Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

35 reviews

evilyn's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Hate crime, Murder, Child abuse, and Death

ladysmartypants's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying

platoniciris's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book, wow. This book was something else entirely from anything I was expecting. I loved every page of it. It was intimidating as it’s outside my usual genres but I would read this again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

Minor: Self harm, Cancer, and Domestic abuse

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Child death, Deadnaming, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Death, Gaslighting, Ableism, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

sarah984's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

1.5

I feel terrible giving this book such a low rating but I didn't like it at all. 

I will say first off that I really liked Sam's relationship with their dad, and the way that emotions are described  being interpreted through facial expressions and the general autistic point of view. 

Every character that wasn't Sam or their dad was pretty one-note, though. I kept forgetting about Sky even though he was part of the core friend group, and it took me like half the book to realize Aidan and Dylan were two different guys. There were two different characters whose entire personality was "mean girl". The slang is really embarrassing (stop saying emoji!) and the constant brand name and meme references are already dated.

The mystery was also just really bad. The perpetrator is pretty easy to guess

because it's the one adult with zero redeeming qualities.

The author also seems to want to write a book where true crime sleuths save the day while acknowledging how damaging and ghoulish true crime superfans can be and that did not work for me. The way everything worked out comes across as "digging at old wounds and invading peoples' privacy is bad unless I do it."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Child death, Stalking, Ableism, Alcohol, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Minor: Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Racism, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Cancer, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Child abuse

imstephtacular's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Grief, Mental illness, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Suicide, Classism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Stalking

benediction's review

dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Biphobia, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Outing, and Self harm

Minor: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Police brutality, Racism, and Religious bigotry

melaniereadsbooks's review

emotional 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

5.0

Thank you to Astra Publishing and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

After a nearly life-ending attack when Sam lived in Montana, they move to Astoria, Oregon with their adoptive father to try and start over. But what Sam's dad doesn't know is that they think they won't make it to their 19th birthday and join the book full of other teenagers who died too young--including the one that died in their very house.

I loved this mystery/thriller so so much! I was completely absorbed throughout the entire book and really consumed it quickly. Sam is such an amazing character and I loved the many aspects to their identity. They actually remind me a bit of one of my students and it made me a little weepy. Also their dad, Junius, is probably the best adult to ever exist in a YA book ever? Like...I love him so much. He's aroace and so supportive and loving and absolutely there for Sam and takes in Sam's new friends like they are his own. I just really am here for a supportive father!

All of the side characters were also amazing. I loved all of them. Shep is an adorable and wonderful love interest and I just want to give her a hug and tell her everything will be okay! I also loved Sky and Aidan and the supportive teachers and other friends that they had throughout the book. 

I highly highly recommend this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Violence, Bullying, Transphobia, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Minor: Ableism and Self harm

aquariusqueen's review

emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester was a story I didn’t know I needed. With an interesting mystery, a sweet romance, a cool cast of characters, and how intensely raw it is, I was drawn in from the first page.

    Sam was an extremely relatable character for me and was an incredibly well-written autistic character. The casual mention of stimming, using a binder, and use of pronouns was so nice. You rarely get to read about autistic teens and Sam was refreshing. 

    The mystery was interesting and kept me on my toes. I had a difficult time piecing it together, until the end when it clicked.

    While the mystery is definitely an integral part of the story, I feel the main message of the story is about life and how trauma can change your view of it. While this story was fluffy and funny, it wasn’t afraid to touch on heavy topics.

    And this also has some pop culture references. I didn’t find them too terrible, but not everyone will like them.

    Overall, I deeply love this story and Sam. As a queer non-binary autistic teen, this is exactly the story I and other queer autistic kids need.

    TW: Bullying, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, self-harm, death, murder, attempted murder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Homophobia

Moderate: Biphobia, Self harm, Death, and Murder

ceciii's review

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was so good I don't even know where to start!!
The characters are everything and they are so diverse!! I loved Sam so much and they are a great main character. I also love how I could see a little of the world through their eyes and understand more the way autistic people feel and think.
And also the side characters are amazing! Sam's relationships with their friends and their Dad were so wholesome. They completely stole my heart!
The plot is really good. Even though the book starts very introductory, it doesn't feel slow. I actually liked seeing Sam adapting into their new school.
But the real thing here is the murder mystery. The author really had me making theories on who the murderer was and my mind was so full of questions all the time. This book has a lot of minor plotwists (and a couple big ones), and they kept me reading without being able to stop!
I really recommend this book!! It's very well paced, and the chapters aren't long! The characters are very loveable and it has a lot of LGBTQIA+ representation, which I loved!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Death, Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder