Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Das begabte Kind by Juno Dawson

60 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

The book opens the night before five young girls officially become witches. The story then jumps and follows these same characters now that they’ve matured into their more powerful and responsible lives. 

The author does a great job at showing the different personalities, not so easy when there are a lot of characters. The women are no longer close like in childhood; there’s friction between the power-hungry head of England’s coven, the mild witch who pretends to be a simple housewife, the Black lesbian who started her own LGBTQ-friendly coven, and the veterinarian consumed with grief at the loss of her fiancé during the witch war eight years ago. There are spouses and lovers and children and parents and, new to the group, a trans orphan who’s terrified and lashing out in fear. The story is told from four points of view and the voices are distinct. 

I read reviews where the readers felt the race and gender issues overshadowed the story. I thought the author raised really important points relevant to current racism, homophobia, and transphobia. The transphobia was heavy-handed but it seemed realistic given what I read online. 

I liked it enough where I’m about to start the second in the series. I want to see what happens to these people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Bullying, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Racism, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Gore, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Grief

melaniesmolter's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Violence, Death, Transphobia, and Homophobia

kaceyjoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Outing, Violence, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Torture, Animal death, Transphobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

itsy719's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Child abuse, Outing, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Sexism, Violence, Car accident, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Body shaming

queerreaderchaos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Murder, Misogyny, Racism, Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Child abuse

shae_purcell's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn't like this book as much as I thought I might. I enjoyed the multi-POV chapters and the diverse representation. I liked a lot of the characters and relationships. I don't know what it is. It fell a little flat for me, like the characters could have been fleshed out more maybe.

A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Outing, Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Incest, Islamophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Classism, Homophobia, Self harm, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and War

There is a lot of intentional misgendering in the chapters told from the

anti-trans character's

POV.

raccoonteeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Death, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, and Transphobia

Moderate: Genocide, Vomit, Classism, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Murder, Toxic relationship, Racism, Toxic friendship, and War

merricatfromblackwood's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

3.0

This is a hard one. The TERF having a POV was hard to read. I also wish there was more world building/more time with the magic system. But I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Transphobia

hallbrooke's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

2.5

Please check trigger warnings.

I really wish I liked the book better.  Unfortunately the villain of the story was so realistic and believable I found myself upset and pissed for most of the story. On top of that, for a book all about sisterhood and feminism, for 2 of the main characters to be so meh about letting one of their "sisters" be treated like absolute garbage because they don't want to upset her? Where was the outrage?

Lastly, that ending was just utter crap. I do want to read the 2nd book and HOPEFULLY the character development in book 2 will turn the series around (or at least be present).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Homophobia, Infidelity, Bullying, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, and War