Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

23 reviews

gar42's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

3.0

An alternate timeline when Al Gore won the election against Bush and pursued a war on climate rather than a war on terror. The premise explores the ways in which white supremacy and greed are baked into America, regardless of the prevailing political ideal of a given time. 

I found the conceit of the book interesting, and many parts of the book exciting and fun to read. But this book is filled with white tears, white guilt, over-explanation of political ideology, and in-your-face critiques of America that are founded, but written without the nuance or craft that I would hope for in a work of satire or literary fiction. 

I look to books like Chain Gang All Stars or Our Missing Hearts as models of how a dystopian, alternate timeline book can point back to the flaws of present-day America without hitting the reader over the head. When a dystopian plot is too similar to the plot of reality, it can feel more like an uncanny valley reflection than an effective piece of probing political commentary. 

For what it is, though, a fun and exciting read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: War, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

bugle's review against another edition

inspiring 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Transphobia

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, Addiction, Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Suicide attempt, and Sexual violence

Minor: Antisemitism

alsoapples's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Transphobia, Death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Addiction

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

The concept of the Free People's Village? Amazing. I love the idea of autonomous zones, especially ones that crop up in protest. Some of the aspects of the Village - including group meals, art builds, and horizontal organization - warmed my leftist heart to see illustrated on the page. I also really appreciated many of the anti-authoritarian & abolitionist sentiments shared by the character of Gestas. He reminded me of people I know & love in real life.

Beyond the aspects mentioned above, though, I did not enjoy this book. I tried to write a thorough review explaining all of the reasons why but I ran into the Instagram character limit. Thus, I present to you a list of qualms:

1. Maddie is irritatingly spineless and naive. She has nearly zero personality beyond being in love & being afraid.

2. Maddie constantly demands the emotional labor of people of color to assuage her fears and extreme naivete.

3. The love interest, Red, is sexy but super toxic. It seemed we were supposed to be rooting for xim & Maddie. I couldn't.

4. The structure of this book is uneven and jumbled. It's a journal but the jumps in time are often abrupt.

5. Everything in this novel is heavy-handed and over-explained. All of part 1, in which the characters are introduced in unnecessarily repetitive detail, could have been eliminated & the story would have been better for it.

6. Relatedly to the above, this is a New Adult story that relies on constantly telling versus showing. I know that Kern has a background in teaching, but I didn't enjoy feeling like one of their students.

7. Parallels & meta nods to our real-world timeline were made. They were cheesy and awkward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Rape, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Grief

kleinekita's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Rape, Transphobia, Classism, Toxic relationship, and War

bobbi's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Vomit, Gun violence, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Deadnaming and Transphobia

rpompom's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.25

I was looking forward to this book and feel like it did inspire complex thought and good discussions with others. I have not seen many books with a narrator sitting with shame, guilt, desire to change and support liberation while wrestling with their privilege as explicitly. I did feel like the narrator felt a bit young (than their supposed age) and a bit flat in their exploration, sitting with so much white guilt. I did enjoy that this was not a utopian novel - it sat within an alternate timeline of dystopia and wrestled with things we are currently fighting as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

decie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Colonisation, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Death, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Transphobia, Rape, War, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

kchamp's review against another edition

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

2.0

This book is so fucking depressing. It kind of almost redeems itself in the last 5-10 pages? But honestly this felt like a novel that did not need to be written. What is the intention of telling this made up story, with an “alternate future” that’s so obviously parallel to our own that it hardly counts as speculative? It feels lazy. What is the intended purpose of telling this story from Maddie’s perspective? Her character is so underdeveloped, flimsy, annoying, and hard to empathize with. She’s a hollow character with no defining personality trait other than “shame,” and even that feels under explored?

And oh god, don’t get me started on Red and the romantic subplot. Maddie just hops from toxic relationship to toxic relationship and it’s boring. And there was not a single moment of this book that convinced me that Red was “charming.”

I did not give a shit about Red or Maddie, and it infuriated me to have to trudge through their story for the scraps of what was actually compelling in this book. I want books about hope, not just in the last 5 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Addiction

mxfahrenheit's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Police brutality, Vomit, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Colonisation, and Deadnaming

Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, and Animal cruelty