Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

108 reviews

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Author of the Daevabad Trilogy, S.A. Chakraborty, brings us back to this beautiful and dangerous world through the story of a middle-aged, human, ex-pirate: Amina al-Sirafi.

The name "Amina al-Sirafi" strikes fear into the hearts of many due to her scandalous pirating career. Now, she's settled at home with her mother and daughter. She should be content. But when the wealthy mother of a former crewman shows up at her door begging Amina into finding her granddaughter, she thinks it's a sign from God to have one last adventure with her friends before she officially retires. Little does she know that this task will lead her and her crew into mysteries and legends Amina could've only dreamed of.

S.A. Chakraborty took elements of a classic pirate story--a diverse and fun-loving crew, a quest for treasure, fearsome creatures--and added her own twist to it. The Daevabad Trilogy has to be one of my favorite fantasy series, so diving back into this world was so much fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, and Transphobia

im_john_laurens's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Violence

Minor: Slavery

booksemmahasread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Slavery

chanlo1994's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

As a white person, it's so refreshing to have story based in Middle Eastern/Indian Ocean culture. I had to forget everything I knew about the typical (western based) mythology so I could truly learn about these mythologies while I listened. These narrators were fantastic and I truly enjoyed listening to them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Transphobia, Islamophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

celery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

This was an incredibly fun read. The humor and wit of Amina and The supporting cast had me laughing the majority of the story. The incredibly unique narration of the book also boosted my enjoyment.

The way that Chakraborty wrote into the story breaks in the narration as if Amina was being interrupted while telling you the adventure was pure gold

. I also highly recommend listening to the audiobook because the voice for the characters was perfect. I really would like to reread this when the next book comes out. I wish I had tandem read the audio and physical together, as just listening to the audio, I feel like I missed out on worldbuilding and story plots. At the end of the day, highly recommend this books!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Slavery, and Transphobia

kesreads13's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Colonisation

Minor: Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Blood, Islamophobia, and Trafficking

julian7's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a great book! I loved the characters, especially Dalila, Raksh, Jamal, and ofc Amina. I really loved  the island of the peris because it was so weird in a fantastic way. It reminded me of the Abarat series a bit. I loved the bit about the spooky cave as well, because for some reason mysterious doors always scratch a very specific itch in my brain. I also enjoyed the humor and political commentary. Franco was an interesting villain and it was so funny how Amina couldn’t pronounce his name. 
I only have two complaints about the book. First, I wish we had gotten more of the side characters! I feel like there was so much focus on them in the first part of the story, when Amina was “getting the band back together,” only for them to disappear into the background once Raksh showed up. I enjoyed Raksh, don’t get me wrong, but I would have loved to learn more about the other characters, like Tinbu and Majed, who seemed so interesting. 
My other complaint is that the first third of the book went by very slowly, and the last two thirds felt much more fast-paced and a little too busy. A medium pacing throughout the whole book would have felt more cohesive. 
I’ll probably read the sequels, and I hope we get to learn more about the side characters and Raksh returns eventually. 🤭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Transphobia, and War

singingshooter's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative lighthearted mysterious 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

4.5

Loved the audio book! Feels like this book was made for it 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Hate crime, Slavery, Transphobia, and Kidnapping