Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Illuminati by Dan Brown

15 reviews

janicesierra's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Murder

Minor: Rape

electric_revenge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry

shetland_pone's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

If you don't pay any attention, it's fun, but the moment you start to think about things it all falls apart. Langdon is a Mary Sue, most of the characters are seriously unlikeable, and the ending was a shitshow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

francisca_pitterle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault

marialilypotter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

laurajordensharris's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

malignant_gnome's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Rape

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

The breadth and depth of architectural and physical detail is good but the science is iffy, which normally wouldn't be much of a downside except that the author clearly went to a lot of effort to make it as accurate as possible--I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it might've seemed more accurate twenty years ago. I'd say the twists were pretty predictable, except that somehow, even though I suspected

the camerlengo ever since Chartrand mentioned the walk they'd taken together, Janus's true identity still caught me off guard because the author had spent the last hundreds or so pages advancing the Kohler-is-Janus theory

, so kudos for that. Vittoria is, unexpectedly, a better developed and more capable character than Langdon, so ally points for that--and then a whole slew of them taken off because the Hassassin and Kohler are, respectively, absolutely skin-crawling racist, Islamaphobic, and ableist stereotypes. On a pure narrative level, it's mediocre; in its representation, worse than mediocre. Also, more malapropisms than a Bush speech. There have to be better "solve-conspiracy-puzzle" thrillers out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racial slurs

frednamode's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

A good portion of the book hinges on ambigrams being the most miraculous inimitable creation, yet when we meet them they are anything but. They are barely legible unless you’ve some idea of the word you are looking for - any 13 year old with a tumblr account has seen better ambigram tattoos that Brown offers us in this book 

the characters felt flat, especially the only female lead who was used as a romantic interest and a plot device, her body unnecessarily sexualised at all manor of occasion from the moment we meet her, to the very last page of the book. 

The plot dragged on to a very predictable plot twist to avoid making any political statement. 
 

Okay for an airport read I guess 2/5 
 

Also the science falls flat wrt the antimatter. You cannot convince me that a bomb which would destroy an entire city would be stopped by a mile or two of air. Unlike an explosive that fires shrapnel and therefore is majorly limited by air resistance, gravity & other forces, antimatter would easily burn through the very low density air and get to the people below. Even if there was extreme cloud cover, that wouldn’t be as effective as a big thick vault. It’s about the number of particles needed for antimatter annihilation not the distance between them. 

Brown needs to spend less time kissing his own ambigram and more time talking to a physicist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Murder

purplehulk713's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

The Catholic Church’s circus tent is about to come crashing down. Dan Brown is incredible at creating a fast-paced while still multi-layered thriller that at the same has the spectacle and religious esotericism as an Indiana Jones film. (Robert Langdon is effectively Indiana Jones without the aesthetic) The religious and artistic history entranced me like hypnosis—Christians stole the practice of “god-eating” from the Aztecs after conquering their empire. Some of the plot points seemed a little unnecessary though—why does Robert go into the helicopter? I did the love the fast pace but slow burn of the reveals, like the dead Pope actually being the camerlengo’s father and not just his foster father, and the camerlengo’s reveal as Janus. Vittoria and Robert are a cute couple, and they are definitely a good match—she’s determined and flexible (literally and figuratively) and he’s quiet and compassionate. The scientific theory, though advanced, is clearly and concisely explained to the non-scientific mind. The backstories (for Langdon and Vittoria especially) are incredibly compelling, like how Vittoria came to meet and grow up with the man that would adopt her. The Hassassin’s deadly inspiration and glorious delight in his cruelty weave a spell-binding villain. But the one of the most significant elements of the story is the fact that you can truly walk this Path of Illumination—from “Habakkuk and the Angel” in the Chigi Chapel in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Popolo (Earth—Terra) to the “West Ponente” relief in St. Peter’s Square (Air—Aria) to “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria (Fire—Fuòco) to the Fountain of the Four Rivers in front of the church of Saint Agnes in Agony in the Piazza Navona (Water—Acqua) and finally to the Church of Illumination within Castel Sant’Angelo. The path is real though the story may not be. Let angels guide thee on thy lofty quest…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent