Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

15 reviews

maddiereadswords's review against another edition

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4.5

Great news!! Even after reading this book three times and fully knowing what's coming, the ending of this book can still make me cry. It's fine, I'm totally fine.

This doesn't have the same creepy, haunting vibes as the first two books, and the two parts feel a little more disconnected to the point where I almost wish it had been two separate books (mostly because the back half in particular is so fast-paced and plot heavy that it really loses that spooky edge, and also partly because I selfishly can never get enough of these characters.) This is easily the darkest and most "adult" installment so far, and while it doesn't hit quite as hard as the first two for me, it's still an absolute powerhouse of a book that drags me through the full spectrum of human emotion every time I read it. <3
Spoiler Also shout out to Ling Chan for being so autistic that she accidentally bypassed internalized homophobia, and to Miriam Lubovitch and Viola Campbell for being such milfs that they keep adopting fucked up children like Pokemon despite being held captive. I love women.

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ellie_gonzalez's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.75


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rainbeauregard's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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

5.0


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pagesandtales's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0


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allisonsmith120's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0


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overbooked207's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense
  • 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

4.0

📖 Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray Book Review 📖

2nd book of September 2022 and 28th of the year:

This was another great addition to the Diviners series with truly creepy moments, great mysteries, an amazing, lovable, and diverse cast of characters, important commentary and messages, the always beautiful found family trope, queer representation, disability representation, fantastic writing, and more! I think that Lair of Dreams is still my favorite of the three books I've read so far, but I still recommend the whole series as a whole and can’t wait to finish it hopefully soon! TW for death, violence, murder, mention of lobotomies and memory loss, discrimination, racism, antisemitism, eugenics, domestic abuse, blackmail, ableism, homophobia, alcohol, institutionalization, bomb/explosion, vomit, rape, sexual assault, gun violence, medical content/trauma, and grief📖🔮☠️🏳️‍🌈

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grexcarolinii's review against another edition

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slow-paced

0.5

This probably would have been closer to a 2.5
but I had to take away 1 star for the incredibly triggering r*** scene written in second person - you know, just to add to the triggering effects (note: none of the rest of the book was written in 2nd person, nor has any of the previous novels. I can only assume the author did this to add to the disgust of the scene, so at best is exploitative and gross, at worst it's downright malicious). 

A second star taken away for just the casual mention of having a side characters love interest in Confederate costuming. For a book/series that likes to touch and try to wrestle with the problems of 1920s America - this felt so gross and tone death. How in the same book can you have the slaves of ghosts, references to the Jim Crows laws, and then just have a guy show up in Confederate uniform like it's just... fine?
No. Absolutely not. 

Add to this a host of kinda unlikeable characters, not a whole lot of plot for a 546 page book
And far, far too many really awkward gross sex scenes to boot... 

The half a star is literally for having a single Ace character, that's it

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

 I enjoyed this more than the first two books, and holy crap the last 1/4 of the book! So much action, and some things I really didn't like, especially how one character is kind of just forgotten by the author. But I did find some of the more annoying/less-likable characters more tolerable and even likable in this book. 

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nienke's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

3.75


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ellanarose's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0


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