Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

11 reviews

onegalonelife27's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

We enter the story in Clementine’s point of view on the night of her sixteenth birthday, where she’s getting ready to meet a man. However, once they meet, it doesn't take long for things to escalate and for Clementine to end up with blood on her hands. The rest of the story is told in Aster’s, her older sister’s point of view. 

With Aster’s chapters following we learn of the world of Arketta, which an empire took over and any rebels became Dustbloods, people cursed to not cast shadows and their descendants born without shadows.  There’s also fairbloods, people who do have shadows, the privileged class of the world. Many of the dustbloods give their daughters to the welcome houses, where the girls work as sex workers after they turn sixteen and are tattoos, flower looking tattoos that will hurt them should they rebel against orders or go covered for too long.  We don’t get to see much of this life because Clementine and Aster along with friends Mallow and Tansy, and finally local prima donna Violet run away. Because Violet claims she knows where a woman known as the Ghost Lady, rumored to be able to remove the favors. So thus begins a life on the run for these young girls. 

This is a good example of a found family, with each girl getting a chance to shine, and the group overall bonding over their travels in hopes of freedom. We certainly feel sympathetic towards Clementine’s predicament, her sister and two friends for helping her cover up the murder. Violet acts more snobby, due to being born from fairblood thus having a shadow, yet with her own point of view we do become more fond of her, like Aster does. Also I’ve got a soft spot for ladies doing crime, call me crazy. Support women’s rights and wrongs. 

I also love the idea of a fantasy world being more centered around 19th century culture, especially one that has a Wild West. Especially in this world where ghosts are real and can be violent against the living, ghost town has a whole new meaning. 

I really enjoyed the story, with great reveals and action, but also some great heart. I’m hoping I can read the sequel soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and Medical trauma

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Misogyny, Murder, Drug use, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide attempt, Medical content, Suicide, and Infertility

kodiex's review

challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Addiction, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Vomit, and Trafficking

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Torture, and Medical trauma

letsgolesbians's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

the diverse baseline challenge gave me a reason to finally reread the good luck girls by charlotte nicole davis, a fantasy western in which teenage girls take back their autonomy. 

on their sixteenth birthday/luck night, daybreak girl become night rise girls aka good luck girls and go from cleaning and cooking etc to being sex workers for the welcome house. the opening chapter takes place on clementine’s luck night, wherein she kills her brag (the word used for welcome house clients) because he chokes her. clem runs away with her older sister aster and three girls from the welcome house: tansy and mallow, who are younger than clem and have not been forced into sex work yet, and violet, who is aster’s age and the pet of the welcome house because she was born there. this world doesn’t have the same race and ethnicity descriptions we do, but clem and astrid are Black (astrid is on this cover), tansy is described as a light brown, mallow is said to have white skin and freckles and is indigenous, and violet is white. 

i’m not going to try to explain the whole world and magic system, but here are some important pieces. there are spirits with varying levels of violence and men who can control the minds of the good luck girls through the tattooed “favors” on their necks, on top of a system of oppression similar to the capitalistic hellscape we’re in now. people work themselves to death in mines to pay off their debts, families sell their daughters to welcome houses to pay off debts, and when the girls run away, they’re running into a violent world that still feels like a better option than staying in the welcome house. 

their destination is lady ghost, who can remove their favors from their necks which will give them a chance to start over. they befriend a guy named zee and find an underground (literally) network of people whose goal is to build through the network of abandoned mines until they’re able to reach outside of arketta. tansy and mallow are sapphics and are able to be together when they’re all on the run, and neither violet or aster are pushed into a love story. 

there were a few times i thought it was unrealistic how quickly characters recovered from injuries, but other than that i really enjoyed rereading this and am going to see if the library has the sequel. 

photo posted at TheSelfishSapphic on ig:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3tTRDSPtg1/?igsh=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Suicide

mmefish's review

adventurous dark 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? No

3.0

Unfortunately, I can’t name anything exciting happening in this book, but the author definitely has potential to grow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Cursing, Pedophilia, and Suicide

julesadventurezone's review

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, and Violence

kelsireads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, and Suicide

kelseyland's review

adventurous dark 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

A tense, face-paced escape story that takes place in a dark, fantastical version of the American West. This definitely felt more like part one of a series than a standalone novel so I'm glad the next book is already out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual violence, Addiction, Drug use, Gun violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Medical trauma, Rape, Suicide, Child abuse, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

mandkips's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Slavery, Misogyny, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Death, Violence, Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Suicide

femmenova's review

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

it could have been a five stars but they gotta do my girl, violet, that dirty huh :(

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, and Gun violence