Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle

40 reviews

pedanther's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, War, Sexism, Body shaming, Drug use, Ableism, Death, Addiction, Classism, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

hellonovahere's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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

1.0

so incredibly racist and sexist but what can you expect from an Englishman from the 1800s. 

overall, a pretty bland read; not anything to write home about and not something i'd recommend, really. a bit long-winded in the very last chapter, but that's just a personal opinion. it's saving grace was the humour, some of which still holds up pretty well.

ymmv with this book, but my opinion of it was severely soured by the overt racism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Drug use, Racial slurs, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Cannibalism

juliatsang's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs

Reduced the rating due to some heavy-handed racism. I didn’t remember this from when I was a kid. I still love Sherlock Holmes, but question whether that would be true if it weren’t for nostalgia.

pengintoppa's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Drug use, and Colonisation

Moderate: Cannibalism, War, and Slavery

softiejace's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Colonisation, War, Racism, Slavery, and Murder

Minor: Addiction and Cannibalism

cae's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

I liked the structure of this book better than the first one; there was a better balance between the criminal’s story vs the actual solving of the crime, following Sherlock and Watson (leaning heavily towards following the narrative of the latter). However, the sheer amount of racist content in this book really decreased my enjoyment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Cannibalism

filipacmiranda's review against another edition

3.0

 The story narrated by Conan Doyle in The Sign of the Four proved to be more interesting than its predecessor. Reading A Study in Scarlet felt like the ending came too fast. In this case, it felt the exact opposite. In some situations, such as the suspect’s pursuit, having access only to Dr Watson’s perspective made it dull. 

The mystery was appealing, even if the criminal’s motivations weren’t clear to me. Additionally, the fact that the author used retrospectives to reveal details from the crime seemed better in the text this time. 

Lastly, even as background to all the adventures and mysteries that go on, the personal stories of Sherlock and Watson started to gain shape. On the one hand, we have access to Sherlock’s addictions and mental health problems. On the other, Watson’s future wife makes her first appearance in this novel. When it comes to this love story, all I can say is there’s something special about how less than 24 hours and a few glances were enough to fall in love…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Drug use, and Racism

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

2.5

Ok, wow, mixed bag on this one. On one hand, the mystery its self is very fun; locked room, treasure, a mysterious calling card, its all cool. On the other hand, good God is this one racist. Most of the ACD Sherlock stories I've read keep that good ole' English racism to a minimum, but The Sign of Four seems to have dialed it up to ten to make up for that. I don't think you can go two pages here without reading multiple paragraphs of Watson or some other character just using the rudest, most vile descriptions possible for Indian people. I can't say I didn't expect it, because I know just how horribly the English viewed Indian people at the time, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to read. I'm not kidding, though, the racism in this one is really really bad, especially because we don't get the usual Holmes thing of having the story at least somewhat go 'um, actually, the people society hates are actually just people and it is in fact the rich bastards who suck'. Just yikes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Colonisation, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Violence, Acephobia/Arophobia, Medical content, Alcoholism, Gore, Murder, Sexism, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Slavery

houseratss's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism