Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Anna K by Jenny Lee

6 reviews

kimveach's review

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Sex, drugs, and other misbehavior from the young, rich, and vapid.  It was a little dull at first since I knew the story of Anna Karenina, but it ended up being better than I expected as I grew to know the characters.  I enjoyed the difference in the ending from the classic.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Self harm, Alcoholism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Classism, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Medical content, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Grief

hkburke2's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

I was going to DNF this but saw someone say they liked the audio version so after about 20% I switched to audio and managed to finish. There were elements of this that were interesting enough to keep me hanging in (subtle commentary on microaggressions, representation of a very priveledge world...) but everything else was just not right for me. The way the characters spoke didn't ring true to my conversations with/around teenagers... They were shallow even in the plot lines that were meant to show depth of character. I think the problem for me was not necessarily shallow characters but shallow writing. I can see why this worked for a lot of people, and I love the idea of a more diverse retelling of a classic, but this wasn't it for me. I did like the author's note though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexism, and Animal death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

sydapel's review

emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

 I feel really conflicted about this one. I went in with really high hopes (I've never read Anna Karenina, but I'm a big fan of the movie), and while I think it's a really good retelling, there's a couple things that deeply bother me. The first is the writing style. You can tell the author is trying to portray the style of Tolstoy, but it feels clunky and overdone. Not to mention the "teenager speak" made me cringe. Hard. Upon learning the author has written for a lot of CW/Disney shows, these choices begin to make sense, but the overall writing style directly took me out of the realism of this story. Secondly, and more controversially, I'm not sure how I feel about the romanticization of "dying for love" that comes with the book's conclusion, especially in the context of teenage love and lust. I'm happy about the direction the author took here, but the underlying note it leaves us on is slightly problematic, especially given the YA audience it's intended for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Child death, and Addiction

thebookishkatie's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion

CW: death, drug use, adultery, toxic parents, depression, anxiety, alcohol, reference to abortion, child sex tape

pinkberryoasis's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death and Vomit

leekaufman's review against another edition

funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Death, Child death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Mental illness

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, and Self harm