Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

3 reviews

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

This is basically like seamless fanfiction because it's done by the author and therefore perfectly congruent with her series. Some stories are better than others, I would venture to say, and The Little Android is a bit of an odd one that breaks away from the rest of them. I was only mildly disappointed because 1, I was hoping more of it would be focused on our main characters rather than random backstory characters, and 2, I thought for certain that the wedding teased in Marissa Meyer's interview was going to be between Winter & Jacin. I wouldn't say I was super disappointed, just surprised, and it ended up making sense that she chose that couple. The ending was very sweet, and I loved the story that showed us Kai's perspective of meeting Cinder.

I feel like I've ranked Rebecca Soler's performances so many times at this point that it's getting redundant, but I can only give her a 4/5 this time around unfortunately, due to whoever produced this audiobook. She was obviously sick or recovering from respiratory illness! I don't understand why they would force her to record before her voice was fully back to its normal state. It made the performance grating, as she sounds clearly stuffed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

The thematic elements of this entire series would stand to warn about topics revolving around one group of people being willing to rule over another in personal relationships and culturally. This book in particular mentions those concepts but doesn't go into details. The story I would give the biggest trigger warning about would be Winter & Jacin's, "The Princess and the Guard." This is where most the sexual assauly and suicide warnings come into play.

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

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

5.0

I love this world and these characters. This series was what first got me into sci-fi and I'm so happy that we do get these stories to help build out the world before I finish the series until my next reread.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Xenophobia

ameydireads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

“Cinders. Embers. Ashes. Michelle hoped that whatever strength had allowed this child to survive the fire all those years ago was a strength that still burned inside her. That it would go on burning, hotter and hotter, until she was as bright as the rising sun.”

This book is a great way to end the Lunar Chronicles! There were many moments that were shortly mentioned in the main story and this book elaborates on it further. Each story felt special as it focused on the main characters’ past and their experiences. In my review of ‘Winter’ I mentioned that I was less invested in Winter and Jacin and didn’t understand Winter’s decisions. The story ‘The Princess and the Guard’ made me change my opinion. Sigh, I do like them now and I finally understand Winter. 

I really enjoyed Thorne’s story. He’s such a funny character and is very smart. A typical Thorne moment right here >>>

"Last summer, he'd even managed to get the Santos family to pay him sixty-five univs for a box of "succulent, prize-winning" oranges, having no idea that he'd picked the fruits off their own tree earlier that day."

And there is one short story (Something Old, Something New) that takes place after the book ‘Winter’ and oh my gosh, so cute! 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit