Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

68 reviews

brigettes's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Drug use

Minor: Religious bigotry, Grief, and Vomit

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.25

I would read another in this series because the premise is interesting. I also appreciated the reveal. But it had a little much ultra-heavy hinting to the backstory until I wanted to scream "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO HECK HAPPENED TO YOU A FEW YEARS AGO GOD." I also felt like 7/8 of the book was kind of pressing forward and at a pretty slow pace and then the last 1/8 was really rushed and everything happened at once. Okay, and I also felt like the running themes and motifs were much farther on the smack-you-in-the-face side of the spectrum than the oh-i-could-see-that side. Also I think I wanted more fighting against god, but that's my personal issue. But I think it has potential! And I would listen to Mara Wilson read an ingredient list, and I'm not even kidding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Infidelity, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Incest, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Confinement

Please avoid if fire freaks you out!

brianna_moye's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Drug use, and Alcoholism

Minor: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Rape

aceofknives's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Hate crime, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Car accident

Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cancer, and Self harm

blewballoon's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

I struggled with this one. I really wanted to like it, I went to Catholic school and I knew some pretty cool nuns. There was a lot of potential in the premise. I thought this would be a fun time, despite being a murder mystery. It wasn't fun, it wasn't funny, and it didn't have anything new or interesting to say. It was just a series of awful people either doing awful things or having awful things done to them while the author describes how hot and humid it is every other sentence. (Do check the content warnings, there is a lot of dark stuff here.) The book is written in a stream of conscious sort of way, so I would be in a scene and then three paragraphs later the narrator was still musing, reminiscing about the past in a vague way, and talking about how hot it is, and I would have forgotten what was even happening. This was made worse by listening on audiobook and not being able to just flip back or skip over, but I do think Mara Wilson did a good job narrating the material she was given. Sister Holiday makes incredibly bad choices, is selfish and hard to root for, and doesn't really figure anything out that isn't completely obvious. The word "sleuthing" is heavily overused by her, especially considering that she doesn't actually do any. I would say the diversity is good, but because the diverse people are flat or terrible, I'm not sure the representation does anyone a service. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Cancer, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Incest, and Self harm

zarap's review against another edition

Nottt a fan. The writing wasn't great, to start with - I don't dislike stream of consciousness generally, but it just did not work for me here. I wasn't invested in the present storyline, Holiday's back story, or any of the characters, all of whom felt pretty flat to me. I was bothered by the fact that halfway into the book, the Catholic church's views on gay people hadn't been addressed despite Sister Holiday being a lesbian (one of the other nuns is homophobic and Holiday's just...fine with it?). I was even more bothered by

Sister Holiday's repeatedly hitting a disabled student (after he says some pretty bad/threatening stuff, but nonetheless, *student*) and knowing she "crossed a line" but not feeling any remorse or, up to this point, experiencing any consequences.

. This was on my list of anticipated 2023 releases, so I'm sad it didn't live up to my hopes, but if I could rate it, it'd be a 2 star at best. Also, if you do want to check it out, definitely check CWs first. There's some very dark stuff in the back story, as well as some in the present day narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Homophobia

egmamaril's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I rated this higher because I really appreciated seeing the social-justicr Catholic church (and nuns) I know represented, but the actual prose and mystery were not my cup of tea. However, it is setting up an interesting duo and I love Sister Holiday as a queer version of the troubled noir detective. I will remain optimistic for the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Infidelity

Moderate: Homophobia and Rape

Minor: Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexism

madsw14's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Cancer, Drug use, Death, Rape, Animal death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Murder, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Incest, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Fatphobia, Self harm, Confinement, and Sexual harassment

chloebrown13's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Rape, Misogyny, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

sarahbythebook's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

2.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio arc of Scorched Grace.

I wanted to like Scorched Grace so badly. I highly tattooed, lesbian, smoking nun sounds like a character I could get behind, but it wasn't meant to be. In fact, I almost DNF'd this book at 45%. We'll get to that in a bit.

Summary:
Scorched Grace is told from the perspective of Sister Holiday, a new member of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood puts her sleuthing skills to the test when it appears an arsonist and murderer is targeting the order's school. While she tries to unravel the mystery, she walks us through her life at the convent as well as what lead her to taking holy orders in the first place. With a lack of face in the police, a questionably stable fire investigator, and her own intuition, Sister Holiday does what she must to protect her school and the new life she's created for herself.

What I Liked:
The first quarter of this book, I thought I was going to have a new favorite. The first chapter reads like a love letter to the city of New Orleans, and the main character, Sister Holiday seems to be truly interesting. I was excited to see her backstory unfold over the course of the mystery. The general dislike of the Catholic diocese leaders was entertaining since I have my own dislike of them, and this might be the first book I've read in a long time that paints Christianity in a generally positive light.... sort of anyway. Unfortunately, that's about all the positives I have for this book.

What I Didn't Like:

• It didn't take long for me to find the main character grating and arrogant. She claims to be the school sleuth but then does virtually no sleuthing on the case? She stumbles across the answer on accident. 
• Teacher uses violence against a student. Details:
  I don't care how much a kid mouths off. As a teacher and as a religious figure, you don't lay hands on one of your students, 18 or otherwise. And to beat him with a ruler? Absolutely not. And then no consequences!
  This was what caused me to almost DNF at 45%.
• The author doesn't appear to really know anything about Catholic schools in New Orleans. I have no idea why she'd say schools are closing down given that this is set in what seems to be our time, post Hurricane Katrina. At the time of this review, there are still 23 Catholic schools open, at least half of them being high schools. This doesn't even count the Catholic schools located across the bridge in Metairie, Mandeville, Covington, and other cities within an hour drive of New Orleans. 
• The one that bugged me the most: the author appears to have no understanding of how diabetes works and didn't bother to research it? Details:
  One of the students, the same one Sister Holiday beats as a matter of fact, is a Type 1 Diabetic. The arsonist says that they underdosed him on his insulin, and yet he had a low blood sugar episode. Underdoing it on insulin would lead to a high blood sugar and wouldn't cause the drunk-like symptoms the character experiences. On top of this, Sister Holiday grabs his emergency supplies and injects the kid having a low blood sugar episode with INSULIN. This would more than likely have sent him into seizures or a coma, potentially even killing him.
  I get that the author might not know a diabetic, but this is easy research.
• I'm very concerned that Nina's character plays into the predatory bisexual stereotype, and it made me very uncomfortable to read about her and Holiday's relationship throughout the book.

Other Thoughts:
I don't feel like the brother's story was really relevant. I don't understand why Nina

shows back up at the end of the story.

We never get the answer to many questions like

how she ends up with the ruler in her guitar case or what ultimately happened with the coworker she pointed a finger at that didn't do it?

I left this book feeling let down and frustrated. I'm sure there's an audience out there for this book, but not someone who has a knowledge of diabetes or Catholic schools in Louisiana. 

CW: religion, child abuse, rape, police brutality, homophobia, incest, fire injury, arson

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia and Incest