Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Blackwater by Jeannette Arroyo, Ren Graham

25 reviews

ezwolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

This was very cute (in the way a werewolf, ghost, mystery graphic novel can be) and I liked it, I just wish it was a tiny bit more detailed both with the characters and the magical elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Bullying, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent and Medical content

soulingual's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Animal death

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Transphobia

o__o's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked it I just don’t think it was really my style. Good for people who like the monster side of the supernatural.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Medical content, Bullying, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Animal death

dearestiefling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, and Gore

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.0

Blackwater is a cute graphic novel exploring friendships, sexuality, and gender with a supernatural lens. Tony, Eli, and Marcia make a great mystery crew and hopefully if the story is continued into a series, Biff will come around. It does feel somewhat unfinished, like Taylor's story with the gang is just starting and the book is an origin story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Car accident

sydneyj's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Ableism, and Bullying

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

bookenbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

I loved this! The end felt rushed, but it was overall a well paced story and great characters. Tony and Eli are so sweet together. If there was a sequel to this to answer some questions/give us more background on the characters it would be even better!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

readthesparrow's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

I am not much of a YA or graphic novel reader. I'm just not the target demographic for YA and high school is typically not a super interesting setting for me, and graphic novels typically are paced in a way I do not really enjoy. Blackwater, however, did everything right for me.

The characters are wonderful. Their designs are not terribly complex but they are super fun on the page--I love Tony's pomp and little fangs especially. Every character, while obviously inspired by or referencing certain high school stereotypes, is given depth and nuance (including the bully). The excellent characterization and focus on character relationships is what really carries this title for me, I think; the plot itself is fine, but it's certainly not the star of the show. In this case, I think that's a good thing--a simpler, easy to follow (but still interesting) plot using familiar supernatural creatures whose lore broadly follows about what the reader is familiar with allows for more focus to be given to the characters.

Connected to the writing is the pacing. Again, normally pacing in graphic novels isn't my thing; it either feels rushed or over too soon. Blackwater, however, felt very well-paced. The story in this volume wrapped up on a satisfactory note, leaving me feeling like I had gotten a fully developed and well-executed story while still leaving possible openings for more to follow.

I look forward to more of Blackwater. The authors did a fantastic job and I would love to see where the character's story goes next. I would really advise anyone who is interested in queer YA to pick it up, even if they're not interested in horror (As the horror is present in elements but the goal of the story certainly isn't to horrify).

This graphic novel firmly lands itself in the catergory of "god, I wish I had this in high school." I'm glad it's here now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Bullying

Moderate: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Medical content, Violence, and Body horror

bookishpriest's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Gun violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcohol

booksdogsandcoffee's review against another edition

mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

Thank you to net galley and Macmillan children publishing group for this arc in exchange for an honest review:

3.5 stars

Tony is the track star everyone loves and adores, Eli is the kid with a chronic illness who no one knows or cares to know about. He is always missing school because of the pain. Through unlikely circumstances the Eli reaches out an olive branch to Tony and the two become friends. But there is a something curious about Eli, and something even more mysterious going on in their small town of Blackwater.


I'm not sure I was able to see all of the graphic novel. From what I did read I really enjoyed the story of Tony and Eli. Tony being the tough track star, but really deep down is a nice guy is always one of my favorite characters. I also really liked how asthma was depicted in the graphic novel. Eli was also another great character. Myself growing up with a chronic illness I missed school a lot, lost friends left and right. so relating to him was very easy. And he is jewish!! The rep in the graphic novel was awesome to see. There was ableism and bullying, but you do see Tony working away from it during the novels progression.

Cw
Bullying
Ableism
chronic illness
animal death
emotional abuse
homophobia

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Ableism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Toxic friendship