Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

54 reviews

em23y's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.75

This book was a very fast read for me. I loved the lessons it taught me about life, especially during one of my own rough patches. Everyone is going to die sooner or later, and that can be terrifying—or it can be the reason we waste no more time to live.

The character development in this book is crazy (/pos), especially within the span of a few months. I have my own struggles with identity and self-love, but this book proves that we are who we decide we are, and that which is more than possible to decide.

One small ick I had with this book is the writing style, specifically the grammar and the spelling. I’m by no means a professional, however there were some spots that seemed questionable to me. But it was easily overlooked due to the addictive story.

I loved that each “chapter” was a new day in the main characters’ life. Unfortunately I have a small attention span, but reading each of the new days was easy for me and kept me hooked.

Thank you Shaun Hutchinson for the good read and the amazing life lesson!!! :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Bullying

Moderate: Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Sexual content, Rape, and Physical abuse

Minor: Abortion, Self harm, and Vomit

grilledsneeze's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Homophobia, Self harm, and Miscarriage

kxt_rine23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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: Infidelity, Body shaming, Blood, Grief, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Abandonment, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Self harm, Sexual content, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Drug use, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Rape

Minor: Vomit

rocketdea's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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: Sexual assault, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse, Self harm, and Miscarriage

lilcurious's review against another edition

2.5

Very sad gay teenagers. Heartwarming despite everything. Badly integrated anecdotes from a future/parallel reality. Overall forgettable. (Check TWs, some heavy stuff)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Self harm, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Homophobia

mjae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Incredibly well written, especially considering the complexity of the topic and storyline. I really enjoyed the progression of the plot, and the slight twists were laid out brilliantly. Definite reccomendation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Violence, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

marker_yippee's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

Minor: Rape

gbeanie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, and Bullying

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, and Drug use

Minor: Self harm and Child abuse

greta_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious 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

2.5

(sorry, english isn’t my first language) Wow. I really did not know what to rate this book. Because throughout most of it I really, really hated it. But I did not dislike it because of the way it was written or the story itself, but purely because of the fact that it had me in such a depressed and tense mood. The style that the story was written in wasn’t my favorite, but it felt authentic, even though I found it very hard to love the characters even if they were very relatable in part. So overall I‘m very torn, weather to recommend this book or not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Bullying, Dementia, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

kascjam's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

The main reason I rate this book so poorly is because of the way it was presented to me. At my local library, it was on a shelf titled "Books that will give you hope". I thought to myself, damn, I could use some of that right now. And the title stuck out to me, as well as the blurb, so I checked it out.
 
I finished this book in roughly a day and a half. Not because I was so enamored by the story or anything, but because it was genuinely so depressing I had to know if there was some shred of hope that might be presented in the end. I cried more times than I could count, which. I guess that counts for something. Points for evocative writing, I guess?
 
But um, seriously, any depressing thing you can imagine happening to someone, it happens in this book. I'm not even joking. At some point I thought to myself, Jesus Christ. Well, at least it can't get any worse, right? And then it got worse.
 

Additionally, the scene towards the end with the rich closeted kid attempting to sexually assault Henry felt extremely unnecessary. Like, it's not out of character for the rich kid (I forgot his name) to react terribly and do something crazy, but, I mean. Come on. It was the one thing that I was like, well, at least they didn't go there. And then it did go there.
 
And the ending? I'm still mad about it. I know the message it that like, the future is uncertain but we should appreciate what we have now, but what a letdown. Granted, as I mentioned before, I was reading this expecting something more inspiring than...whatever that was. But still. So much is still left unanswered -- and this book is somehow like four hundred pages! 

Not to beat a dead horse here, but also, why the hell were there randomly scenarios in which the world ends just peppered in throughout the book? (Rhetorical question; I know why.) It was already sad, and it didn't add anything to the story, in my opinion, save for making me break down more than already was. And yes, I probably should have just taken the L and put the book down at some point, but I was so invested and certain the ending would be worth it that I couldn't get myself to.

 

Maybe under different circumstances, I would've enjoyed this book. I did like the overall concept, to be fair; it was just incredibly depressing for, as far as I could tell, no real reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Self harm, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Rape, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage