Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

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

11 reviews

sefalinde's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Self harm, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Bullying, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Biphobia

sammy_nor's review

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Transphobia and Grief

Minor: Deadnaming

valereads's review

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

Review to come

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Biphobia, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Self harm

emily_mh's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

There wasn’t anything I hated about this book but I also don’t feel super enthusiastic about it having read it. I’ve broken the book down into its three core elements: 

The mystery. As with all mysteries, this consists of two parts: the investigation and the solution. The investigation was pretty lacklustre. Sam and their friends don’t really figure out anything beyond what’s already obvious. I also feel like a mystery should be peppered with mini reveals as the characters tease out the red herrings, but because of the lack of investigation, there weren’t really any. Because the mystery is the driving force of this book, it didn’t feel driven at all, but kind of wandery. To add to that, the solution was underwhelming. This was because I didn’t really know the suspects beyond surface level archetypal stuff, so none of them were compelling characters. 

The MC. I think Sam was the best part of the book. I loved the autism rep in them especially; it was woven in well with the narrative. They also seemed very real in their trauma responses, especially regarding their belief that they would die prematurely. Sam’s development with regard to their PTSD wasn’t rushed or unnatural, and I loved seeing them be able to find a place in which to belong. Having said all that, because I didn’t like the writing style of this book, and the book is written in first-person, the poor writing style became entwined with Sam’s narrative voice. This was a struggle. 

The romance. The attraction here wasn’t signposted very well, so I didn’t find the romantic connection between Sam and Shep believable. I honestly just wish there hadn’t been a romance at all. 

P.S. I’m not sure how good the adoption rep is here, but I do know that there might be an issue in the fact that we are not given any information on Sam’s background before they are in foster care at age 7. 

Rep: autistic queer ace nonbinary MC, aroace Afro-Latino SC, queer Latina LI, Vietnamese-American SC, bisexual SC, Jewish SC, sapphic Black SC, questioning SC 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Self harm, Biphobia, and Gun violence

Minor: Classism, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Suicide, Alcohol, Car accident, Racism, Alcoholism, Addiction, War, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Ableism

Major: queerphobia, medical emergency, anaphylactic shock Moderate: migraines Minor: foster system, loss of a loved one, drowning

buttermellow's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Hate crime

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Biphobia, Bullying, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Gun violence

spark_879's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child death, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Vomit, Gun violence, Biphobia, Self harm, and Domestic abuse

transphobia = misgendering & harming someone because they're queer • murder = (accidental) attempted murder • sexual content = kissing

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Transphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Blood

mxbluet18's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

5.0

"When you're haunted by past lives, how can you live your own?"
☆
I'm doing something I almost never do when I'm reading something, making notes as I'm reading it. But something that I'm really enjoying about this book is how I can predict the literal responses Sam gives to things sometimes. (Possibly because it mirrors my own often sarcastic literal responses). 
~
(As of writing I'm only 19 pages into this book, but already I'm loving it.) Having authentic autistic characters in books gives me some representation I didn't even know I was craving. Especially when it comes from an author who is a part of that community and implicitly understands some of experiences we have. While simultaneously also making it plain that every autistic person, and every non binary person, or person with a queer identity can have very different experiences and I'd different from other people with the same identity as them.
~
"You know, like that show with the autistic kid who knows every single Pokémon. That’s not always what it looks like, obviously. We’re not all the same."
~
This may easily just be me projecting, but between Sam and the people they meet, Shep, Sky and Aiden, they really feel like people in my own life. People who immediately grasped my name and pronouns and just made me feel comfortable as I am. None of them treated Sam any different for their gender identity, nor their autism and the traits they displayed. They simply tried to understand and help when they could.
~
I like that it doesn't fall back on the stereotypical representation of autistic people, and actively avoids them. I also like the inclusion of Sam's father bring probably aroace, though feel the romance subplot between Sam and Shep unnecessary (but I feel many ya books having romance subplots unnecessary anyway)
~
Ultimately, this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It's definitely a 5⭐ read and it deserves all the good reviews and praise it gets.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol and Gun violence

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

---

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

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

---

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