Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

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

26 reviews

hlee1534's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

nat20composure's review against another edition

adventurous funny slow-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

The book kicks off a little slow but is definitely worth the initial pacing. The cast was incredibly charming and I will be rotating them around in my brain for the foreseeable future!! I felt it was well structured and the prose for both casual and action packed scenes was very charming. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Transphobia

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

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

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

The story has a slow start, but once I got past the world building I was hooked! A fantastic read for anyone who has ever been told there is a “respectable” life they need to fit themselves into. You aren’t too much and anyone who thinks you are can go find less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Islamophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Drug use, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Cultural appropriation

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-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

A middle aged female pirate is forced to come out of retirement for one more adventure. Re-recruiting her former crew to rescue the grandchild of a wealthy woman, who also happens to be the mother of another former crew member.

The story was engaging, with good characters: flawed people each with a deep history which brings them to life and makes them immediately likeable, and their relationships to each other are realistic and don't feel forced. And the plot developed at a reasonable pace, nothing felt rushed or out of place for the most part.

At about 65-70% of the way in, I personally felt like the plot lost its way a bit and absolutely could have been handled differently to make the book at least 100 pages shorter, and to be a fantastic standalone.

The island bit was genuinely so messy and felt so rushed and unnecessary, I almost put the book down. Anything from landing on the island to the moment when they found Magnun felt like filler, filler which is unfortunately a plotpoint for the continuation of the series.

Raksh also had the potential to be such a fun character, but the amount of times he used the phrase "sexual intercourse" honestly made my skin crawl. That was just unnecessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

bzliz's review against another edition

adventurous 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

It took me altogether far too long to finish this book. It was first hampered by my borrowed copy being uncomfortable to hold. Those book of the month books are satisfyingly uniform on a shelf but annoying for my wrists when I want to read them. I switched to a digital copy and then had to contend with the slog as Amina pulls her crew together, which is the main reason I can’t give this five stars. Each small victory was interesting but it took so long I felt myself getting impatient to get to the meat of the story. It picked up for me after Amina’s second meeting with Salima and then I was fully bought in. 

Having a main character who is an older woman, highly competent, and a parent who still has their own dreams and goals was such a nice reprieve from young, inexperienced narrators who are always five steps behind the Big Bad but somehow manage to prevail. Amina is a beautifully written character and her supporting cast is equally captivating. They are devoted to her yet not subservient like she’s their only reason for breathing. The villains and the morally ambiguous characters are just as developed and I’m thankful they received the same treatment rather than being caricatures of evil. 

I was not ready for the trippy turn around the 70% mark but I loved it. It cemented for me how perfectly this would work if adapted to a TV series. It gave the much needed push to boost Amina to become someone worthy of the tales told about her. It’s also such an interesting juxtaposition of fantasy elements intermingled with historical bureaucracy and religious and political machinations. 

Most of the characters ascribe to a faith and it is frequently discussed and referenced. In my opinion, it is never preachy or pushing any kind of agenda on anyone, it is merely as simple as believing. If any religious aspects of a book make you uncomfortable, this is not the book for you. Likewise, there is talk of genocidal crusades, horrific murders and threats of sexual violence. Skip this if you’re sensitive to those topics. For anyone else, I do recommend giving this a try. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

gold_star_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

What an epic story! Chakraborty said in her author's note that she was, "going to make it historically accurate, except for the plot" and did such an amazing job. The rich descriptions help set the scene so well, the monsters and creatures seemingly ready to step off the page! Amina is a fierce and powerful woman, yet still flawed and human. She has her many faults and disabilities but she was a lovable rogue. I can't wait to see where her adventures lead, interacting with the spirit world, breaking hearts (especially Raksh's), and letting her daughter grow into her own powers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Abandonment

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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 book was so much fun. I loved Amina and the supporting cast. I loved the themes of motherhood and faith and finding direction in life. The narrative voice was fun and engaging. I was delighted by the surprise trans character. I felt fully immersed in the world.

The pacing was very silly. The main plot/the thing that’s going to be the driving force of the planned series did not come into play until over halfway through.

There were also definitely some times when I was unsure how the characters had gotten from one scene to another. This is a problem I often have, so it may just be connected to my brain’s way of processing things, or it may be to do with the audiobook narration (which was very engaging and creative and which I recommend for sure). Regardless, I found aspects of the book slightly hard to follow at times, but never for very long.

There is some extremely intense content in this book, but the tone is much lighter than other fantasy books with similar content (The Poppy War comes to mind).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Xenophobia

Minor: Transphobia and Religious bigotry

imds's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail