Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas

2 reviews

becca303's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Outing, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Cancer, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Racism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Misogyny, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Grief, Hate crime, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, and Eating disorder

myreadingdream13's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.0

There were some interesting ideas brought up (briefly).
I expected violence, I've read all the trigger warnings ahead of time, and I can stomach a lot of stupid melodrama, enemies to lovers is in my top five tropes. From the summary, the book sounds fine. But I hated it from start to finish. 
Plot-wise the biggest criticism is the gratuitous amount of trauma and suffering. It's so excessive it becomes funny because every sad thing imaginable has happened to these poor characters. 

By the end of these 500+ pages nobody changes, not really. All of the eating disorder stuff is unresolved. Clay's internalized homophobia just disappears. Clay and Olive seem like a horrible couple. Mind you I didn't expect them to be in a healthy relationship but their good moments are okay. Their bad moments are jail worthy, I found myself angry at the author and her team. 

 
A deeply 2014 Tumbler reading experience.

Writing wise a lot of plot points get dropped and forgotten, probably like 70%. The tone is wack, going from depressing to flirty way too quickly. The pacing is lousy. Some scenes will drag on without an apparent need for them to last as long. On the other hand, a lot of moments felt cut off because we would switch POVs and it is another day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Bullying, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Infidelity, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

Minor: Abortion, Incest, Addiction, Rape, Self harm, and Cultural appropriation