Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

20 reviews

austengal's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

4.75

Truly a masterpiece. Every page gripped my attention. I took off .25 stars for some mild sexist comments near the beginning, but it doesn’t really return throughout the story (aside from the shear lack of women aside from Petra and Valentine). It was an excellent read and definitely gave me a new perspective on how to think about the way I think, if that makes any sense.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism

witwickan's review against another edition

2.0

God this book sucks. The writing is terrible and all of the characters sound exactly the same. I'm amazed that this book has such good reviews. I'm also amazed that none of them mention the racism and antisemitism and very few mention the misogyny. There are points where it's interesting and it's an easy read but it's definitely not good. It's a classic crappy sci-fi novel though so you can't expect much else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Antisemitism, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Suicide and Torture

playfulbee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is for analytical minds. The main character, whose thoughts make up most of the book, is extremely intelligent and observant.
The ethical questions discussed in the book are intriguing, the characters are well written and the language is chosen carefully.
A great read altogether.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Xenophobia, Blood, and Colonisation

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

pinklightswitch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism and Murder

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

miastr's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Racism, Sexism, and Violence

tomel's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.5

The best thing I can say about Ender's Game is that it is bad in fascinating ways. There are so many intersections of awful in this book that I will probably never stop thinking about it. But it is an extremely bad book about how

a group of naked racist/misogynist children (plus one tomboy) are trained by the Eugenically Perfect War Messiah to commit a genocide but it's okay because they're going to adopt the new generation of the people they killed and raise them as their own.

Imagine if Paul Atreides was really into laser tag and felt the White Man's Burden and gave himself the occasional n-word pass. I strongly suspect that the book must have been significantly changed since the 1991 edition I read, because there's stuff in here that should be at least as notorious as the scene in the sewer in IT and nobody talks about them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Cultural appropriation

For some reason nobody talks about how the children in this book are constantly naked.

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

I guess I get why so many people love this book because it is easy to read and moves rather quickly. At times, it does get a bit repetitive, and the ending felt a bit rushed to me. But it is the first in a series, so the pacing and the info dumping does make sense.

Read this for a banned book club, and it will be an interesting discussion because of Orson Scott Card's problematic behavior. I'm not sure how much this is still banned because of content, it's something I will have to look up. I am looking forward to our discussion, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Genocide

Minor: Sexism

fi_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

cmccoy13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really really love this book, it’s definitely one of my favorites. But it’s low score is due to the anti-semitism, misogyny and so on. But otherwise, it’s a beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail