Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Lovecraft Country

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

51 reviews

laird_br0wn3's review

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challenging informative tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

1.75

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Theoretically, I really like cosmic horror and that sort of stuff. In reality, it's a bit hit or miss for me. I do really like the concept of Lovecraft Country (and I'm sure that had I actually been acquainted with Lovecraft, I would've gained more meaning from the stories) and I liked the characters, but something just didn't completely click for me. I think due to the format of the book (sort of like an anthology that has an overarching plot), I didn't feel as connected to the characters as I'd like. Like after the first two stories, I sometimes just forgot about Atticus. Could also just be me.

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alicelalicon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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peachani's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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ignescentsky's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Really interesting book, I guess the genre would be historical fiction or historical fantasy.

I picked this up because the premise of the tv series was really interesting but I knew I wouldn’t have an HBO max sub for a while and wanted to read the book first anyway.

It is short story format which I normally dislike, but they are all related and tie together nicely at the end so I’m willing to look past that. It did make it easier to read in shorter segments. With most of the stories I wished they had been extended a bit longer to add to the buildup/intrigue.

The stories are set some time in the 1950s and mostly follow various members/friends of a black family as they interact with the supernatural.

One of the many interesting aspects of this book was the brief exploration of tension between liking a genre and having to deal with its abundance of racist elements and authors. I appreciated that the author had notes at the end which provided sources on the history and sources of inspiration for the work; it sounds like someone wrote a larger piece exploring this which acted as inspiration.

Content warning for racism and sexism to a lesser extent, violence

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kyra_joy's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Books set in this time period are always hard to read as a Black person, there is of course tons of racism throughout the book. But it is still a worthwhile read, the characters are all interesting even if not all of them are deep to the same level a few of their POVs really make you think. The story was fun and it all came together in the end making even some of the less enjoyable sections worth it. All in all a very enjoyable experience.

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