Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

61 reviews

peasandpancakes's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-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

3.0

I loved the premise of this book and the general story line. It was a bit slow at times, but it picked up again in the last 150 or so pages. 

My biggest problem was the tense. The second person tense was hard to get into, and I kept forgetting it had this tense, so I was confused by the wording every time I picked this book back up after a few days. 

Also not sure I got all the intricacies with the different sides and beliefs, as I had almost no knowledge on Sri Lanka before reading this book and had to google something every few pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

fmfp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, and War

reads2cope's review against another edition

3.75

A difficult book to rate. The setting and mythology were totally immersive, the commentary on colonialism was sharp, and the characters gave me a lot to root for. However, there were at least three points where I thought the book was wrapping up only to find hours more to read. The journey became repetitive, and while I liked Maali’s growth, the constant homophobia and violence behind him became too much to keep wading through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Abandonment

avvamapia's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious tense 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

I feel like the financial times said it best, "Breathtakingly kaleidoscopic"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lboits's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Homophobia, Sexual content, and War

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

This book was frustrating, dense, bleak, and aloof. It was also darkly funny, astute, and creatively brilliant.

I struggled with the first two thirds of this book, which felt like a protracted setting up of the world, characters, and backstory. I found the text impenetrable, the pace frenetic, and the storyline uneven. The second-person perspective placed me at a distance from the text, and this was made doubly alienating by what an unpleasant character the protagonist is. This perspective also made it harder for me to engage with the unfamiliar concepts and language used in the book, as I felt like my brain was already exhausted from filtering the meaning through a perspective filter.

This changed when I got to the final third of the book. I'm not sure if it just took me that long to get into the rhythm of it, or if the pacing and action substantially changed, but all of the elements came together for me and propelled me towards the conclusion. Was the last third of the book satisfying enough to make up for how much I struggled with the beginning? On balance? Just.

Other themes/aspects that came up for me when I read it:

- ethics of conflict photojournalism 
- war and power
- mortality/the afterlife
- homophobia (both homosexuality and homophobia are portrayed pretty negatively in the book and the author also appears to be straight. For me this makes it a homophobic commentary on homophobia?)
- female characters (they are... Not well written)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

stalfos's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Colonisation

lanid's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense

• 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: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

anoke's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Very interesting read, something different. Really liked the mechanism of magic realism in the story. The second person style of writing took me a while to get used too and, paired with the descriptive writing style, this book took me longer than usual to finish. Very much worth it though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Vomit

allisonz6's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide attempt