Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

25 reviews

sbnita's review

inspiring mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

Weird. Interesting. Loved it. Definitely not for everyone, as the style is very different than the literature we're used to. But a lovely story and worth the read💖

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, and Dysphoria

dmbooks's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Physical abuse, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

thereadingoutlaw's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

effys_books's review

hopeful mysterious reflective medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Bullying and Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual content and Blood

sandy_21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Body horror, Homophobia, and Suicide attempt

littlebluenaiad's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

1.5

The prose was pretty. I’ll admit that. My problem with it, however, was that it distracted from whatever was happening at any given moment. The chapter titles make no sense. Sam and Miel are making out and I can’t even realize until a couple pages in when they start taking off their clothes.

Sam frees Miel from the glass coffin, and I don’t even know until they’ve run far from it. And when there were petals all over Sam’s face, I wasn’t sure who they were coming from.

And maybe that was the point. But I didn’t enjoy it. It felt like the text was so descriptive that it circled from show don’t tell back to show, because I can only realize what’s happening once the characters tell me. And it was also so, so repetitive. I can’t count how many times it was reiterated that the Bonner sisters had red hair, that they could have anything they wanted, that they wanted the magic of Miel’s roses no matter how many times she told them they wouldn’t do what they wanted from them.

Also, more distressingly, it was very uncomfortable whenever Miel would say that she thought of Sam as her dead brother. Every time, I wanted to shake her and scream, “Then WHY did you sleep with him on page 3? WHY can’t you stop of making out with him?” Needless to say it was. Very uncomfortable. And I wish that they were just friends, even without all the brother comparisons, because I felt like the fact that they both just thought of kissing whenever near one another distracted from their friendship.

Instead, the book ends with them about to have sex.

I almost wish that this were a children’s or middle grade book instead, because the concept would work so nicely for that.

One last problem I had with this book. They kept saying that people called Miel and Sam “Honey and Moon”, but they really only call her “Honey” as in “Miel”, not because she ate it off spoons and knives and was oh-so quirky, but because Miel is literally her name. And literally no one called Sam “Moon” in the entire book. Yet another example of telling instead of showing despite the rich, descriptive writing style. Thank you for reading, this concludes my rant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Transphobia

Moderate: Bullying, Deadnaming, Violence, Death of parent, and Outing

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Racism, and Suicide

outtoexist's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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

3.5

This is an absolutely amazing book, but I just don't like the dream-like trace magical realism style. It is too slow and unclear for my preferences. However, the meat of this story is incredible and it has beautiful things to say about being trans. I do suggest it, despite my own rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Deadnaming, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse and Blood

Minor: Homophobia

i_cant_read429's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Homophobia, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Transphobia, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Dysphoria

mkosmos's review against another edition

hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, and Transphobia

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury