Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

212 reviews

avvamapia's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

I feel like the financial times said it best, "Breathtakingly kaleidoscopic"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dahlialover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

Beautifully written book on a difficult subject! While it was sometimes hard to follow the history of Sri Lanka and the warring factions the author helped you overcome those problems by focusing on one individual’s story. Deeply moving, harrowing but the promise of love and compassion never really seemed out of reach. Would highly recommend. Deals with sensitive issues well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

harveyhorse321's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

Mental rollercoaster of a book. Loved it, never read anything like it. Full of jarring jumps between the reality and terror of violence and being a ghost having bizarre conversations with other ghosts. The first-second person narration is something I’ve never encountered and I thought it worked brilliantly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was frustrating, dense, bleak, and aloof. It was also darkly funny, astute, and creatively brilliant.

I struggled with the first two thirds of this book, which felt like a protracted setting up of the world, characters, and backstory. I found the text impenetrable, the pace frenetic, and the storyline uneven. The second-person perspective placed me at a distance from the text, and this was made doubly alienating by what an unpleasant character the protagonist is. This perspective also made it harder for me to engage with the unfamiliar concepts and language used in the book, as I felt like my brain was already exhausted from filtering the meaning through a perspective filter.

This changed when I got to the final third of the book. I'm not sure if it just took me that long to get into the rhythm of it, or if the pacing and action substantially changed, but all of the elements came together for me and propelled me towards the conclusion. Was the last third of the book satisfying enough to make up for how much I struggled with the beginning? On balance? Just.

Other themes/aspects that came up for me when I read it:

- ethics of conflict photojournalism 
- war and power
- mortality/the afterlife
- homophobia (both homosexuality and homophobia are portrayed pretty negatively in the book and the author also appears to be straight. For me this makes it a homophobic commentary on homophobia?)
- female characters (they are... Not well written)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

sgrizzle's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad slow-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

3.5

“‘You know why the battle of good vs evil is so one-sided, Malin? Because evil is better organised, better equipped and better paid. It is not monsters or yakas or demons we should fear. Organised collectives of evil doers who think they are performing the work of the righteous. That is what should make us shudder.’”

I read this for my StoryGraph Reads the World Sri Lanka entry, and because it is a Booker Prize winner. This is a hard one to rate, because the quality is HIGH. I absolutely understand the award wins, and how this is a Very Important book for Sri Lankans. It is also a hard read for a few reasons. I went in knowing very little about Sri Lanka, and felt pretty lost, I had to stop and do some research. To be clear this is not a point against the book at all, and is the point of reading diversely! I learned a lot. It’s also very heavy subject matter, and confronts violence and corruption and evil very directly. 

That said, once I got my footing under me, it was a fascinating story. The world-building of the afterlife here is really fun, and for being about such a dark period of history, there was also so much humor here as well. A big help was switching to the audio version, the narrator is EXCELLENT and really helped to bring the characters to life. Having the audible cues of how he did the differing voices also helped where I found myself getting a little lost. It did take me much longer to read than normal, and I took a couple of breaks, I think both because of the complexity and the difficult content, but as I was getting closer to the end I was fully absorbed. 

Ultimately, it ends in a poignant and hopeful place, which is meaningful for a novel of war. I don’t know that I’d recommend it to every reader because it’s definitely a challenge, but worth the effort

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, and War

Moderate: Suicide

ko_rax's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Addiction

sophiestasyna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.75

This book was beautifully written and quite unique. If you are looking for a book to stretch your thinking, look no further. The second-person POV took some getting used to. At times, I found the storyline a little difficult to follow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Homophobia, Racism, Grief, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

witchintherain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.5

Really enjoyed the audiobook! The audiobook reader was really talented, not sure I would've enjoyed it as much just reading it rather than listening to the audiobook. Could totally imagine this being adapted for an animated TV show.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

xwaruf's review against another edition

0.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Genocide, Violence, Murder, and War

stalfos's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Colonisation