Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Finney Boylan

157 reviews

mecmccann's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Mad Honey follows two teenagers, Lilly and Asher, as they fall in love, until tragedy strikes and Asher finds Lilly dead in her living room. The story follows Asher as he is accused of murdering her and he is left to grieve and grapple with this turn of events. 

This book had a clear purpose, to shed light on the lives and dangers of queer youth, and it did achieve it. I thought this aspect of the book was poignant and thorough. However, I had some difficulty really believing the love story. Asher and Lilly were only dating for three months and they fought to the point that they weren't talking for like 8 weeks. They were very much on-again-off-again, in my opinion, but they're so set that this is the love of their life. It's not, you're not talking to each other, you've known each other for a month. This is part of the reason I tend to have issues with books about/from the perspective of teenagers. I was a teenager once, and yes I thought little issues were the end of the world, so I do see that for them. However, I felt that the immaturity of the characters and of their relationship took away from the overall impact that this story could have had.

I could also argue that the immaturity of their relationship reflects that of high school relationships, which this was, and maybe this was some people's high school experience, we all think we're in love after the first date when you're 15. But these kids were 18, seniors, almost done with high school and moving on to college where they would learn quickly how to be adults, and at that point, I think the infatuation of instalove dies down. But this was very much instalove, and that is what takes away from the purpose. 

I also felt like it was written to embody tumblr circa 2014, at the height of every teenage girl's John Green era. It really threw me back to when I was 16, on tumblr, reading every book John Green wrote and Supernatural fanfic. With this, there were some similes that just didn't make sense. At least John Green's brother is a scientist, so he wasn't over here making similes about exploding inert compounds. I feel like it's not hard to do a google search to make sure you're actually saying what you want to say. Don't get your information from a tumblr poem. 

So I guess TLDR; This book had a clearcut purpose that it achieved well, but it should have been written in 2014, and read and raved about by the John Green girlies on tumblr. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood

readersmultiverse's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.5

Mad Honey was an incredibly powerful and emotional story with great depth. The mystery aspect kept me on the edge of my seat and the characters are going to be difficult to forget. This was an important story & I loved the extra bits at the end as well (the authors’ notes and the honey recipes!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Medical content, Suicide attempt, and Murder

jrow's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-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

3.75

Found the book boring until the trial revealed Lily was AMAB. I thought it was a clever way to surprise the reader with the knowledge, just like the court was discovering it. However, before that point reading the beginning was as easy as a walk through knee-deep mud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood

makenziehyatt's review against another edition

emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

A beautiful and complex story with a plot that will keep you guessing. I couldn’t put it down

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Transphobia

Moderate: Violence and Murder

rsilverst's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

This was such a fantastic book from start to finish. The closer I got to the end, the more I worried that I would be disappointed, but this book was really well architected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Grief, and Dysphoria

samireads's review against another edition

mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder

el90's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Suicide attempt

goodin10tions's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Mad Honey is it's own story but I feel like if you are a fan of Saving Jacob, Middlesex,  or The Lovely Bones you will love it. The journey of all the characters is haunting and melancholy. Sensitive readers should research the content because there are many possible triggers.
This is a long story (15 hrs) but it goes by really fast. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

yofisofi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

I really liked this book!! Thought it was a really good read and I didn’t want to put it down. I would rate this 3.9. I thought the timeline was a little confusing, although it didn’t matter too much for understanding the book but I thought some of the internal interrogation Olivia had about lily was a little underwhelming I guess is the best way to put it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Trafficking

mama_pillot's review against another edition

It’s just not for me. It didn’t grab my interest and I’m not “dying to know what happened”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Murder