Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

61 reviews

dragon_s_hoard's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, and Body shaming

macknificent's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.25

I respect this book, I understand its importance, but I did not enjoy it. 

Took off a quarter star because the book is described as sex positive when it really isn't. There was A LOT of talk about penises and laying in semen, but a lot of it was presented as something that caused the MC pain/shame. Sex neutral seems a better descriptor, though still not quite right. 

Anyway, I think this is an important read that I never want to read again. Ranks right up there with Freshwater and Split Tooth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Death, Classism, Drug use, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Pregnancy

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug use, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Cursing, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

fuguefire's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A fantastic story, I can't wait to read more from Joshua Whitehead. Easily one of the best books I've read so far this year, Whitehead has an incredible aptitude for description and implication, a gift I feel lucky to find applied towards an indigenous genderqueer narrative. 
A note to fellow queer readers: this book made me feel uncomfortable in a way that only queer lit can. Some scenes felt like the characters were looking me in my eyes and speaking my name. I have rarely felt as much of a kinship with a book as I did with this one, and I'm honestly not sure if that's a good thing. 
Regardless, it makes for a good argument in favor of this book and Whitehead's ability as an author. I look forward to reading more from them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Vomit, Transphobia, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Racism

Minor: Bullying, Classism, Gore, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Dysphoria, Excrement, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

Jonny Appleseed is a messy and beautiful coming-of-age (of sorts) novel. This was such an unflinching reflection of the titular character’s understanding of his life, relationships, and identity. And all of this was at the forefront, while the story of him having to go back to the reservation for a funeral played out in the background.

I was really taken to how Whitehead explored gender and colonialism through Tias and Jonny, and how colonial ideas of the gender binary (especially masculinity) impacted these two young adults. I also enjoyed how so much of this was explored through Jonny’s life as a cyber sex worker, with Whitehead writing with such ease about sexuality and more. Something else I utterly enjoyed was seeing the amount of love and acceptance Jonny received from his mother and his kokum, especially.

Lots to think about in this book. It is messy in the emotional sense (it’s all over the place from funny to heartbreaking), but also that it’s not quite clear where Whitehead wants to take the reader at times. But, you know, sometimes not knowing is the journey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use, Colonisation, and Death

Minor: Body shaming

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Body shaming, Death, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Homophobia, and Chronic illness

Minor: Slavery and Fire/Fire injury

Absent parent, prostitution, f slur, residential schools, MMIWG2S, injured animal, broken bones, mention of lynching, e slur, child birth death, overdose,

dfrancis's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Well-written and very interesting. I loved reading about a point of view that is not often heard from: indigenous, two spirit, sex-worker. But I’m not a huge fan of this type of character driven book. There is not much plot at all so it was hard for me to stay motivated to keep going. But it helped that I listened to the audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Death of parent, and Transphobia

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

A lyrical and moving character study of a 2S Cree teenager in search of home. I liked this one a lot. It was razor sharp, confrontational, and emotional. It reminded me a lot of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" in form. So if you loved that, you'll probably love this. As I said above though, it is very much a character study, so the plot is thin, sometimes a little too thin for my *personal* tastes. But the characters are beautifully drawn and compelling, and the prose is beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Animal death, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

lexa's review

dark emotional sad

4.75

Wow. What a book. I had to keep reminding myself while listening that this is a novel, because it felt like a memoir. Joshua Whitehead did a fantastic job of bringing Jonny to life. My only complaint was that sometimes the timeframe bounced around a bit, and took me a while to figure out in the audio format.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Homophobia, Racism, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Minor: Infidelity and Pregnancy

kickitupanotch7's review

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

3.75

This was a raw, emotional, stream-of-conciousness-style reflection of the title character's whole life to this point, set during a week long journey to raise the funds to get back home, instead of in chronological order.

The narrator,  Jonny will sometimes leave the present to reminisce or remember related stories from his past. It occasionally happens mid-sentence and was sometimes hard to follow in audio. I'm sure this is less of an issue in the hard copy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Child abuse

Minor: Cultural appropriation

Repeated use of the F-slur, though sometimes used in the reclaimed way to refer to oneself.