Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

55 reviews

iirissr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

A really emotional book which I usually like but this one didn't really hit the mark for me. I did expect a very different kind of a story so I was disappointed that it wasn't what I had imagined. Everything I had seen about this book beforehand was about this: "A teenage boy gets abducted by aliens and he gets to decide if the world is destroyed or not". Which technically is what the book is about, but nowhere near the main focus. It's there in the background the whole time but I was expecting a lot more about the aliens and the abduction. But the book was about messy relationships. And I'm sure many people can enjoy this book and I wish I liked it more but it seemed to be marketed(?) the wrong way. However I did really appreciate the fact that you can interpret what happenes in the book in many ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Miscarriage, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

maggiegirouard's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

mackenzienoelle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Outing, and Alcohol

onthesamepage's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

Dreams are hopeful because they exist as pure possibility. Unlike memories, which are fossils, long dead and buried deep.

This is such a bleak read, and I'm having a difficult time reviewing it. Looking at it objectively, this is a good book. The writing is stellar, the characters are nuanced, and it tackles some difficult topics. But I think the sheer multitude of issues this book is trying to tackle caused a disconnect for me.

It probably doesn't help that, within the first few pages of the book, Henry says the following two things: 

Out in the world, crawling in a field at the edge of some bullshit town with a name like Shoshoni or Medicine Bow, is an ant.

and 

I’m telling you that tomorrow— January 29, 2016— you can kiss your Chipotle- eating, Frappuccino- drinking, fat ass good- bye.

Both lines got my hackles up; one feels like a dig at Indigenous people, and the other is lowkey fatphobic. And I think I just never got over that first impression. Because while I understand that Henry is suffering and going through a lot, that doesn't excuse him from insulting and belittling other people.

There were also a lot of contradictions in the way certain characters behaved that were difficult for me to rationalize. We have Henry's brother, who bullies him just as much at home as he gets bullied in school, including punches to the stomach, but I'm supposed to believe that he's suddenly protective of Henry when bullies at school assault him? Is this one of those, "I'm family so that makes it okay" things? I understand that all of the characters in this book are messed up, but I was getting whiplash from how quickly they went from one way of acting to a different one. 

The same goes for Henry himself--

the entire plot revolves around him getting abducted by aliens, who tell him the world will end and he can save everyone by pressing a red button. Except he doesn't want to, because the world sucks. And the world keeps sucking, because the good things that happen to him are by far outweighed by the bad. And yet somehow, I was supposed to believe that by the end of the book, after countless traumatic incidents and a few days of therapy, Henry feels differently about the world, and I just didn't buy it.

That doesn't mean there was nothing good about the book. The inclusion of different doomsday scenarios was pretty interesting and amusing. I actually liked most of the characters, and how they felt like actual, flawed, human beings. There's a lot of depth to the relationships, and I appreciated the way those evolved and how the characters grew. I can definitely understand why this book had such a huge impact on so many people, it just wasn't the right book for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide

gummy__smile__'s review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

Literally beautiful, shows the highs and lows of human life and the spirit it takes to grow and change in a world that is so messed up. Let’s you learn that people make mistakes and say the wrong things but everyone deserves to be okay and to get help. Our meaningless lives aren’t meaningless to us or the people around us and this crafted that narrative beautifully. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Blood

grasstaxi's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

3.25; Objectively, this is a good story and it was written very well. I see why so many people love it and why it means so much to them, and I understand it can be especially important to those who’ve read it during specific times in their life. But subjectively it was hard for me to read because it was so incredibly bleak and depressing, and I didn’t enjoy that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Racism, Rape, and Mass/school shootings

danat28's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

This book was mostly focused on Henry Denton, the main character, and his life rather than the description about aliens and the end of the world. It was a good book, weird at some points but it has some good lessons throughout. Although

I didn’t love how the end was a complete cliffhanger.

I give it 3.5/5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

afmartins's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

claire_3lyse's review against another edition

emotional funny 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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Medical trauma and Pregnancy