Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

9 reviews

ekfaltesek's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

Enjoyable story of love and friendship 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

joyfulfoodie's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• 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

5.0

I really enjoyed these characters and the historical depiction of both race issues and lgbtqia issues. It was less jarring to hear some of the arguments against being gay out of historical mouths than when you see them in modern social media posts. You can forgive their ignorance here, at a time when sexuality wasn’t really a thing and it was perceived as a sinful Choice instead of a piece of who you are. 

The characters are lovable and evolve nicely through the book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

clemrain's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

crufts's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.75

Entertaining, heartwarming, all-round a delightful and exciting story.

Our charismatic-scoundrel-with-a-heart-of-gold protagonist (Henry "Monty" Montague), an 18-year-old English lord, embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe with sister Felicity and best friend Percy. Naturally, it all goes completely off the rails. In the process Monty matures considerably, and forever changes his standing regarding his father and his travelling companions.

There's so much to enjoy about the book:

• Interesting setting. Assuming that the depiction of the 1700s is accurate, I thought it was fascinating how there was a strong England/France alliance with tourists visiting frequently from both sides, even though everyone was relying on communicating by letters. There were already English banks, embassies, etc in France, which did not intend to become French but rather to remain there as international institutions.
• Good bisexual representation! Monty's crush on Percy is a main plot thread, but his attraction to women isn't dismissed or trivialized. He is not "really" gay, he is really bisexual.
• Fabulous audiobook narration, especially of the French villain's voice.
• A somewhat magical plot device is foreshadowed well in advance and didn't feel like a huge surprise or genre-breaker when it appears.
  
  

I notice that some of the reviewers here can't stand Monty's personality, finding him to be too much of a "rake" (scoundrel) and too inconsiderate to his travelling companions. I agree that Monty is an ass, but I also thought this was balanced out pretty well by the fact that he's constantly getting payback for his misbehaviour from not only the world at large, but also from Felicity and Percy themselves.

I did find it a tad contrived that

despite their long-held mutual crush on eachother, Monty and Percy didn't get the truth out between them until the end.

The main obstruction is established at the beginning,  when Percy asks Monty if them kissing was all just a lark, and a flustered Monty replies "No... yes!". Disappointed and not wanting to just be yet another of Monty's flings, Percy ends the situation.

This was hard to believe because (a) Monty is good at reading people, as seen when he chats up a bank clerk later in the book, and should have been able to piece together Percy's reaction; and (b) Monty wanted to tell Percy about his feelings for years and believed it to be Real Love™, not just a lark.

I think it would've been more believable if, for example:
- When asked if was just a lark, Monty replies something cautious like "I dunno, what do you want it to be?". Percy could then interpret this pessimistically ("He's just humouring me") and the plot could continue as before.
- It could be more obvious (perhaps just to the reader, if not to Monty himself) that Percy ended the situation because he's not a one-night-fling sort of guy and believed that Monty's nature would never change. For example, Percy might ask Monty about his fling with the girl at Versailles and express his opinion that he could never have a one-off relationship like that with someone, even if he loved them

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I also found the writing style to be overly flowery at times, with a bit too much detail about specific thoughts or particular actions.
However, I still found The Gentleman's Guide to be an excellent book and would certainly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Cursing and Racism

Minor: Death of parent

Period-typical sexism, homophobia, biphobia, etc due to the 1700s setting.

Violence, blood, medical content: Appears during and after action scenes during the book. Also, a main character has epileptic fits.

Domestic abuse, bullying: Against the protagonist from his father, resulting in what is likely PTSD.

Racism: Against one of the later allies in the book.

Death of parent: Suffered by a pair of minor characters.

elleandon's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

emliza's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, and Outing

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Grief

inuy21's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs and Slavery

Minor: Bullying and Vomit

krisrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Blood

alethiometer235's review against another edition

4.5

This was so amazing, it made me laugh and cry . The characters were so amazing and while Monty was pretty annoying at times, I think that he was written that way to be flawed. I enjoyed the plot as it was intriguing and the angst between Monty and Percy was so frustrating but I loved it! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was perfect, he did great accents for the French and Spanish characters, and Monty, Percy and Felicity's voices were brought to life brilliantly. A great, uplifting story!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Racism, and Sexism