Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Femlandia by Christina Dalcher

26 reviews

pagnljel's review against another edition

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

1.0

Almost DNF this book but I pushed through hoping that it would turn itself around. It did not. The concept was definitely cool in having a feminist based colony after the collapse of the world. But the characters are transphobic and terrible. Ends up reading as propaganda for Not All Men

Do yourself a favor and skip this one. 
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rachellelikestoread's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I found the pacing a bit off, some chapters jumping months ahead of the previous. The story had a great start and was very graphic and gruesome in its post apocalyptic descriptions, but as the book progressed, the characters were all so two dimensional. Emma in particular was so quickly manipulated it was hard to believe how quickly that happened. There was a surprising lack of depth to a story discussing nurture vs nature, and ultimately a very hopeless ending. That may have been the author's intent, and this was a very well written story (pacing issues aside), I just felt there was room to explore the grey, rather than focus on the black and white. 
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nahal3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

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hey_jad's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Terfy, anti-feminist, not all men boomer narrative
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veronica222_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bookishpip's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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gloreishun's review

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

2.25

I do agree with some of themes and more specifically fears that the book touches upon but the execution and handling of them just didn't sit right with me. The main heroine was insufferable as always and I agreed little to none with her world views etc. My main take from this book was that, no matter if you are a woman or a man, we all have the capacity to be monsters.
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annierosebel's review against another edition

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3.5

This was a really interesting concept - but I felt like the pacing was a bit off? I get that we needed to understand the extend and horror of the economic collapse, but I think that took up too much space at the extent of a satisfying arc about Femlandia, without ever explaining how the collapse happened and how or whether it is men's fault. I also wonder if there were just too many rich details squeezed in - I wanted to slow down and sink into elements, but we kept racing ahead. The dark twists were predictable, and the epilogue was deeply unsatisfying - there was no sense of how we got from the end of chapter 78 to the epilogue, it was a wild leap, and also seems to undo half the message of the book in a very contradictory way? 

It feels like a really interesting idea but just not terribly well executed, with some red flags that make me worry this isn't the kind of feminism I'm interested in supporting. The idea and the concept of cults kept me interested, rather than the story or writing.

****spoilers**** 

The epilogue seems to contradict the idea that misogyny and patriarchy is taught/nature, rather than innate and nurture. The second you have men, raised in a female-led community, they raise up in charge and overpower the women? And are misogynistic? 

Also, it feels a bit disquieting to me to have transphobic characters and just leave it at that without those views being challenged or really explored - like someone said 'what about trans and non-binary people' and the author made the powerful characters transphobic to avoid having to meaningfully engage with the complexities and non-binary nature of gender.



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beccajdb's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-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

4.0

A page-turner with some thought-provoking ideas about feminism, gender ‘characteristics’ and how we might all behave post-apocalypse. This particular apocalypse is one we can all easily imagine and all the scarier for that. 
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hurlyburlywitch's review against another edition

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

1.5

There was so much I wanted this book to be, and it decided to be none of it. 

The book decides to toss in some arbitrary transphobia, has a mysterious dearth of disabled characters, and contains deeply nauseating and absolutely plot critical
child sexual abuse, torture and neglect.


I was also deeply horrified by an epilogue that
strongly implies biological determinism of misogyny and inequality.


Whilst moderately predictable, I found the characterisation in this book to be inconsistent and extremely variable. 
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