Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

22 reviews

brookey8888's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

I just don’t think this book was for me. I can see why a lot of people like this and I did like the topics discussed, but that being said I didn’t love it. I thought the characters were honestly annoying and the  “quirky” style of character was too much for me. As for the romance I thought it was cute, but I honestly didn’t like how they tried their friend(also violet totally had feeling for him, but that just disappeared). I also wish that we got to see more of Sam and violet and their relationship develop and grow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Outing, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Suicide attempt

imstephtacular's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Death, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Medical content, Self harm, Blood, Ableism, Alcohol, Biphobia, Classism, and Cursing

skudiklier's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

The writing in this was beautiful, and I love the bi/pan rep! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Biphobia, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Homophobia, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child death, Outing, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Drowning

moodreaderlesbian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I saw this book on booktok and have been so eager to read it ever since. I'm happy to report that it lived up to my expectations, such a great read. Lovable characters, gripping plot, sapphic girlies. What else could you need?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia, Blood, Vomit, and Grief

georgiak15's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia

bisexualwentworth's review

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

4.25

This was a really good contemporary YA book and a really bizarre take on Twelfth Night. I’ll start with the first bit.

The Last True Poets of the Sea is a book about grief. It’s about history. It’s about trauma. It’s about how people carry those things with them from generation to generation. It has some beautifully complicated and at times tragic sibling relationships. It has a teen sapphic romance that feels realistic for the characters and where they are in their lives.

It also has most of the things that one might expect from a Twelfth Night retelling: A love triangle, a shipwreck, a character named Toby, twins…

But all of those parts of the story are remixed to a degree that didn’t really make sense to me. The shipwreck and the twins (and the gender stuff) are in the past. The love triangle is completely different because Violet falls for Liv first and Orion is for some reason straight. Toby is Violet’s uncle rather than Liv’s. Most of the subplots are cut completely, which makes sense but was still sad (well, I didn’t really miss Malvolio, but I wanted a proper Sir Andrew character, goddammit!). 

The book still works despite these changes to the source material, and they were obviously make deliberately. They just bugged me as a fan of the original play who enjoys seeing new takes on it.

I also have a couple little nitpicks:

Liv refers to herself and Violet as anagrams. This makes sense thematically, but the names Violet and Olivia are NOT anagrams. This was very confusing because the author could have actually given them names that used all of the same letters!

Also, this is a very white book. It makes sense because it’s set in small-town Maine—maybe the whitest part of the US—but why was Violet always remarking on the fact that random side characters were white people when she and all the other characters were also white people? Very odd.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Death, Grief, Alcohol, and Drug use

Minor: Homophobia

averyrembish's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Outing, and Cursing

Minor: Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Homophobia, Blood, Car accident, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, and Vomit

aiyam's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-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

I absolutely loved this book. Drake’s take on the meaning of grief, how it affects life and what we’re meant to do with it hit me hard. I’m obsessed with this author and I can’t wait to see what she does next. 

Violet is the new love of my life. Reformed party girl trying to atone for her sins and work her way out of the disaster her brother has created for their family is my new favorite kind of girl. She is such a genuine person who feels all her emotions so strongly, I ached when she expressed herself, I felt her words as strongly as she did. 

All the people she meets in Lyric are amazing. They’re funny and quirky and the perfect mix of side character while having their own lives off page. Liv Stone might be my second favorite character in the book, surprise surprise. She’s just so interesting and sweet and I can so see why Violet falls for her. 

All in all, the writing is gorgeous and the plot is heartbreaking in the best way. Such a great debut, can’t wait to see more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Chronic illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer

alouette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.5

"I swam up, Violet. We both did."

a beautiful, lyrical, swimmingly fantastic novel. you can tell the author poured their heart into this book, into the achingly real and complex characters, into their relationships, and into the journey they undergo. it was difficult for me to read at first, painful and hitting too close to home, but that's the beauty of it, i suppose. i feel like a better person, more self-aware and more resilient, for the adventure this book took me on. even if the first half was painful and confusing, the second half was comforting and lovely.

"I'm saying our choices matter. Choosing to try... that's not a small thing."

i was hoping that violet, liz, and orion would become a cute poly trio but how it turned out with the girls was sweet nonetheless

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Medical content, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content