Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

12 reviews

fairyollie's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

I cannot believe this is a debut novel! it is a stunning, emotional, empowering, hopeful, absolutely masterful work about equity and equality and how the oppression of one is the oppression of all. I am so relieved that the sequel comes out soon because I need more Alamaxa in my life pronto

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Police brutality, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and War

mamaowlbear's review

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

bonriki's review

challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

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

3.0

This is a book that I read and I have no real feelings about it. Reads like YA despite being adult fantasy, it’s overly simplistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia

alicelalicon's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Abortion

beldaran1224's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.5

This is a fast read, and a good time. The author explores many facets of women's rights and specifically explores the variety of issues that are specific to women of all classes and circumstances and how all of those are political. This is done through the lens of a fantasy world with magic.

The world is well rooted in SWANA (South West Asia, North Africa) elements, which gives it a great deal of life and authenticity. The magic system is fun and will appeal to anyone who enjoys "elemental" magic.

The characters were perfectly selected as a lens to view the Daughters of Izdihar (the suffrage organization) through. I also particularly enjoyed the way the author wrote the responses of the various men in the story to the Daughters.

I look forward to the second book in the planned duology!

More details about content warnings: this book goes over a host of issues that women face, many of which can be traumatic for women who have experienced them. Among these are abortion, purity tests (and the sexual violation associated with them), sex shaming, and homophobia. The book does not treat them flippantly, but nor does it linger on them in graphic detail. At all times, the book condemns these things. The book deals honestly with very heavy topics, but it isn't interested in holding them up as entertainment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

wishbea'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I nearly DNFed this book but since it's so short and I was already halfway through I decided to finish it. It wasn't the book I was expecting, I was told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender in an Egyptian-inspired fantasy world and therefore was expecting a major focus on the magic aspect. However this is a book primarily focused on politics, women's suffrage, class and female weavers stuggling to control their abilities.

As other reviews have said, the magic system is the exact same as bending in ATLA. A certain plot point was taken directly from ATLA. 

There is a reveal where the waterweaver main character Nehal  accidentally bloodweaves and bloodweaving is highly forbidden and kept secret, I'm pretty sure the reason she gets kidnapped at the end of the book is because she is a bloodweaver and she is going to be used by the enemy kingdom as a weapon.

Which unfortunately made the magic aspect fairly dull because it was too derivative, I expected inspired by ATLA not exactly the same system.

Nehal was a very irritating character, highly stubborn and I found her impossible to like as she appears to be completely disconnected from reality, failing to understand the consequences of her actions and only proceeds to get even angrier when things don't go her way. Nico barely felt like a character, he has somewhat progressive opinions in this world but he just does whatever the plot is asking of him and most of the time he's just pining after Giorgina. Giorgina was the most interesting character to me because she is far more grounded in reality than Nehal and Nico are, however she wasn't compelling.

I am not invested enough in these characters or this world to have any interest in reading the upcoming second book in this duology. Absolutely nothing is resolved by the end of this book, it is all just setup for the next book so don't expect a satisfying ending going into this.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading a book where the setting is inspired by Egypt, the descriptions of the clothing were fascinating and the political ideas were interesting but the themes weren't married together well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, and War

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I have too many thoughts so will update with a review later. 

My biggest thought right now: not sure why the magic system was literally lifted out of Avatar the Last Airbender with the only change being "bending" called "weaving" instead...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ender24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

starrysteph's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.5

The Daughters of Izdihar is filled with elemental magic, female rage, and freedom fighters. However, to me it fell a bit flat and didn’t bring anything new to the genre.

We follow two young women from very different backgrounds in an Egyptian-inspired magical world. 

Nehal is the wealthy daughter of an aristocrat, forced into an arranged marriage in order to save her family from financial ruin. But what she truly wants is to nurture her waterweaving skills and someday join the first ever all-female regiment of the army. 

Giorgina is a poor bookshop worker, struggling to suppress her uncontrollable earth weaving power. She’s in love with a man who cannot publicly be with her and secretly writes for the Daughters of Izdihar, a women’s rights group.

Both women connect unexpectedly as they yearn for women’s equality and struggle to make their own choices and live (& love) freely.

The writing wavered at times - it feels very clear to me that this is a debut. Sentences were often a bit choppy or repetitive, dialogue was unnatural, and the plot felt familiar to many other fantasy reads (elemental magic has been done so often & it wasn’t really included in a new way here).

It was a bit draining to input all the sexism, and to see the women’s rights group fall into the same cycles. New protest idea, it gets squandered by men and/or corrupt politicians and police, women have to reformulate, and so on. This is most of the book, and it’s copied & pasted straight from history.

I also felt like Nehal was a stronger character - with a bit more character development. I was antsier reading from Giorgina’s POV, and didn’t care much for her conflict with her love interest. It felt like she was just one-dimensionally tossed in to suffer at the hands of various men. Contrastingly, Nehal’s growth (both in uncovering the realities of her world and discovering her sexuality) was more engaging.

But even so - the queer plotlines (Nehal’s and a random side character who shows up at two convenient moments) felt underdeveloped. And Nehal’s impulsivity grew a little tiring, alongside her unbelievably fast rise in skill with waterweaving. She also NEVER faced any consequences for her harmful actions … and it’s not particularly clear why she desires to be part of the women’s rights movement in the first place. She can’t even be bothered to read the magazines. 

I felt like there were interesting ideas here - with the setting and with the characters - that simply weren’t explored enough. 

CW: sexism, misogyny, murder, death, homophobia, lesbophobia, police brutality, sexual harassment, sexual assault, classism, gun violence, grief, war, abortion

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(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

mxkanteven's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

BLOOD. BENDING. BISEXUALS! 

That is all.

This book is perfection, I have no notes and I want the sequel yesterday.

It’s exploration of social misogyny and the relationship between oppressive policies and religious prejudice is nothing short of skillful.

Beyond just that, Hadeer’s commentary on privilege and privileged people’s apathy and cowardice regarding challenging  social inequity is brilliant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia