Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

11 reviews

kaerene's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

I really enjoyed Dear Justyce. It took me a minute to remember the characters and the story/situation as I read Dear Martin last year and apparently remembered none of it as I’m pretty sure I sped read it in one setting. ANYWAY! Unlike last year, I enjoyed the switch from third to first person as it really helped the story along. I liked reading Quan’s letters and then learning about his history and the life events that led him in his journey throughout the book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, and Abandonment

stacy_27_'s review

hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Sad yet hopeful. This book allows us to see what the world could look like, if we gave a damn. It provides a realistic look into the school to prison pipeline and so beautifully articulates the why for young men & women who get caught up in illegal activities when they know they shouldn’t. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Grief, Classism, Confinement, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Addiction, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

honeyvoiced's review

hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cancer

ajason06's review

challenging emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I was thoroughly excited for Nic Stone's sequel to Dear Martin. 

My favorite aspect of the book was the camaraderie of the support within the community. This is a powerful realization and an important thing to remember. Even this book's themes are heavy and hard to deal with. Everyone has the right to be heard. I really appreciated the two colliding stories (the good and the bad) of Quan and Justyce and how they affected them both differently.

Great follow up to Dear Martin  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I finished Dear Martin and immediately picked up Dear Justyce as I did not want to leave any of the characters behind. Sometimes a sequel doesn't live up to the first in a series but Dear Justyce sure does that and so much more.

Continuing on the theme of racial prejudice and oppression, Dear Justyce looks further at the characters of Justyce and Quan. While Stone shows the struggles that the boys face she doesn't try to portray them as either all good or all bad and honestly shows both the good and bad sides to their characters.

The last section where Stone discusses the two books adds so much, I'd recommend if you usually skip afterwards to give the time to this one, it's worth it.

A powerful, tense yet hopeful follow up to Dear Martin. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

mandi4886's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

dodi05's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Minor: Cancer

jojo_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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: Child abuse, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

Minor: Cancer, Death, and Racial slurs

booksthatburn's review against another edition

reflective sad tense 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

4.0

*Rating edited downward because late in the book a character refers to plans for a Birthright trip and it is unchallenged in the narrative.

DEAR JUSTYCE follows Quan from DEAR MARTIN as he tells his friend Justyce about his life before he was incarcerated during the previous book. Told in a combination of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, this is a contemplation of the past with a chance at having a future. 

There’s so much care in this story, it’s evident in every page. In terms of narrative structure, it begins with the MC in prison, waiting for the outcome of his case but not hoping for much. It traces how he got there, how the turning points never felt like choices because of the system stacked against him as a Black boy then a Black teenager, then a young Black man. It's not trying to be a litany of traumas or disasters, the framing is that most of the sudden traumas were a long time ago, and that distance helps a bit. He's slowly gaining the tools to place his life in context and see how the pieces fit together, while also keeping tabs on the present. 

Now for the sequel check. The whole point of this story us to wrap up some thing left hanging from the previous book, namely: what happened to Quan after the events of DEAR MARTIN. There are several storylines which start in this book and were not present previously. Technically a bunch of the stuff that is resolved in this book was started in the first one, but this is definitely its own story within the series. I don’t know if there will be any more in this series, it looks like the first one was intended to be a stand-alone book, and this features someone who was a secondary character there. If this is the end of the series, it feels pretty complete, but there are definitely a lot of good candidates for another story if the author continues the series. Quan’s voice here is distinct from Justyce’s narration in the first book. This would definitely make sense if someone started with this book and hadn’t read the first one. 

Some of the secondary characters don’t get very much narrative attention here, but given that Quan literally isn’t able to spend any time with most of them, it would be more surprising if they had a lot of space on the page. As it stands, the snippets were enough to remind me of who they were from DEAR MARTIN if they were returning characters, and it was nice to see most of them again. The author is really good at making characters distinct and vibrant with minimal description, and that shone here. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug use, and Sexism

CW for sexism (minor), alcoholism, drug use, confinement, panic attacks, cancer, domestic abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, gun violence, violence, police brutality, major character death.