Reviews with content warning for Confinement - American War

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

wanderlust_romance's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book is so deeply thought provoking. What would the future look like in the wake of fossil capitalism leading to a second American Civil War? American War so vividly imagines a tense, bleak, and violent landscape that has also been drastically impacted by climate change. The story is set primarily in the South, lending an air of dystopian Southern gothic, and follows members of the Chestnut family from 2070 onward.

El Akkad's experience as a journalist during the post-9/11 War on Terror is an element critical to this storytelling. It is such a visceral reminder that as Americans, we passively watch military violence unfold through our television and cell phone screens, and perhaps think "I'm glad that isn't us." And so, American War flips the script on that and says no - this is now happening here, in the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave." As the story progresses, you see the war's impact on the Chestnut family. Their displacement, their poverty, their hunger, their resentment, their coping mechanisms - and perhaps most significantly as it pertains to Sarat's character and plot arc - their losses. Sarat was such an interesting and complex character.

The writing here is really incredible. The story moves quickly but lingers in just the right places where ideas around militarism, patriotism, imperialism, violence, and displacement demand to be explored with more depth. El Akkad's prose is lyrical, able to paint a vivid scene while also pulling forth emotion from their characters. I really enjoyed the varied use of "historical texts" as an endcap to each chapter, as it provided additional context and tied back to the prologue's narrator.

The audiobook performance is one of the best I have ever encountered and a stunning portrayal of the text. I would highly recommend listening.

Bookmarked Quotes

Prologue: My favorite postcards are from the 2030s and 2040s, the last decade before the planet turned on the country and the country turned on itself. A visual reminder of America as it existed in first half of the 21st century, soaring, roaring, oblivious.

Ch.4: Your side fought the war but the war never happened to you. In the Red country the war happened. If you lived in the South during that war, maybe you were never forced from your home at gunpoint, but you knew someone who was. Maybe you didn't lose a loved one when the Birds came and rained down death with no rhyme or reason, but you knew someone who had.

Ch. 6: "An empire is when many small countries become part of one big country, willingly or otherwise," Gaines said. "An empire is what we used to be."

Ch. 6: Somewhere in the caverns of her mind awoke memories of the place where she was born: the mud banks, the hot tin box, the mouth of the Mississippi. Like a stranger to herself, she was surprised to discover she'd started softly crying.
"We forget sometimes," Gaines said, "that there are still beautiful things."

Ch. 7: "I sided with the Red because when a Southerner tells you what they're fighting for-be it tradition, pride, or just mule-headed stubbornness-you can agree or disagree, but you can't call it a lie. When a Northerner tells you what they're fighting for, they'll use words like democracy and freedom and equality and the whole time both you and they know that the meaning of those words changes by the day, changes like the weather."

Ch. 13: And even today, all these years later, we live with the consequences. They didn't understand, they just didn't understand. You fight the war with guns, you fight the peace with stories.

Content Warnings

nobiting33's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

blake245's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

frogggirl2's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

What a stunning, impactful, important, well-characterized book! There are a lot of complex things discussed here with a lot of depth and grace.

Content Warnings

wafflepolly's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective 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

4.25

I think this is one of those books that is going to stay in my head for a long time. I strongly recommend listening to the NPR Throughline podcast episode "Extremist Futures" which features some really insightful input from the author about his thoughts, metaphors, and own experiences behind the book.

Content Warnings

hopefulpterodactyl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

keegan53's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-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

5.0

An amazing book. The world building is fantastic and there is amazing character development. So well crafted.

Content Warnings

esem's review against another edition

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dark sad 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

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Incredibly powerful. This is such a hard but also necessary time to read this sort of work - or just this work, in particular. I read quite a bit of speculative fiction and I still can't quite compare this book to much else. Think World War Z, but closer to home, more realistic, and more political. I was wowed at how I could both disagree with the protagonists and also empathize with them (the mark of great characterization, IMO).

If you like audiobooks, it's short-ish and extremely well narrated. Plot-wise, it almost lost me about two-thirds of the way through, but quickly turned back around and tied everything together.

Content Warnings