Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon

12 reviews

alexlynx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

Instantly bought the second book. This is so unhinged in the best way, I am almost unsure if I just read a real book. The most fascinating part of all of this was (without giving too much away) that the main character has many versions of themselves and the writing style changes according to that. It adapts over time as well and it is hilarious, exciting, scary, marvellous. Can't wait to read the second part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cursing, Dementia, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Death, Grief, Animal death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Self harm

tattooedbibliophile's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Chronic illness

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, and Torture

ctara2123's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Self harm, Homophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

instalovewithbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Thank you to NG for an e-arc and St. Martins Press for a gifted finished copy. All opinions are my own.

God, I adored this book. 

Godly Heathens is one of my most anticipated releases this year - and it did not disappoint. 

I received this e-arc version, but surprisingly I was gifted a finished copy and honestly lost my fucking mind. 

H.E. Edgmon is a brilliant author, 

I have to do this in point form to even bring across all the points for this book: 
- The trans and queer joy.
- "Gods are not cis" ugh god this was so good but makes so much sense like why would a god be cis when they are above our gender norms?
- All the characters. They were so fucking good. Even the ones you're suppose to "hate" you end up loving them.
- Plot twists. There was a good portion of them but they didn't make the story seem silly or that Edgmon was just doing it for the "wow" factor.

I do not know when book 2 is coming out but I need it immediately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

the_b00kreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

In this book we follow Gem Echols as they realise their life is not as it seems. Gem is the reincarnated God of magic...this may seem pretty cool until they also find out that the other gods have a few deep-rooted grudges against them.

I was vividly entertained throughout the entirety of this book and found it to be a pretty swift read. 
The plot in itself was really well drawn up and executed with plenty of thought going into it. The characters were really well developed and had dimension. 
The only character that fell a little flat for me at first was Enzo, he was a little predictable.

I loved H.E. Edgmon's depiction of the gods and their home world, the Ether, although I will admit I'd love to know more about it and feel as though, in the next books, I might be able to do just that. 

Being inside Gem's mind was certainly an experience. They had so many conflicting emotions when it came to making some of the greater decisions and I feel everything was portrayed splendidly. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Gem and the others but I can only guess it is not going to be an easy journey.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death, War, Bullying, Torture, Genocide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Ableism, Transphobia, Racism, Body horror, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Self harm, and Child abuse

CONTENT WARNING provided by the author. This story features a candid depiction of mental illness that, although based on my lived experiences, may make some readers uncomfortable. The main character grapples with managing their symptoms, accepting their own and a family member’s illness, some internalized ableism, and some ableism from others. There are references to self-harm and suicide. Other potentially upsetting content includes: • Graphic gore and body horror • Violence, including murder and torture • Off-page sexual violence, including experiences that involve children • Abuse, including child abuse and off-page domestic violence • Mentions of transphobia and racism, including references to slavery and genocide • Animal death

caseythereader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the free copy of this book.

 - Wow, this book. GODLY HEATHENS is H.E. Edgmon leaning into his full talent as a writer of angry, messy, queer af kids desperate to find their place in the world.
- The mythology here is so cool, and so detailed and tangled I could believe it was real. And the "real world" people and plot threads felt messily real, too.
- This book mashes together queerness and small towns and mental illness and thousand year old gods and it works beautifully. I can't wait to see what happens next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

itsapaxycab's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book was given to me as an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley. This does not change or influence my opinion of the book. 
I don't know where to start with this book. I read so few books with nonbinary mc's, and nonbinary mc's written so damn well. There is not a single instance of misgendering or deadnaming in this entire book, which is a beautiful thing sometimes. You can tell me it's not realistic, but it is fantasy, and anything can be true when you put your mind to it. 
Morally grey characters are another big thing to me, and this book has done it so well I'm still conflicted on how I feel about every goddamn character in these 400 pages. It is usually easy to find who is the hero in a story, but there is not a single one in this book.
So many of the main plot points are spoilers so I will discuss them more below.  

Because so many of these characters are eternal beings who have lived a whole millennium on earth in so many different bodies, along with their previous life in another world, it is so deeply hard to name any single one as right or wrong, and I think that is a beautiful thing. I want to be challenged when I read, and this has certainly done so.

 
My only big critique is the action. I struggled with this in H.E. Edgmon's other duology as well. While there are a few action-packed scenes that drive the story forward, I get lost in it very easily. The details and so many characters at once get hard to distinguish, especially when each character uses 2-3 names, as they did in this one. I am not great with names as it is, and this made it harder. 
This story will continue to sit with me as I wait for its release and eagerly anticipate the sequel coming in April 2024. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction

readingwithkaitlyn's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Body horror, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Self harm, Grief, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Animal death, Ableism, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Transphobia

Minor: Slavery, Racism, Genocide, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Infertility, and Child abuse

kharlan3's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Gem is a nonbinary teen living in small town Georgia, and things have never felt quite right- especially that their best friend lives all the way in New York City. This not-right-ness comes to a head as disconcerting things start to happen and Gem learns that they're a reincarnation of a god from another universe, in the midst of a generation-spanning war for the lives of their fellow gods and the world they left behind. 

I completely adored this book. Gem is complex- I rooted for them, but they make bad, messy, heartfelt decisions left and right. The thing that this book did the best was Gem's inner life- the combination of their mental health issues and the memories of their past lives flowing together, the all-consuming yearning that can't be contained to a single object of affection, the coping skills they try to use but aren't quite enough. I haven't seen quite this point of view on trans-ness, gender, mental illness, and growing up in the rural south anywhere else.

This book ends on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait for the next one- H.E. Edgmon hasn't disappointed me yet!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Transphobia, Mental illness, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Torture, Infidelity, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Self harm, War, and Suicidal thoughts