Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

13 reviews

hyperpension's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Classism, Colonisation, Transphobia, Sexual content, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death, Misogyny, and Abandonment

djbobthegirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Biphobia, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Addiction, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body shaming, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Outing, Physical abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Cancer, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Racism, Vomit, Excrement, and Infidelity

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

markedwithanm's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Racism, and Homophobia

criticalgayze's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

At the risk of being explicit, Queer millennial writers are the shit. (Side Note: If that little bit of cursing was too much for you, do not pick up this book - see my trigger warnings.) While I am late to the Whitehead party, he has joined the ranks of Emezi, Taylor, and Purnell in writers who are revolutionizing form, storytelling, and identity in a way that is going to have a major impact on literature from here on, and it is no wonder when reading works like this that power structures are so terrified of Queers.

From the opening scene-setting of sneaking Queer as Folk in the bedroom as a child, Whitehead creates a sense of the Queer kid who is exposed early to what it means to understand yourself as a sexual being. In that way, I felt myself immediately seen on the pages. While being a mere (but learning) spectator in his specific experience as a Queer person of Indigenous heritage, I also felt incredibly in tune with his experience of impoverished matriarchal and tight-knit extended family dynamics.

Having read Dear Senthuran and Jonny Appleseed, two Queer books steeped in culturally specific spirituality, Baldwin's refrain strikes me all the more that we white people have truly done terrible harm, not just to the marginalized peoples that were subjugated and expelled and murdered, but to ourselves through colonialism. This lack of access to a deeper spiritual identity that we white people suffer from leads us to a toxic sense of personal restlessness that makes us a danger to ourselves.

This was just such an extremely powerful book that I am thankful the Canadian book gatekeepers had the good sense to prioritize.

Quotes:
And I always got a tickle out of how you could anthropomorphize yourself within the gay animal kingdom: "bear," otter," "wolf," "fox," "cubs." If only these gays knew how powerful Mistahimaskwa could really be. (18)
I thought for a second, then accepted it: I added "canine" to the list of entities I could morph into and started charging an extra few bucks per session. (25)
Like the leech, I too felt like a hermaphrodite: part boy, part girl, and always needed by hunters and fishermen. And I always left a red mark on their bodies somewhere, as if to say: I was here./
Plus, leeches are medicine, didn't you know? (81)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Racism, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Pregnancy

lilyaugust's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug abuse

ce_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, Racism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death, Bullying, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, and Pregnancy

There's a scene involving a belly button that I can think would really wig some people out

maekay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Intense and nihilistic story about realities of modern Indigenous and Two Spirited life. The writing is amazing, the author balances dichotomies perfectly: it's disgustingly beautiful, violently touching, and ambiguously insightful. Not for the faint of heart, there is a lot of pain in this novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Addiction, Bullying, Drug use, Child abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty

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

kirkspockreads's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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: Grief, Homophobia, Bullying, Alcoholism, Transphobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Terminal illness, Death, Cursing, Colonisation, Child abuse, Bullying, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Dysphoria, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Physical abuse