Reviews tagging 'Death'

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

17 reviews

immaculori's review

challenging dark funny hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Misogyny

calamitywindpetal's review

emotional funny hopeful tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Racism, Police brutality, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Drug use, and Sexism

Minor: Confinement

theespressoedition's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Cursing, Grief, Hate crime, and Drug use

Moderate: Police brutality, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Homophobia

agnesbebon's review

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Grief, Addiction, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Racism, and Panic attacks/disorders

vedpears's review

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

Such a great book! It was very easy to immerse myself into the story - the characters were believable and all had strong, distinct voices of their own. This book included issues facing youth today - class struggles, racial discrimination, violence from authority, drugs infiltrating neighborhoods and lives therein, friendships and romantic relationships, familial ties, people's expectations and judgements... Excellent writing that I became fully invested in.

I noticed a lot of people have a problem with how Bri speaks to her mother and thinks about her ("she isn't polite enough! That's her mOtHeR!")

Spoilers:

These people must be so fortunate to have never had a parent abandon them. Jay decided to take up the hobby of consuming Crack when her husband/her children's father was murdered. Think about it from a young child's point of view. A young child who had to then be raised by a grandparent that clearly resented that same mother would likely develop a sense of resentment toward her, themself. Bri clearly states she doesn't feel like Jay deserves or should be called mom because of this. Of course there is a lack of respect and reverence from Bri - Jayda broke that sense of security and trust! It's great she turned her life around and came back but that doesn't mean Bri can just magically forget and move on. That was ✨️ trauma ✨️ and that requires a lot of work to heal. Bri's decision making and way of treating others made sense to me. I've met people with similar upbringings who conducted themselves as Bri does in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse, Bullying, Hate crime, Classism, Police brutality, and Racism

cinceredavis's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was extremely well written and very easy and interesting. It's genuine and personal. Bri feels like a natural person and everything she goes through feels very real. I love the casual talk about sexuality and how they don't make it the character's whole personality trait. There's more to them than being attracted to the same sex. This book does have some dark themes such as death, drugs, sexism, and a few other things. I overall loved the book and would've read it in one sitting if it was during the summer and I didn't have school.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Police brutality, Racism, Death, Addiction, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Homophobia

Minor: Bullying

natashaball's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gun violence

Moderate: Death and Bullying

ekmook's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse

Moderate: Abortion, Sexism, Racial slurs, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, Misogyny, Homophobia, Gun violence, and Grief

the_mfghetto's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Death, Misogyny, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Addiction, Grief, and Homophobia

kitaliae's review

emotional hopeful 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

3.75

I like this book, and the previous The Hate U Give;  it's clear that Angie is going to be an important voice of the next generation as she continues to write emotional, touching stores for an audience that is largely ignored.  I love Bri, she's so fiery and spunky, and I do relate to get struggles to chase her dreams and not be a burden. In a lot of ways I wish this book was more about her and her struggles with identity. It feels like parts of the book were rushed or sections were just left out. Nothing feels awkward or bad, just feels like there is depth missing from sections that really should have had more. So much of rap and hip hop in general is about identity and authenticity, and this book had so many opportunities to go after that and passed on it. The social themes in this book are amazing, but at points it feels like those plot lines were favored over Bri's story. (also this really didn't need a second love interest - it happened so fast it feels kind of icky)

On a personal note, it was really frustrating to have so much of Bri's fire dismissed as ODD by her brother. ODD exists, but it's not what Bri is struggling with and I wish it hadn't been included. So many black teenage girls get that label from the school system unfairly and having her brother reinforce that was really aggravating. It might have been a joke or whatever, but it comes off poorly when Bri had been nothing more than a typical teenager in her "outbursts".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, and Police brutality

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Murder