I still wished there was more plot.

Tropes/Themes:

-ragtag group of friends

-space adventures

-found family

-alien cultures/worldbuilding

Things I liked:

-The characters and their group dynamic/friendships. It took me a while to get attached to them, but by the end I felt really connected to their friendship with each other. (Kind of a guardians of the galaxy dynamic)

-I did actually enjoy the worldbuilding. I found it really interesting to learn about the different alien cultures, histories and locations they visited.

Things I didn't like:

-sounds like a silly complaint, but there's a brief moment in the beginning where Corbin's clammy hands are essentially described as gross, and as someone with hyperhidrosis it doesn't feel good reading that. Especially when I was hoping this would be another comfort read, coming from ‘a psalm for the wild built’. It just kinda put a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the book. I wish authors would stop describing a character’s physical traits as something that adds to their bad attitude or whatever. It’s offensive and often ableist.

-I wish there'd have been a little more focus on the story. I kept getting confused about how much time had passed and how far along they were on their journey, because each chapter felt like a side quest or filler episode of a tv show or something. Which I didn't totally mind, but as I said a little confusing as to where they were on their journey. It felt a little disjointed. I also felt like some of the times they got into trouble during the trip they moved on from it really quickly. Like the tone was a bit all over the place, going from tense and kinda dark to happy fun times with friends a bit suddenly.

-In this book they/them pronouns are treated exclusively as plural pronouns. I know this was written a few years ago now and in ‘a psalm for the wild-built’ Dex uses they/them pronouns, and even in this book neopronouns are used here and there, so I know the author understands that they/them isn't only plural and understands non binary identities, but just a heads up that that’s in this book. There also aren't any actual non binary characters in this book, only alien species that change sexes throughout their life as part of their biology. But that isn’t trans rep. Sex does not equal gender, and this series doesn’t seem to get that.
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I didn’t really buy the romance between Rosemary and Sissix. They didn’t feel like they had any romantic chemistry up until right before Rosemary made her move, and even then Sissix didn’t seem to have any feelings for Rosemary. Even after that scene their relationship wasn’t really explored or shown hardly at all.

-Lastly, even though he's an ass, I wish we got more of Corbin's perspective throughout the book. I felt like he was a bit neglected until the very end, whereas every other character had a lot more focus. Except Ohan, I guess, but they still had more than Corbin.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: War, Gore, Terminal illness, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Xenophobia, Ableism, Cursing, Death, and Sexual content

solenekeleroux's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Xenophobia, War, Confinement, Torture, Genocide, and Racism

naomi_k's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Cursing

Minor: Terminal illness, Medical content, Alcohol, War, Transphobia, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Genocide, and Colonisation

jkpiowa's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Less plot - mostly vibes, but absolutely magical. Heartwarming and fun and very "day in the life". If you want Legends and Lattes, but sci-fi, this is for you! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Torture, and Terminal illness

Minor: Vomit and War

dreareads_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

Loved it! But not as much as “To be taught if fortunate”.

But oh the joy of a fluffy SciFi story with lovable characters, a sapphic relationship between a human and a reptile, and a the most wonderful found family.

I loved how I felt while reading this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Torture, Confinement, Violence, and War