Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Augustown by Kei Miller

7 reviews

spinesinaline's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Racism, Murder, Police brutality, and Suicide

Moderate: Excrement, Blood, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is a different genre to what I usually read. It felt like folklore, local history to a country and culture I know nothing about, so I appreciate being able to learn and be let in through reading this.
I enjoyed the story craft, through storytelling and weaving in and out of past and present and through different characters. There is a main plot point that holds them together, but if you enjoy a linear story or a strong connection to a protagonist this may not be for you. I felt that Augstown was our main protagonist and the different characters the layers of history and lives that make it who it is. All the individual human characters felt fully realised, but we moved fluidly through them getting segments of their lives. I am a reader that likes to fully immerse in a character, so I did not get that emotionsl connection I usually want with the characters. 
But that was not the story's purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Excrement, Drug use, Abortion, Infidelity, Bullying, Sexual content, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexual harassment

shannabanana6's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a good book, very well written and very captivating plot, although also very intense. I really enjoyed how evident throughout the book that history and context were integral to the plot. And the reality of this magic that the Rastafari community holds within them is at the center of everything, despite/in spite of the whiteness and colonization trying to snuff it out. And at the end all the jumps through time and from character to character came together and made perfect sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Suicide, Excrement, Gun violence, and Police brutality

rworrall78's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely incredible. Poetic, magical (which isn't normally my thing) but in a very real and robust way. Full of really important history and a story of how oppression echoes and continues down the centuries, but told as a fictionalised version of August Town near where the author grew up. Tense and sad but also joyful and beautiful. I absolutely loved it and was left with so much to think about and to act on. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Excrement, Police brutality, and Gun violence

kaneebli's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Classism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

catherinet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Without doubt one of the best books I have ever read. This writing is nuanced, mind-bending, beautiful, raw and electric. It’s the sort of book that makes me want to take back all previous five star reviews because a new bar has been set. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Excrement, Racism, Racial slurs, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Child death, and Slavery

znvisser's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Excrement and Mental illness

Minor: Gun violence and Infidelity

Be cautious if you are sensitive to eye-related violence