Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead

9 reviews

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

dominiq_ec's review against another edition

very heavy on the inner monologue, which I usually don’t mind. however, i’m reading this book digitally, and its becoming hard to concentrate. hopefully I can pick it back up at a different time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Death, Homophobia, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Hate crime, Bullying, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Racial slurs

Minor: Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Fatphobia

most of the content warnings pertain to the lived experiences of native peoples / NDN folks. if you’re not familiar with this, please do adequate research before reading.

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

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

brenticus's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

I think this is a brilliant book in a lot of ways. If you're in doubt about the relevance of intersectionality, this book puts it front and center. Jonny is an indigenous person from Peguis, Manitoba who has to grapple with the complexities of being two-spirited in a society that has all but had the concept beaten out of them by generations of cultural genocide. He deals with indigenous problems, gay problems, women's problems, men's problems, and some that are pretty much just Jonny. 

The timeline of this book is chaotic; we primarily follow Jonny around as he tries to get enough money to return to the rez for his step-father's funeral, but each short chapter jumps around to discuss different points in Jonny's life as he grapples with his identity. Jonny's role in his family and community is complex and clearly something different from the Western delineation of gender roles. He associates strongly with the women in his life and often finds himself rejected by the men, being accepted by them only for specific purposes. In Jonny's case, that purpose is usually sex. 

Why only four stars with all this praise? Well, the book juggles a lot of issues but by the end a lot of the balls still feel like they're in the air or dropped to the ground unsatisfactorily. That's not to say the ending is bad; on the contrary, I think it's beautiful. But there are just some aspects of Tias's life, his relationship with Jonny, and Jonny's relationships with Roger and Jordan and his mother that feel a bit too fuzzy for my liking. 

In the back of the book the author says that he wrote this to affirm that two-spirit people are not a thing of the past, that they're a part of society and not going anywhere, and I think that really should have been at the front of the book. This is a relatively short book with a lot to unpack, but at the very least that blurb at the back shows that the author hit his intended purpose perfectly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, and Racism

Minor: Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, and Pedophilia

mdwyg's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

blueberry's review against another edition

dark sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Transphobia

maisierosereads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

Jonny Appleseed was on my TBR for at least a year, but yesterday I ended up listening to the whole audiobook! I'm so glad that it was available on Scribd.

If you like reflective, character-driven, slice-of-life queer literary fiction? You will love this book. If you aren't sure if that sounds like your kind of book, you will probably still enjoy it.

Both the author and main character are Oji-Cree Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer individuals, and this book showcases the power in own voices writing. I loved that Joshua Whitehead narrated the audiobook and would wholeheartedly recommend listening to it if you are able.

Jonny Appleseed shows a week in the life of the main character, Jonny, as he prepares to go back to his family's reservation for his step-father's funeral. Rather than being told in a straight-forward chronological way, the narrative feels much more organic, interspersed with the memories he is reflecting on. There are stories from his childhood, his teen years, his life since leaving the reservation, his relationships, his family, his cybersex work, and more. It also explores many of the issues faced by Indigenous (especially Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer) people.

As well as revolving around queer and Two-Spirit Indigenous people, this book (very intentionally) centres Indigenous women too; the relationship between Jonny and his kookum was particularly beautiful, making his memories of her all the more moving.

I'll definitely be reading more of Joshua Whitehead's work when I get the opportunity!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Vomit

mk_books's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Racism