oceans_hannah's review
- 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
2.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Rape
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Drug use, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Violence
rwoodnutt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicide, Sexual violence, Murder, Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, Sexism, Violence, Misogyny, Gore, Drug use, and Blood
jojopotato's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
I really enjoyed the four main characters and following their story from chapter to chapter. Alderman is truly an incredible story teller and this book completely pulled me in and captured my attention. I could not stop telling people about how it made me think and reflect and almost see the world a bit differently.
Graphic: War, Gore, Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, and Violence
Spoiler
Look I put a lot of content warnings on here, but this is a book about the shifting of power and what it would look like if women became more powerful than men. It essentially leads to world war and talks about the importance of understanding how power and money and violence lead to destruction. No matter who is holding that power.elllav's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Rape, Murder, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexism, War, and Misogyny
madredeleones's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, War, Torture, Suicide, Gun violence, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Medical content, Cursing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Adult/minor relationship, and Drug use
Minor: Religious bigotry and Racism
xsamwise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Graphic: Self harm, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Sexual violence, Death, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
lmgst30's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Trafficking, Bullying, and War
claudiamacpherson's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, War, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Torture, Sexual content, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Death, Cursing, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Hate crime, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Body horror
Minor: Self harm, Bullying, Child death, Abortion, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Slavery, and Suicide
i_read_big_boucs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thoughts:
- Is it weird that this book was very oddly empowering? I was simultaneously shocked in horror by the violence of the things that happened, but I guess I had never experienced myself as a woman as potentially "running the world" or the kind of person one has to fear. Is this why men like all the boom boom military movies? Because they're always the one doing the killing and not the permanent victims in all media? It was really interesting to really experience in my gut the way the female characters were just not afraid anymore. I felt safe, I felt powerful. It made me realize how much I take for granted unconsciously that I am vulnerable to harm in many situations, and that this is just such a default I experience it as the human condition. This was a powerful emotional experience.
- as a feminist, there was this permanent anxiety in me that this book would be used in an anti-feminist way to say "Look! this is what the feminists want!" because we spend so much energy saying we don't want female domination but equality. So there was something that felt incredibly taboo but also exciting and morally complex about running with the opposite narrative, while the cleverness of the gender-flipped details is such that it serves a feminist point as well.
Spoiler
- something I haven't really settled my mind on is the dimension of masochistic sexual excitement experience by Tunde. In some ways, I found the inclusion of how domination becomes eroticised accurate to heterosexism and the way women under patriarchy come to experience things. But it was also extremely disturbing and existed really throughout the whole book. Does it represent the way men write women in flipped? Is it also a way of embracing this moral complexity? Oof.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Child abuse, and Murder
gabgeh's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Trafficking, War, Xenophobia, Body horror, Death, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Slavery