Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ohmage_resistance's reviews
71 reviews
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Infertility
Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Colonisation and War
Minor: Alcohol
IDK, I'm complaining a lot, but it wasn't a bad book, and I had an ok time with it. I don't think I'll continue with the series for the reasons I listed above (the "I'm too young, too American, and too uninterested in classics to really be the target audience for this book" part).
Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Police brutality, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Body shaming, Mental illness, and War
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Racism and Violence
Moderate: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Death, Slavery, and Alcohol
There were a lot of circumstances where I felt pretty distant to the main character or like a distant style was being used. The exception to this was the scenes of abuse from the mentor figure, which I thought were well written and powerful (later on when were were being shown Vodaya being abusive, not just being told about it). That being said, there was a lot mostly in the "honeymoon phase" sort of part of entering the warrior sect that felt skimmed over (see also the point about Zenya never really feeling like she belonged or honestly felt that happy). Also the deprogramming/deradicalization arc also felt pretty distant in similar ways, we don't see a sort of desperate hopelessness or sense of loss of community, because Zemolai never had one.
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, and War
Moderate: Body horror, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Ableism and Death of parent
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
On the positive side, it was nice to see how the author changed details about The Beauty and the Beast to better fit the Nigerian setting. On the other hand... one of my least favorite tropes, as an aromantic person is the "(romantic) love makes you human"/humanizing power of (romantic) love trope (you might be able to tell why I don't like the original The Beauty and the Beast story very much). This book subverted the assumption that it's romantic love that has that humanizing power (which is nice) but it did it by replacing romantic love with queerplatonic love. That’s not actually as huge of an improvement as it could have been and is still going to feel alienating to some a-specs who feel like they can’t have or don’t want a QPR or a romantic relationship. Basically, it feels like the core premise of what was bothering me, as an a-spec person, about The Beauty and the Beast was still there, which isn't what I generally hope for in an aro fairytale retelling. IDK, I probably should have guessed it was going this way based on the start, and I don't want to blame the author much because it's not like QPR stories couldn't use more rep, but those are my feelings about it.
Also, this story was a little bit too far on the sappy side of things for me personally, but that's just my personal taste. But other than that, I enjoyed the book, with the characters and their struggles. Also, I liked the shout out to Raybearer (as a Nigerian inspired fantasy book with ace rep), that’s sweet.
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Homophobia, and Car accident
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This book is also pretty dark at times, especially for YA, although things aren't completely hopeless
Over all, I had a pretty good time.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Torture, and Colonisation
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Slavery, and Alcohol
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
You can also tell that a lot of the book is concerned with stuff that's very relevant to Uganda—there's an illness that's very reminiscent of AIDS and a huge part of the book deals with social attitudes towards spirits/traditional Ugandan spirital beliefs. There's also some bits that felt kind of jarring to me probably because of cultural differences (one of the MC's magical powers was the ability to fart/defecate fire, which comes up a lot).
Unlike the last book I read recently with worldbuilding that the reader had to pick up from context (The Archive Undying), in this one, the motivation of the characters were always clear (especially the main character, who is facing an evil spirit called a wor-yama, trying to find a place to belong after her mother died, and trying to figure out who her father was). The prose style/rhythm of the story might also feel a bit odd to some readers, I think because it's going for a slightly more myth/folktale style. I liked it, and I liked the coming of age story that the MC went on, although the ending is pretty abrupt and could have been fleshed out more, imo.
Graphic: Infidelity, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Gore and Cannibalism
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I'm complaining a lot, but I liked this book more towards the middle (I was having a fun time trying to piece things together), where the ending kind of lost impact. Definitely don't even try this book unless you actively like being confused when reading.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Drug use and Suicidal thoughts
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Minor: Rape and Classism