Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Lagune by Nnedi Okorafor

13 reviews

blackbird2210's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

This one was intense and fascinating. I greatly appreciate an alternative to the typical narrative. I will say there is much violence in this book, but there is magic too, and hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-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: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, Islamophobia, Car accident, and Outing

Minor: Death of parent and Colonisation

whiteraven191's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

scytheria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity and Slavery

gilnean's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Excrement, Police brutality, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation

_lostinthetrees's review against another edition

This is a book I have to turn into the library that eventually I would like to finish, but I'm just not in the mood for at the moment, partially because of the content warnings I mentioned below. The premise, outside of those things that are included, make for an interesting read. I will update when I actually finish the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Religious bigotry

amandaquotidianbooks's review against another edition

This has a lot of dark things happening with the human characters and not as much to do with the aliens. It didn’t seem like the second half would be anymore enjoyable as the first half and I’m not in the headspace for such a dark book right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual assault

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-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

3.0

This is interesting take on the first contact story. Cool ideas and great character voices (the one-chapter animal characters were particular standouts), but I found the story a little unfocused and disjointed, especially around the midpoint when the gods showed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, and Colonisation

aubrey's review against another edition

adventurous fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Religious bigotry

ejb44's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

 @bottles.of.books on Instagram!

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor is a Afrofuturist novel following Adaora, Agu and Anthony after a sonic wave disrupts Nigerian life. Taking place over the span of a couple of days, Okorafor takes us through multiple perspectives and the inner workings of technology, ecology and challenges the reader to question whether multiple narratives actually remove the issues that come with a single story. 

After having read the authors’ The Book of Phoenix, I was going into this with some sort of expectation of her writing style, which is very abrupt and explicit and poignant, and while this book definitely can be described similarly, it can be a very overwhelming book with odd portrayals of characters. Okorafor has said this book is a response to the portrayal of Nigerians in the movie District 9, and it makes sense considering there are so many characters, but sometimes I think it became too character driven and not really Nigerian driven. 

Some brilliant aspects of the book were the interweaving of the lives of the characters, making it something of a game for the reader to work out which characters have more information than we do, and which characters are in for a shock because we know what’s about to happen. The jumping forwards and backwards, often by only a matter of minutes or hours, really places the reader at a vulnerable crossroad in the plot, and it is quite remarkable how Okorafor pulled it off without the characters muddling together as one. However, the effect was that sometimes the perspectives didn’t really add to the story and they were merely present. 

The presence of animal perspectives as well was really quite unique I think, and really highlighted how literal Okorafor took the question “who is affected by X?”, as she always does. This all-encompassing approach to cause and effect in the context of an alien invasion is brilliant to me and I actually appreciated the animal perspectives more than some human ones. 

Additionally, the religious dynamic of the novel, with conversations of Christianity in the south and Islam in the north, which is the current situation in Nigeria, played out really beautifully, especially when paired with the traditional Igbo and Yoruba mythologies and spirits. These traditions sprinkled throughout were very intentional and felt like they deserved a place in the plot, which I cannot say for all the characters. 

Overall, while this book is slightly chaotic and overwhelming, I do think this book is one worth reading, but maybe not as Okorafor’s first book. If you were interested in her novels, I would wholly recommend the Binti trilogy first and then The Book of Phoenix. This book may fascinate some people I am sure, especially sci-fi lovers who are looking for something a little different and modern, but it didn’t quite excite me as much as make me anxious. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry