Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Getaway by Lamar Giles

8 reviews

thissagreads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

The main character Jay is really stuck in delusion and I think it’s what made the book a very frustrating read at times. All of his friends knew not to trust the wealthy, white owned establishment and it takes (what feels like) a very long time for Jay to finally understand all the evil that was truly happening to the townspeople. 

When the end of the world starts happening, Jay and the middle class/working class people in town are essentially left no choice but to stay and become indentured servants/slaves to the rich, investors of the town. The town was originally a theme park that’s akin to a huge Disneyland/world, and it prepped itself to be completely self-sustaining. When the town goes on lockdown to shield them from the end of the world turmoil outside of the confines of the amusement park/community, things turn dark and bleak pretty immediately for the working townspeople. But of course those who found out the plan beforehand and resisted, “disappeared” and those who disobeyed the (rude) newly moved-in wealthy residents, were zapped on their required to wear bracelets, with electricity voltages that could “accidentally” kill someone if the button was pressed for too long. The reader can see all the bad starting to happen before the lockdown like the food rations and creepy drones, on top of the missing residents. But Jay doesn’t stop supporting the establishment -for housing his family and giving them good jobs- until he gets zapped nearly to death.

Unfortunately Jay finds out the hard way that classism and power can be incredibly dangerous, but we follow his journey and root for him and the resistance/revolution. 

This was a solid dystopian story with a lot of realism that really worked with the plot. I was engaged for majority of the story, but I do have to warn the readers that Jay can be very much of an “Uncle Tom”, dancing for the man, for at least a quarter of the book. It almost made me DNF the book because he was defending the wealthy so much, but rest assured, he finally opened his eyes and saw even terrible things to change his opinion and fight for what was right.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Classism

Moderate: Murder, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Terminal illness

Minor: Racism

tales_told_in_gold's review

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Death of parent, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicide, Kidnapping, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Dementia

Minor: Racial slurs and Cannibalism

shewhoturnsallpages7834's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The first hundred pages were a struggle for me. And Jay’s incredible naïveté irked me but eventually added to the emotional tensions that ran throughout the book, especially after he experiences the darkest parts of the resort and it’s elite.

It is not hard to imagine the sinister plans of the rich and powerful in light of climate change, political divides and racial tensions in the late-stages of capitalism. But the smart use of a vacation resort turned company town riddled with technological fail-safes took this story to another level. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Cannibalism

spookily's review

dark tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Blood, Dementia, Hate crime, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Classism, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Medical content, Gaslighting, Bullying, Car accident, and Kidnapping

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Grief, War, Animal death, and Child death

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This YA thriller was trying to do a lot of different things, to varying degrees of success, but overall I had fun. It felt like it fizzled out a bit by the end though. If you like retail horror (eg. Horrorstör) or socially conscious thrillers (eg. When No One Is Watching) you will probably enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Death, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Dementia, Drug use, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cannibalism, War, Child death, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Gore, Police brutality, Car accident, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Medical content, Self harm, Bullying, Grief, Sexual violence, and Vomit

libscote's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

It seems like Jay is going to have a good life. After all, he's now able to live in Karloff Country, a Disney-esque resort that lets staff stay on its grounds and gives them something like an Apple Watch that does a lot of basic Siri-like tasks. It all quickly goes wrong, when the outside world crashes in and the true nature of Karloff Country is revealed. 

I don't want to give too much away due to spoilers, but this is a jaw-dropping look at something that is unfortunately too plausible. I could totally see this happening, and it's horrifying. There are definitely content warnings needed for this book. It's also so good though. I've seen comparisons to Jordan Peele's work and that feels apt to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Torture, Classism, Confinement, Murder, and Racism

mals_reads's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Gore, Body horror, Classism, Racism, Slavery, Murder, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Suicide, Child death, Cannibalism, Dementia, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Torture, and Kidnapping

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Confinement, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Animal death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Blood, Death, Grief, Torture, and Murder