Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson

16 reviews

littlelizzieborden's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, and Homophobia

erinmgill's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? N/A

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia

jmmd's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Stalking, and War

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

linguisticali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

I couldn't put this down. The horror of the inescapable abusive relationship was so chilling and compelling. I'll definitely look for more books by this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Homophobia

julesg's review

dark reflective medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and War

simonmh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Magical circus in the 1920s? Hell yeah! 

I thought the premise was fun, the grappling with super powers felt fresh in a world where there have been 500 superhero movies and shows, and I particularly liked how they handled the villain. While his actions are quite evil, you also see how he himself is a victim and what motivates him.

My only complaint is the book felt a bit overstuffed. For instance, the protagonist is a recovering alcoholic, but it feels unnecessary to have that detail in a character that already has plenty of behaviors and traits she’s struggling with. I think there are a few threads along those lines that you could eliminate and end up with a stronger work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

bek_p87's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was wholly original, brilliant, emotive, heartbreaking, hopeful, and haunting. I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Body horror, Gore, and Homophobia

anntharai's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

Jfc this book is devastating. Like. If you have a button, this story pushes - and not just the big ones in big obvious ways. It's the little ways it reminds you of things, the one liners that you need to pause and think about, but for others will just pass them by. Which, is really apt considering one of the main mechanics of the story. 

It's fucking terrifying, sad, hopeful.  Ita about trauma and finding yourself, inevitability and searching for good. 


I picked this up because it caught my eye in the new arrivals but I'm gonna be thinking about this book for years. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Eating disorder

briophyta's review

SUPER triggering as a survivor of abuse trying to listen to this audiobook. I think it's really irresponsible of the author to not have a big trigger warning on the first page or the cover or something. From reading the blurb about the plot and the author this sounds like it could be a great story and great representation of queerness, but the voice of the terrifying abuser loudly barging into every scene is very disturbing and seems tone deaf considering the significantly higher rate of abuse that happens to people in our community... and not only that but SO many other types of traumas just casually dropped in all over the place for almost every character encountered in the first few chapters. It was unbearably triggering, I actually had to take anxiety medicine to calm down after trying to push through and then realizing it was just too much and immediately returning the book in the library app. The writing is also frustratingly confusing and poorly paced imo!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Minor: Vomit

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol