Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Jonathan Strange & il Signor Norrell by Susanna Clarke

23 reviews

beautifulminutiae's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, and Slavery

jessthanthree's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Racism, Sexism, and War

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Slavery, Transphobia, and Death of parent

lycheeteareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, and Slavery

Minor: Sexism

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

If you are someone who is any level of dedicated to the occult arts, particularly those you learn extensively out of books like ancient astrology, grimoire magic, traditional witchcraft, or a reconstructionist polytheism, this book is for us. The society of magicians in York is so true to many groups and individuals I have met that I felt compelled to read the first page and a half out loud to the occultists and close friends of occultists I met up with while reading this book, who could not stop smiling and shaking their head at it. If you feel the same way about those opening paragraphs, it is worth your time to continue on with the entire tome. 

What ultimately robbed it from being 5 Stars in my eyes is that it was too long! This book is fantastic but it didn't need to be over 800 pages. It is maddening how many times characters not sharing information with each other prevents the right action from occurring until hundreds of pages later. There was a point where I thought I was never going to finish this damn thing and I felt about it akin to a textbook I was reading for class. And then we finally get a large jolt of plot progression in the last ~150 so pages that was so satisfying it kept me from from going down to a flat 4 Stars. 

Sidenote: this book contains period-typical racism, in both remarks made about Jewish people and one of our main PoV characters being a Black man in London in the early 1800's.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexism, Slavery, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Antisemitism

kelsea's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted reflective slow-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: War

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, and Forced institutionalization

clara_mai's review against another edition

3.5

- impressively intricate world building (the history of magic in England)
- historical aspect well executed with lots of fun references (the Shelleys appear!)
- rich, gothic atmosphere
- lush descriptions of the faerie world and the magic
- writing style embodies historical period
- beautiful illustrations accompany the story

- narrative style keeps the characters at a distance
- little emotional impact
- would have liked to see critique of/commentary on British Imperialism as magic was constantly used in favour of the government
- although I think this needed to be a long book, it could have been a *little* shorter
- ending not really satisfying, feels like it doesn't do the rest of the story justice

now very interested in reading Piranesi, a significantly shorter and much more recent work by Susanna Clarke that I've had my eye on for a while 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexism, and War

pvbobrien's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jehansflowers's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted

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

5.0

fuck i enjoyed this book. maybe its just bc i was listening to the audiobook at 1.9x speed, but i found it way more digestible than i was expecting. more than anything it was really just incredibly impressive. it was thoroughly well-researched, and melded that with the unique magic system and alternate history beautifully. honestly, very fun read.
my primary criticism is this: couldve been gayer

12/27/22 edit: didnt put a star rating on it before, but its getting 5 bc i still think about this book at least once a week

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Murder, and Colonisation

coolfijiwater's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

love how hateable a majority of these characters are :) there’s a few that i don’t hate but only a few

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexism

featherbrain's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Racism

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Mental illness, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol