Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Sempre Em Frente by Rainbow Rowell

27 reviews

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

3.0

I truly enjoyed this and had I read this when younger I’m sure it would’ve been five stars, but as I know rainbow is a problematic author I couldn’t do that even if I do love these books.  

Magical, warring factions, and enemies to lovers queerness it’s a perfect YA FANTASY.  Baz and Simon’s growth is honestly heartwarming and finding out the true evil is shocking but made for an engaging read.  

I wish I’d read this when I was younger as I do feel a bit old for it now.  But for those who loved fangirl it truly is the perfect read and lets you explore other peoples fantasy’s (like the twins from fangirl) in an outsider way. It almost feels like looking through a window seeing yourself as a fantasy lover if you read both this trilogy and fangirl.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lililoos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

4.75

Such a great take on the typical ‘chosen one’, ‘magic school’. It did a great job of incorporating magic with the modern world, something I haven’t seen many times before. I thought the characters were interesting and likeable.

My only complaint would be is that I think some of the different character POVs were unnecessary. I feel that the book didn’t gain much from having POVs from characters other than Baz, Simon and Lucy. 

Overall such a fun and unique take on magic, with an interesting plot and likeable characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Kidnapping, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Eating disorder, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

orchidd's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.5

found this book funny and entertaining, due in no small part to the audiobook narrator. the pacing felt slow at the end and rainbow rowell needs to remember that bisexual is a term that exists though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

So good! Normally I find multi POVs to be a bit tiring, but I liked the pacing and short sections in this book. I liked the characters and romance and friendships.

It felt a bit like Harry Potter, but like if Harry and Draco got together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, and Classism

abelh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

reinik's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death and Cursing

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

danny_fox's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

When I tell you that I ate this book up-

I have never been so interested in a book that I read it in 3 days, especially a book that has 500 pages.

I adored everything about this book. The characters, the world, the plot, oh my gooood.

I cannot believe this book isn't more popular. I NEED this book to be more popular.

Definitely became one of my all time favorites, and can already see myself coming back to it in the future.

Baz and Simon have officially become my new comfort characters <3

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, and Kidnapping

Minor: Cursing, Violence, Car accident, and War

nonidude's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I had high expectations, and unfortunately was less than obsessed. I think I'm just not a fan of Rainbow Rowell's writing both her style and choices.

First thing that made me actually upset? That I started this book and felt lost, like I was thrown into the middle of the the story with less than enough information to make sense. I had so many questions! At one point the book happened to flop open and I saw the Author's Note at the end of the book where it starts out, "If you've read my book Fan Girl, you know that Simon Snow began as a fictional character in that novel...." WHAT? I looked it up and it said they were independent of each other, but I wondered... Luckily I had that one in my TBR stack and so paused this reading to read that, and sure enough through the excerpts in that book, it shed light on some of the world of Simon Snow to help me not feel as lost which is frustrating since this is supposed to be an independent read.

I've heard this book described at Harry Potter but gay. Eh I see A LOT of similarities, but idk. I'd love to hear what someone who enjoyed the HP series thinks of this. Imo it's less scary than HP but the kids are ironically more normal (they kiss and cuss).

I was really confused with the romance. It seemed random and all of a sudden, but this is also a book that apparently had many books before it in this fictional series, so I'm sure you don't get the whole picture here.

It was a lot of nothing. The last 150 pages or so were probably my favorite.

Overall, not a bad book, but didn't leave me feeling WOW. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia and War

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Death of parent

squinnittowinit's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.5

This book reads at first like an excellent Harry Potter parody, lightheartedly poking fun at the plot holes and loose worldbuilding moments of the HP series as the main character, Simon Snow, recounts his misadventures (a humorously self-aware reskinning of many HP plot points) at his magical school during years 1-7. 

I was ready for this book to be a Harry Potter parody and nothing more the entire way through (and would have loved every minute of it), but I was very pleasantly surprised to find an actual, original plot that played very well with the humorous setting and premise. The plot and the surprisingly complex characters took this book from parody to a genuinely gripping Harry Potter rewrite that successfully delivered a more complex (and plausible) plot, alongside characters that were more flawed yet more understandable at the same time.

I felt like this book was wholly satisfying as a standalone. I don't really feel any need to read the sequels, though I'm sure I'll get to them someday. For now, I'm left with that same soul-satisfied feeling that I get when I've just finished a 100k word fanfic with no tags and I can't remember what it was like to have ever not known about something so wonderful.

4.5 stars because of complete bi erasure and minor racism (not the inclusion of it in the world but rather minorly problematic descriptions/inconsistent descriptions of poc by the author)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, Racism, and Abandonment

Bi erasure details:

Once Simon allows himself to voice his feelings for Baz, he almost immediately questions if this makes him gay, an already tired question. He ends up not answering that for himself, continuing to wonder several more times to the end of the book. Never once does he even consider that he could be bi, despite having had a girlfriend before. It is perfectly acceptable for Simon to not know what labels he wants to use for himself, or to never subscribe to using labels, and it would also be acceptable for Simon to determine that he isn't actually attracted to girls after all, but by only including the words "gay" and "straight", it makes it seem as though Simon can only be one of those two things, which is harmful to other LGBTQIA+ identities like bi and pan.

Minor racism details:

Mostly my issue is with Baz's physical description being inconsistent. Baz is described as having red-gold skin before becoming a vampire, as his mother was Egyptian. Most of the time, as a vampire his skin is described as "gray", which is a great way to describe someone being bloodless without changing their skin tone (because skin tone isn't really determined by whether your body has blood in it or not). However, there are a few times where Baz is inexplicably described as having "white" skin in reference to his vampirism. It reads like Baz was originally written to have the race-erasing white skin of classic vampires and then the author decided to update the description to the better "gray", but didn't catch all instances.

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense

• 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

3.75

This was a title that I heard of through Lighthouse Library Bookclub (it was a previous fiction read from Sept, 2021). I found this book a little hard to get into at first. It felt a little like reading a later work of Rick Riordan's in the way that it referred to previous adventures of the characters from time to time, and left me wondering what I had missed. I went back to listen to the first hour of the audiobook on 125% and then I felt a bit more grounded. This was not a title that I could make the most of if I wasn't concentrating on it.

++edit to add++ After writing this review I stumbled upon an article that describes how this book fits in with its previous books.. which don't exist. Rowell writes "a book that was inspired by fictional fanfiction of a fictional series". 
https://lithub.com/how-rainbow-rowell-weaponized-fandom-for-good/
++

The story deals with a couple of lads at a Magic-School, who are roommates, constantly paranoid about each other and secretly-notsosecretly plotting to kill each other. Their relationships is utterly dysfunctional, which is possibly one of the weirdest and truest part of the story. Mostly teen stories come across as a bit simple and based in pointless misunderstandings, but this enemies to lovers plotline felt a lot more like my memories of highschool, which were a twisted mess of love and hate. Don't call me emo.

I think the stand-out bit of Simon Snow's world is the way that the magic works. It is triggered not necessarily by ancient dead languages but by living ones. Concentration and intent is coupled with incantations that come from clichés, catch phrases, idioms, and commonly known poems and songs. You can literally throw up a wall to protect yourself with "Can't Touch This!"... though it may only be powerful against people who are familiar with the song. It feels a lot like "Light as a Feather Stiff as a Board" only with common memes and quotes. They actually use "These aren't the droids you're looking for" to hide things from people's perception... and as phrases pass out of common use, so do their potency for weaving magic. 

The evil baddy in the story is a mysterious force that swallows magic, and leaves the world mundane in its wake. Simon and his best friend Penelope, work with their friends (and enemies) and for much of the time nobody knows who is allied with whom... And at the equinox, ghosts come back to tell people the things that they think are most important to pass on to their still-living loved ones, which spices things up a bit with revelations, spilled secrets and quests. The Principal of the school is in a simmering conflict with the aristocracy of the magical world, as he wants to provide magical training regardless of lineage, to anyone with the talent.

As far as the story is concerned, the characters are a hot mess. The kids rely on the guidance of teachers, who are about as messed up as they are themselves, which means that adult support is not all it cracked up to be, though it's cool if you have a kickarse punk-rock Aunty who can bust you out of trouble when you are in too deep. The characters are a diverse ethnic mix, and the depiction of how Penny copes with her best friend's casual Racism about her looks and South Asian background rings true.

Ghosts, Vampires, Pixies, Numpties, Worsegers (like Badgers..only...) populate this world replete with silly wordplay and a main character who didn't find out that any of this existed until he was 11. This is a very queer love story, and I like the characters, even if they are jerks.
Well worth the read if you have the patience for being dropped in at the deep end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Deportation