Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

61 reviews

paigieodo's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

the most beautiful prose i've ever read in my entire life. it's a 200 page long poem about loving even the things that should be impossible to love.

i hate grim books, books that are fixated on the ugliness of life. i just hate them, because that's never been how i see things. i don't think humans are selfish, that bodies are grotesque, that everyone is just waiting around for a chance to take advantage of you. i love my coke addict mother and and i love my drunk of a father and i love the disgusting mess my mom would feed me every dinner growing up with the scraps from the back of the cupboard because we were dirt poor. i love the people who have abused me, who have hurt me on purpose. i don't think there's anything ugly about being human. only things that hurt, things that shred us apart, things that make us feel too much in all the wrong ways. and all of it is beautiful.

joshua whitehead, through the character of jonny, encapsulates this better than any other author. rot and mess and mud and blood and cum and spit are beautiful because they're attached to the people we love, even the ones we love without really having a good reason to. whitehead has written the most wondrously human characters in this novel. i'm in love with them. i'll never forget them. god. i have a lot of feelings about this book and also nothing meaningful to say at all that will do it justice. i love it. i love every part of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Rape, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Death, Excrement, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Grief, Homophobia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Sexual violence

reciprocalriice's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child abuse

rini's review

challenging emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Pregnancy

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.25

vivid and somewhat dreamy, weaves between memories and the present, flips between johnny travelling back home after his step father dies and memories of his childhood, growing up queer and his first love

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Sexual content

tic bite

jenny_d's review

challenging emotional 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

4.75

Goddamn, this book is beautifully written.  Everyone is flawed, but not unloveable. I grew to love that family in such a short page count. I liked the parallels and themes illustrated within chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent

tyyne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Not the easiest read, gave me a claustrophobic feeling. But I loved the strong and punchy writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Abandonment

truthfoundhere's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

mattypallett's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

I knew a very small amount about indigenous Canadian culture before reading this book, and whilst it isn’t an encyclopaedia, it does a great job of informing the reader about the culture seamlessly, without losing the flow of the narrative. 

Jonny is a very interesting and complex character, and I could always understand and relate to his motivations. I really appreciated the author explored the complexities of his queer and indigenous selves; it’s a fascinating intersection which I hadn’t seen expressed so in-depth before.  

My only slight issues were as follows; 1) there was quite a few pop culture references, which I personally find kinda corny when reading, 2) the narrative isn’t linear and sometimes the time jumps were slightly unclear to me which would leave me confused for a few pages, 3) I personally feel like Jonny’s sexuality was tied for too heavily to just sex, rather than the emotional & romantic  implications of sexual identity. 

With all that being said, any of my issues with this book just come down to my own preferences, and even then, this book was gorgeous. 100% recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

kidcorvus's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

alerasaul0's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

2.5

Look, this is extremely biased of me to say but as a sa survivor sometimes it's really hard for me to read stuff around sex and trauma when it's not treated as trauma in the story. I think it's fair that everyone views and experiences things differently it just was upsetting to me given my personal history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment