Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

17 reviews

tashy49's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

emjane89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

An honest look at racism in contemporary Australia. Interesting and complex characters. Sri Lankan history and culture. A devastating but worthwhile read. The plot became a little convoluted in the end which took away from the overall impact imho. Regardless, a recommended read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War

taro4lyfer's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Chai Time) has beautiful imagery, multiple points of views from diverse characters, insights into the trauma for Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, as well as a striking portrayal of the Australian landscape regarding immigrants and community. 

The characters are well thought out with their own motivations, desires, and beliefs while both settings (Sri Lanka and Cinnamon Gardens) are captivatingly written. 

Chai Time also won the Miles Franklin award in 2023, which is well deserved. 

The only reason it isn’t 5 stars is because it is definitely the kind of book that requires content and trigger warnings, which it didn't include. Hopefully future editions will include content warnings in the book or a mention online - the online content warnings so far are user written on storygraph or AI generated based off of reviews. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

All of the trigger warning concepts are explored through the character arcs and repeatedly brought up during the story to expand on how they affect the characters emotionally.

confused_cat's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

Things I love about this book:
- The author writes beautifully and I can feel her love to Sri Lanka and to the Sri Lankan people.
- I learnt more about Sri Lankan civil war and the hardship of being an immigrant.
- I had a good discussion with a diverse mix of people about racism (in Australia) thanks to this book. Learned that accidental racism is still racism. 

Small criticsm:
- Characters don't seem real and are just mouthpieces for the author to tell the story. E.g. These characters are so well adjusted and successful despite of their horrific background. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Racism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Colonisation, and War

sop17hie's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

Much sadder and brutal than I expected from the beautiful cover

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

whatisbethreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

drellejay's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Blood, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Minor: Sexual assault

terranovanz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

samfictiondistilling's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.5

I've just finished listening and I'm absolutely devastated. So glad to have read it though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

bee_eviljoy36's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book holds a mirror up to Australia's racist past and present and the view is not pleasant. 

It follows the stories of residents and staff of a nursing home called Cinamon Gardens in Sydney. Many of whom are refugees that fled Sri Lanka which was undergoing genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The stories unfold slowly in a gut wrenching and emotional tail of finding forgiveness for the decision made while under extreme trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Torture, and War

Moderate: Child death and Rape