Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

4 reviews

escapinginpaper's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

3.5

A coming-of-age story about the angst of teenage-hood, following a group of friends who struggle with their separate difficult home lives and traumas, and how they bond with each other and find commonality through playing together on their basketball team. The story focuses on two girls in particular: 

• Ren, an LA native, whose older sister struggles with drug addiction, and whose parents just got divorced over it.
• Luna, a free-spirited girl from Hawaii, who has to return there suddenly when her mother becomes very ill. 

Ren and Luna become fast friends one summer before high school starts, they bond over their mutual love of basketball and the ocean. Ren is upset with Luna's sudden departure back to Hawaii, and her lack of communication. When Luna returns later, she's ready to pick up where they left off, but Ren, not so much. They find themselves flung together when their impoverished high school starts a basketball team, and both they and others in their friend group all join. 

The narrative in this story felt a bit disjointed, and I had a hard time following it at times because of all the different plotlines, and sometimes, because of the art style, it was difficult to tell the characters apart. I also felt the resolution was too quick and simple, especially considering the main problems that took up the majority of the story.

I did enjoy the tenderness of the coming-of-age aspects, which felt realistic and relatable despite the experience of being a teenager is getting to be a while ago for me. Also, 10/10 for use of color in the artwork, this book is a scream of color and I really loved just flipping through. Color definitely acts as a divider for the story – as a scene or as the plot shifts, the colors change and I really enjoyed that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Bullying, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Death of parent, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug use, Dysphoria, Sexism, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Grief, and Death

Minor: Blood, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

One of the characters is a minor who smokes, another minor consumes alcohol on-page through several scenes. Several of the characters (all minors) attend a house party. An overweight character struggles with bullying, body image and her relationship with food on-page throughout the book.

Another minor is depicted in a sexual relationship with a teacher, with on-page scenes involving kissing, and with off-page sexual activity implied.

One character commits self-harm on-page in reaction to an abusive parent.

Ren's sister is drug addicted and appears ~halfway through the book. She manipulates their father, emotionally abuses Ren, steals from them, and sets the house on fire at the end. It's implied her sister is in an abusive relationship with someone, but the abuse occurs off-page.

pich's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.0

this was a pretty quick read, and i don’t really have much to say about it other than i enjoyed it. besides the story itself, which i liked, i was really drawn to the colorful design and overall layout. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Blood, Infidelity, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Pedophilia

corvicore's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

really pretty. i wish the ending was paced a little differently, though, things felt like they ended a bit abruptly. i also wish we saw more from so-young and jetta in the last half.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Pedophilia

Minor: Infidelity and Blood

emusing's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I just loved it. I read it in one evening, but I think I'll need to go back and revisit some of the more poetic parts at least. The art is beautiful and the coloring is a very cool, shifting monochromatic look in various bright colors. Some of the lettering is hard to read if you don't have good lighting, and I don't know if this is just me, but I had a hard time differentiating Jetta from some of the other characters for the first half of the book. I would be all for reading more about these characters, since many of them have deeper stories behind them, but the ending to the book was satisfying and hopeful. It didn't feel at all unfinished, and I just savored the friendships.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

While I think the book deals very well with these dark topics, it portrays the character's struggles in a real and nuanced way that may be triggering for some.