Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

8 reviews

meggyflemreads's review against another edition

inspiring 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

My first 5 star read for 2024! An incredible and heartbreaking story of determination, grit, and endurance. Highly recommend. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Deportation, Grief, and Miscarriage

beccalora's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Deportation and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape

texashippie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child death, Grief, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide, Trafficking, Misogyny, Body horror, Death of parent, Deportation, and Emotional abuse

sherpa2015's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Stalking, Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Trafficking

Minor: Slavery

ezahn17's review

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death of parent

Moderate: Deportation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Miscarriage

Minor: Police brutality, Rape, Murder, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

opal_scorpio's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Deportation, Gore, Police brutality, Rape, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Violence, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, and Classism

teslacannon's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

domtheknight's review

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I feel that I can't rate this book because I'm extremely conflicted about many things.  I read it because someone picked it for a book club I'm in; otherwise I would not have picked it up based on description.  If I hadn't felt that I should finish it in order to participate in book club, I would have put it down almost immediately, and at many additional times throughout the story.  This book was not for me.

As for whether it's for anybody... from a technical writing standpoint, like in terms of making good sentences with words that sound and feel a certain way, Jeanne Cummins has skills.  It's bare and factual for the most part, but every paragraph is screaming in grief, underneath.  Grief, and horror and desperation.  It's creepy in that way, and sometimes that's good and what is right for the story.  But given the subject matter and the author, it honestly crossed the "violence for violence sake and not to further the story" line many times.  

The point of this story, having sat on this review overnight, seemed to be everything that can go wrong will be more awful than you can imagine.  I don't know why you tell that story.  There's no character growth.  Is the point to generate sympathy for immigrants?  Is the point to just be horror?  I think there's too much grief to be horror, but it's not really a grief book either.  It didn't feel like a horror book and it wasn't marketed as horror, but that's the ultimate end story I get from it.  I never cried, I just felt numb.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Police brutality, and Infertility

I'm not sure I got all the warnings. This book is very dark and fairly graphic about it, the plot is that a woman sees 16 members of her family shot (this is in the first couple paragraphs), manages to save her son, and then must run. They are in Mexico, they take various migrant paths, with some migrants coming from further south countries. There are gangs and violence and Lydia basically decides they need to go to the USA fairly early on and the rest of the story is whether or not they make it, plus some details about situations their fellow migrants are running from. In some cases the details left off the page felt worse than what was on the page.