Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass

16 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

As a queer person this was hard to read at times, and I appreciate that this a thriller set at a conversion therapy camp over a few days rather than being a longer saga set at the camp. I like the narrative balance between events at the camp and the summer leading up to it. As a thriller it’s pretty effective, I was genuinely surprised by some of the reveals at the end. When everyone running the camp is terrible by virtue of being someone who would run a conversion therapy camp… that makes for a believably large suspect pool and a compelling mystery for the protagonist to solve.

One thing which bothers me about the plot is that the central mystery is what happened years before to a character who is disabled in the present and dies shortly after the story begins. It's a mystery that could have been solved by the disabled person communicating at all with Connor earlier than when he did... instead of the actual method which relied on him dying in order for the information to be passed. It used the disabled character, Ricky, as a catalyst for how the reader enters Connor's story, and as part of the motivation for Connor's actions, and once it does begin focusing on him it's by necessity through other people's perspectives, or through things he left behind. On the other hand, part of the point is that Ricky's autonomy was impeded and his disability was caused by something related to the camp that Connor is now trying to escape, so it's just as possible that this dismissal of Ricky is on purpose, as part of the evil stuff that's happening. I'm not sure what to think about it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Child abuse, Homophobia, Murder, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism

alyshkalia's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexism, Suicide attempt, and Islamophobia

itsocchiolism's review against another edition

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

5.0

The main character, Connor, is a breath of fresh air. His way of thinking and speaking feels real. All the intrusive thoughts, doubts, the sass, the wit, spectacular!! 

This book was heartbreaking and freeing. 
It wrapped up in a way that was realistic for a group of queer teens in this day and age, full of pain and hope at once. 

There are more lessons in this book than i can type with blurry eyes but the one that stuck out the most to me is that for every person who wants to hurt you, there is a person who wants to save you.

The characters grasped my heart and i know they won’t ever let go. 

“It was so kind of you to visit me in my loneliness.”

beautiful, painful, truthful, hopeful. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Homophobia, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Transphobia

biblioleah's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this was a really strong book, and i think it brings a lot of great discussions to the table. i did have a few issues with the cheating and the characters and the timeline of things (like the whole book takes place over basically one day and that makes zero sense) but i’d easily still recommend this.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Racism and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Deadnaming

queenfury's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

i had been looking forward to this one, but it was such a disappointing read to me. the pacing is atrocious (am i seriously supposed to believe all of this happened in a day??), and the voice of the narrator is annoying. the plot revelations are far too contrived to be satisfying. the worst part is how much of a white savior the main character is.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Suicide

halfwaytoaugust's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Homophobia, and Suicide

Moderate: Violence, Death, Kidnapping, and Torture

conversion camp