Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Release by Patrick Ness

7 reviews

carlyalynnsia's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment

iris_lrf's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. As always, Patrick Ness's style is beautiful, gripping and inspiring. His characters are wonderfully developed and accurately diverse. Release weaves a story of love, loss, heartbreak and home second to none.
There's quite a lot of gay sex in this book. As a trans lesbian, penile activities are something I generally try to avoid, but it doesn't hurt my opinions of the book as a whole. It's not just yaoi, it's sex with a purpose, sex that tells us something about the characters and their relationships.
And then there's the other half of the book. The magic realism half. I do not like magic realism.

It's all, "the goat sex spirit is following around the ghost of a teenage girl who is also god, and if he doesn't separate the two by midnight the world ends." And then at the end of the book some kid she's never met gives her a flower he's been carrying around all day without knowing why and now everything's fine? OKAY??? What does that mean. What am I possibly supposed to gain from that. Where is the connection.

Magic realism reads like AI "art": it's just a series of events that make no sense on their own and even less sense together. It pretends to be all deep and meaningful, but I'm pretty sure magic realism authors just use mad libs and dice.
All in all, though, amazing book. Would absolutely recommend to anyone struggling to understand or come to terms with an LGBT+ identity, religious/family trauma, or a past relationship. I cry much less often than I should, but Release got me damn close. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Murder, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Outing, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Hate crime, Violence, Mental illness, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, and Blood

hayleythegoose's review

adventurous challenging hopeful sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cursing and Child abuse

Minor: Blood

nannahnannah's review

3.0

I love Patrick Ness, which is why I checked this book out, despite not enjoying one of the books this one is inspired by (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf)--and not being familiar with the other (Forever ... by Judy Blume). I definitely enjoyed this more than Mrs. Dalloway, but I think it might be one of my least favorite Ness novels.

Release takes place in a single day, probably one of the most emotionally challenging days of Adam Thorn's life. He's the (closeted) gay son of a conservative preacher in a small town ... kind of a nightmare. On top of that, he has to go to his ex's going-away party (who he's not completely over), later that night, fight with his feelings for his current boyfriend (is this real? or do I want to want to love him more than I actually love him? etc.), and deal with sexual harassment from his boss at work.

There's also a second story going on. A girl (who was murdered at the same lake Adam's ex's going-away party is taking place at) has been resurrected with the spirit of a non-specific deity called the Queen. The girl is on a journey to find her murderer and ... do something. But apparently disturbing the Queen can have disastrous consequences on the world.

If these stories sound a bit disjointed, they kind of read that way too. They eventually do come together at the end, but I'm still not sure what the Queen's presence really was or who she is or why she existed in the first place. 

Adam's story, though, is beautiful. And incredibly relatable. Patrick Ness always has that way of writing stories that brings out a real, genuine voice, and it shines here too. I just wish there was more of it and less of the Queen business -- or maybe I just didn't understand it and where the two stories intersected.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

canonically_k's review

emotional reflective 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

3.25

Didnt really get how the second pov linked fully to the story. Book about introspection, relationships. Tone was spot on, humorous but heartbreakingly insightful into personal insecurities and issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol and Car accident

lucys_library's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

carolined's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

No rating - this book is clearly not written for me  so it didn't seem fair.

Like in 'The rest of us just live here' you have teenagers so caught up with their petty issues they don't realise the world is in danger however it's not so jarring this time as they have no way of knowing about the existential threat.
Anyway, there are two plot lines here, one of Adam dealing with teen drama somehow all condensed into one day and one of Katherine, somehow raised from the dead and not sure what's going on. 
Unlike most of the other reviews so far I found Katherine's story far more tragic and compelling. 
Also some reviewers have said that the religious bigotry is realistically portrayed, but for people outside the USA who don't have this normalised it's 'Oranges are not the only fruit' or 'Purple Hibicus' levels of crazy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death