Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

10 reviews

anarmandameg's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Self harm, Child abuse, Murder, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Misogyny, Bullying, Outing, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Transphobia, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Transphobia, Sexual content, Sexism, Confinement, Mental illness, Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Outing, Cursing, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion, Confinement, Pregnancy, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Alcohol, Deadnaming, and Animal death

litliz's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Outing, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

kathrynshields's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The story started strong but meandered in a way that didn’t serve the plot or character development.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Self harm, Outing, Mental illness, Abortion, and Deadnaming

Minor: Animal death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

The story addresses transphobia and intimate partner violence at length, but does not promote either.

daniellereadslikealot_'s review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Nineteen Minutes is my absolute favorite Picoult novel and this one is a very, VERY close second. Mad Honey absolutely sweeps you away in its part contemporary family drama, part murder mystery and part young adult story. I am an absolute sucker for multiple POVs and a non linear timeline and this book did them both so well, giving us just enough to make us think we know the story, but then revealing something else to completely throw us off the scent. It’s hard to talk about this book without revealing spoilers for the midway through twist, but I thought the handling of that topic was done beautifully and in a really authentic way. I also loved the look at complicated relationships, even during the parts that were really sad to read. I thought both Olivia and Lily had strong voices and I liked the (maybe) symbolism of the literal (and figurative) masks they wore, Lily with her fencing and Olivia as a beekeeper. My only complaint was the ending felt a bit rushed. The final big reveal made perfect sense and it was honestly an option I was rooting for, but once revealed, it felt like everything just went back to normal. But overall, I loved this book. It’s brutal at times in many different ways and contexts, but I think it’s a very necessary read, especially these days.

Mini spoiler: nothing bad happens to the dog!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Mental illness, Child death, Transphobia, Abortion, Bullying, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death

lidia7's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

read it in one sitting, cried a couple of times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Child abuse, Grief, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abortion, Cancer, Murder, Medical content, Death of parent, Blood, Alcohol, Animal death, Outing, Violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-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

Check TWs. 

Amazing, powerful, thought provoking. I didn’t know where this was going until it was revealed, loved the characters and their development, and discussed important topics. I loved all the bee and honey facts. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Alcoholism, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Violence, Child abuse, Murder, Outing, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

 I would like to preface this by saying that I kind of went into this book blind. The only thing I knew was what the synopsis told me (which I think was purposefully done by the authors) and I think depending on how open-minded you are, I think you should do the same. However, I would like to state that as an avid thriller reader, I don't think this should be marketed as a “thriller”, it's a light mystery at best. So if you’re expecting anything thriller-crazy, don’t. 

But anyway, I LOVED this book! It did take me a while to love it though. As I was reading in the beginning, I liked it but I didn’t love it, but it all came together soon enough. There are so many layers here and stories told that this book provides lots of depth. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was getting really attached to the characters and even teared up a couple of times hearing what they had to go through (especially one character in particular). And I love how multifaceted and flawed our main characters were; I feel like it humanized them in a way because with stories like this sometimes authors make the characters a little too perfect that it takes the authenticity of the story and the character.

The writing is sooooo good! I could literally feel the characters' emotions through the page. I LOVED this book so much and I personally was a big fan of how educational it was considering I knew nothing of what it would've been like to be in Lily's situation. 

The only qualms I have with this book is that I wasn't really into the "bee talk", but some metaphors did stick (no pun intended). Also, in regards to Lily and Asher's relationship (loved them, they were the type of toxic that you actually want to root for) and them "knowing each other so well"; I feel like we were TOLD that rather than shown. I would've loved a few scenes dedicated to them having innocent fun and listing things they had in common rather than just being told that they have this phenomenal connection.

Also, that scene that we get about Asher being okay with Lily being trans. I wish we could've gotten that reveal through Lily's flashback instead of Olivia's present perspective. Because in Lily's POV it shows him freaking out and storming out of her bedroom when he found out. I feel like it would've been more impactful if we got a dedicated scene in her perspective of him being okay with her being trans and loving for "who she was, not what she was".

  Also, another thing, I feel like the ending "twists" was so underwhelming. 

It being Maya to be the one that pushed her was so cliche and felt like a cop-out to me (I was hoping it would've been Dirk). And her not facing any repercussions for what she did piss me off because she literally killed someone and got away with it. The writing was so good in this book that I think I'm gonna cock it up them being in a rush and unsure how to end the book. It's a great book regardless,  but the ending twist was not it. The overall ending was good though.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Child abuse, and Hate crime

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

Minor: Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Abortion, Alcoholism, and Animal death

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

I'm just so tired of the mere existence of trans people being a "shocking plot twist."

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Abortion, and Alcoholism

bitesizedbeet's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Grief, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Self harm, Transphobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Animal death, Car accident, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Medical content, Alcohol, and Sexual content

dernhelms_bag's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is basically To Kill a Mockingbird but begging oblivious readers capable of human empathy to give a shit about trans people. I DO NOT recommend this to trans readers or anyone who already has trans people in their life they love and respect because this is intentionally deeply upsetting.  A trans woman and activist asked Picoult to write this with her to make an appeal to society to do something about the violence and persecution.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Outing, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Death, Abortion, Medical content, Hate crime, and Animal death