valpal77's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Addiction, Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Death
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Dysphoria
femmenova's review against another edition
challenging
- Loveable characters? No
For full disclosure: I DNF-ed it at 42 pages and I only got that far into the book because I was trying to make sense of what I was reading. There's just so much exposition dump and sexual and racial violence casually mentioned for the sake of.. shock? To show how post-apocalyptic the state of the world is? The writing is dense and convoluted for the sake of introducing many different stories to understand a character more but I don't see it. The book boasts that it is genre-bending but that phrase feels like a catch-all to pretend that this book was something more than what it was which was: clunky writing, bad pacing, the awkward transition between characters that I thought it was a collection of short stories instead, and bad character studies.
Between that and finding out that the author is a whole ass non-Black person, which immediately made me reading the work uncomfortable because of the casual N-word being thrown around and how every Black supporting person in the book is hated by the main character(s).
Listen, I have read a lot of dark literary books that does not have a single redeeming character in them. Books like The Black Cathedral are of a similar tone to this one but the writing was far more simplistic and the millions of characters that were written were developed in a Show-Not-Dump way.
Not for me at all which sucks because I was excited to read this!
Between that and finding out that the author is a whole ass non-Black person, which immediately made me reading the work uncomfortable because of the casual N-word being thrown around and how every Black supporting person in the book is hated by the main character(s).
Listen, I have read a lot of dark literary books that does not have a single redeeming character in them. Books like The Black Cathedral are of a similar tone to this one but the writing was far more simplistic and the millions of characters that were written were developed in a Show-Not-Dump way.
Not for me at all which sucks because I was excited to read this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Addiction, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Murder, and Drug use
horizonous's review against another edition
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, and Transphobia
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Minor: Abortion, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
◦ Sexual content = Prostitutionraenyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
This book is so weird but also super interesting! I liked how it all came together at the end and as a Marine biologist I enjoyed the marine elements!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence
jelka_theclimatereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Racism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual assault
Minor: Animal cruelty, Deadnaming, Drug use, and Murder
morebedsidebooks's review against another edition
Tentacle by Rita Indiana from the Dominican Republic and translated in English by Achy Obejas is a subversive and award-winning cli-fi novel. With many interesting pieces yet, chocked full of enough other aspects and also a book that for its short length may be a read that ends up being disappointing. Narrated by multiple rather or wholly unsympathetic characters in callous worlds spanning time and historical/art/pop culture references from decades and centuries past to the not distant future of ecological devastation, the main character described in the original title, (La mucama de Omicunlé) Acilde is a maid and sex worker desiring to get a dramatic expensive drug for a sex change. And as it happens also prophesied as the male saviour in a traditional Afro-Caribbean religion. How does Acilde’s destiny and all the timelines link and come to fruition? You’ll have to spend a couple hours reading to find out. Really, I wish I could write more of substance about this title but, I was left with mostly ambivalence and searching for something in it all. Beyond individual reception for the ending, there are prejudices and subtext that take me a bit out of the narrative and as a reader make me ask the question why are they here. Maybe it is unfortunate execution or editing. But I still haven’t come to a complete and full answer to that or much else. Tentacle is writing likely worth the dive but, just as beautiful as sea anemones are, there are those that pack a powerful sting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Murder, Racism, and Sexual assault
This book also features sex work, slurs and religious cults.
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