Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Friend Scheme by Cale Dietrich

7 reviews

venetiana's review

emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Overall, this book sadly really didn't do it for me. Without spoiling stuff, some emotional reactions were overwritten, the background felt too violent for me, and I unfortunately guessed too many things before they happened.
Also, I really didn't appreciate how some heavy and violent stuff was only dealt with and "solved" in passing, like the topic wasn't serious.
Still, some good/cute things inbetween.

A smaller but real bummer: there did not need to be any H*rry P*tter mentions in this book (why do we need to reference a transphobe's work??!!), and there were several. No thank youuu.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical content, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Blood, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Stalking, Transphobia, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

fanboyriot's review against another edition

funny lighthearted medium-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

4.5

Read for:
♡ Idiots in Love
♡ Crime Family
♡ Only One Bed
♡ Forbidden Romance
♡ Angst with a Happy Ending


I enjoyed this book.  It was a simple and cute story with forbidden romance vibes.  The main characters were cute together.

However, it did kinda feel like it was missing something.  There was little backstories and I think parts just kinda felt bland; not to mention the dialogue felt a bit forced at times.

It's a good book to binge read.  The angst is light and there were way more wholesome vibes than I was expecting.  And so many music and movie mentions, which I always appreciate.

Spice: 🌶
(First Person POV)

Rep: Gay MC, Gay LI

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, and War

grimm_bear's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

bro i cannot believe what i just read hasn’t  been adapted into a movie  

the twist in this book caught me wholeheartedly by my surprise after reading the first part of part 3

i couldnt put the book down like what just happened? i need to know what matt is going to do like huh?
and the romance is so UGHSVSHDVJDBD i cant with them they just go together so well 

and the advice of leaving a situation you cant live in and cant change was just so nice to hear after having to do the same

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Gun violence, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent, Homophobia, and Misogyny

emmasbelovedbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gun violence, War, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Body shaming, Death of parent, Medical content, Genocide, Kidnapping, Outing, Murder, Torture, Vomit, Bullying, Car accident, and Violence

khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Torture and Death of parent

greatu's review

fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, and Death of parent

frantic_vampire's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

Wow, this book gave me such mixed feelings and I’m honestly not sure how to process it. On the one hand, I loved this so much. And on the other, I just wanted so much more from this book. Like, the enjoyment factor was definitely there, but it’s got some problems.

I loved that Matt was so anxious about being in the family business and realizing that it was just not for him. Also, it felt like Matt was written as autistic or at least somewhere on the neurodivergent spectrum. It was so nice! I really loved that he was so happy to make a new friend! That was utterly precious and he needs to be protected at all costs. And the fact that Jason was also really happy to make a friend (even if it was under some dubious circumstances). I also really loved Luke as a big brother! He’s so supportive and loving to Matt. I would die for him! The last thing that I loved was that this didn’t have a lot of the usual teenage drama that comes with YA contemporary books.

The things that I didn’t like were numerous. But the number one being the gaslighting. Like holy shit, there was a lot of it! I just wanted to slap Jason every time he started pushing Matt to talk about his family and then turning it around on him and making Matt feel like a bad friend for not talking. I just...I didn’t like it, at all. There were also a couple of comments that came off as aphobic and they just didn’t need to be in this book. Another thing that I didn’t like was that there were so many little plot holes. Like, did Matt come out to his dad? Did he tell his dad about Jason? Did anyone figure out if the guy they killed was a cop?? And a few other things that just didn’t add up in the end.

As you can see my thoughts are mixed. The story was so enjoyed and fun to read, but there were some problems with it. And in the end it’s a little hard for me to justify giving this more than a 3.25 stars. But don’t let that deter you from reading this! It’s such a good read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

Death of a parent is referring to Matt’s mom, who passed away. They do talk about her dying in an accident. The gaslighting is referring to Jason’s behavior with trying to get Matt to talk about his family and the family business.