Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

12 reviews

tetrootz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Vomit, War, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Grief, Gore, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, Bullying, Body horror, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape

booksthatburn's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, Gun violence, Medical content, Vomit, Police brutality, and Suicide

Minor: Rape and Self harm

midnightcomets's review

adventurous challenging hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

Such a unique book, a wonderful little allegory about power, corruption, anarchy, humanity and friendship. I love Margaret's music so I was very happy that I loved her writing too. Also, this could work wonders as a mini-series. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Suicide, Animal cruelty, and Gore

Minor: Medical content and Rape

donutlookaway's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Rape

pupbeat's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A fun and suspenseful little book, set in a small anarchist community with a very interesting magical being tied to it, a deer with three antlers who is

suprisingly violent compared to what you would expect of a deer.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Suicide

softbitten's review

dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Minor: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Vomit, and Rape

owenblacker's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

First in a Tor.com collection of 4 queer-authored novellas published for Pride 2018, The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion is a punk fantasy. Alex Brown summarises the tone well in their Tor.com piece Anti-Doorstoppers: 10 Great SFF Novellas and Novelettes: “The story is part rural fantasy, part dark fantasy, and part horror. Think Supernatural but darker and queerer.”

Travelling to the anarchist utopian squatter-community of Freedom, Iowa, to find out why her old friend ran away from his found-family and the home that made him settle down from the road in order to kill himself in a motel room, squatter/nomad Danielle discovers an “eternal spirit” in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer is… “protecting”… the community.

With an author who is herself a transfeminine nomad, a queer protagonist and prominent trans secondary characters and characters of colour in the found-family, the story is effortlessly diverse and the setting itself is really interesting: the ancom utopia sounds lovely — but broken, inevitably, otherwise the community wouldn’t have needed to summon their protector, and with it the cost. But this isn’t just a what-happened-next; as KJ Charles puts it:

This is on one level a tense horror novel, where forces of the State and society and male violence are as much a sinister and pervasive threat as the heart-eating magic deer. But, as that suggests, it’s also a meditation on things like society, what anarchism means, how societies enforce rules and what it means to do so and who takes enforcement roles on themselves. How do we keep ourselves decent without a prospect of punishment for those who transgress? Who makes those calls?

And, as Killjoy put it in the book, “the revolution is about taking power away from the oppressors, not becoming them ourselves”.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Rape

CN: mention of suicide, mention of rape, animal death, death of a loved one, abuse, violence, gore, state violence

kazik's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, and Suicide

Minor: Rape and Vomit

laurareads87's review

adventurous emotional tense 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

4.0

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion is a short read with a plot that moves quickly: I read it pretty much in a single sitting.  I will absolutely read the next book in the series.  
I am always going to appreciate really explicitly anarchist fiction; some of the punk references felt a little forced here and a little cliché there, but mostly I found them more enjoyable than not.  For anarchists there are many dynamics that will feel familiar here -- the attempts to mediate disputes and make decisions by consensus, really really free markets, etc.  The cast of characters is diverse, and the points of conflict -- which are really a sort of discussion on strategy and tactics -- are for the most part well developed despite the novella's short length.  Inevitably with the constraints of a novella some elements that could've been developed further are left vague; here, it's the general sociopolitical context outside the main setting that the reader learns very little about, as well as most of the characters' backstories.  I really appreciate Danielle as a protagonist, though, and look forward to following her - and hopefully learning more about some of the other characters - in the second book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, and Death

Minor: Rape, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Body horror, Medical content, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Rape