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strawberrypinch's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Child death, Deportation, Kidnapping, Police brutality, and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Racism, Sexual violence, Rape, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny
Minor: Abandonment, Cursing, Stalking, Cancer, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Suicidal thoughts
jennywinder's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Vomit, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Murder, Rape, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Ableism
If you’re working through your own traumas related to migration, drug trafficking, sexual assault, gun violence, or death perhaps pass on this oneorlagal's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Racism, and Pregnancy
domtheknight's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
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.
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.