Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Wings of Fire Book Four: The Dark Secret, Volume 4 by Tui T. Sutherland

3 reviews

wolfiegrrrl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

After a lifetime of being told that fighting and killing are equivalent to bravery and strength and watching the rest of his friends naturally be brave in their own ways, it's Starflight's turn to discover that being brave doesn't mean not being afraid. It means being afraid and doing the right thing anyway! At the end of the day, he provides a valuable element of his own to their team in the form of diplomacy and thinking smarter instead of bloodier to outwit his opponents.

Learning more about the NightWings shows us that not only is desperation no excuse to toss aside your humanity by treating other living beings like objects but bigotry and self-supremacy is a learned bias, not an inherent truth.
 

While the solution was always going to be a lesson in how coexistence and working together is possible if you are willing to try, given that this is a very bold allegory for racism and colonialism, it was pretty difficult for me to digest back in 2022 when I first read it. But viewing it from a different perspective in 2024, it seems to be saying that civilians are not responsible for the actions of their government and therefore should be afforded the opportunity to learn and grow. Some digs are still thrown at RainWings, but at least now it seems like that's more an effort to show that learned biases take time to correct than an attempt to still be racist in spite of knowing better.

For a middlegrade book, The Dark Secret does a decent job of showing that war criminals should take responsibility for their actions, accept the punishment they deserve for their crimes, and then make reparations and do better. Plus, it certainly doesn't try to paint the situation as black and white. Meeting others with hatred instead of understanding breeds more war and we certainly don't need anymore of that!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Infertility, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Abandonment

kristyderp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Chronic illness, Infertility, Cannibalism, and Death of parent