Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

11 reviews

winglesswarrior's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Physical abuse, and Rape

axel_p's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.0

The beginning kinda sucked, but after that it was amazing.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Body horror, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Blood, Death, Excrement, Grief, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Confinement, Violence, and Pedophilia

numerous_bees's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I try to go easier when reviewing YA books - I'm not the target audience - so I'm not going pick on the themes for being heavy handed or the writing for being clumy or the characters for being and acting like teenagers. Those aren't faults but a quirk of genre, but this novel didn't work for me structurally. 

The first issue I ran into was that the author uses a lot of similes in an attempt to create a voice for the character and I found them be distracting and occasionally inappropriate for the situation.

The second thing - the one that really turned me off - is the sudden slavery/sexual assault plot point that shows up at about the 75% mark, lingers for a couple of chapters, and is dropped and barely brought up again. The sex abuse in particular is completely out of left-field, totally uncalled for, and adds nothing. I'm of the opinion that something that serious needs to justify it's presence in a story, and this didn't. 

The racism metaphor that followed the slavery plot point only served to highlight the lack of racial diversity in the cast. 

Finally, the climax is emotionally hobbled by how little we see of Peter and Cooper's community - the main(?) villain gets an emotional monologue where they try to justify their decisions, but they'vebarely featured in the story to this point and, despite Peter waxing poetic about how many happy memories they had together, we didn't see those events and Peter hadn't thought about them until that point, and I simply didn't care about this character or their motivations. 

It's a shame, because I think that the concept of a queer romance novel set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse has a lot of potential, but this book isn't really that. It starts off as a romance but ends as a survival adventure, and I don't think it did a good job of transitioning between the two genres. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Slavery, Trafficking, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

jjjreads's review

dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Slavery, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Classism, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

spttsn's review

dark 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? It's complicated

2.75

Difficult book to judge for me, it had a lot of promise.

I liked the premise and I read through it in a few hours, but the execution left a little to be desired. The beginning was confusingly written, the plot in the middle was interesting, and the end was messy and disappointing.

Overall - it kept me interested enough in where the plot was going to not put down, but not invested enough to pickup the second book despite the many questions the ending leaves. 

The map was cool though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual assault and Death of parent

ethen_rey's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Minor: Trafficking, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Child death

jupiterlee's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Zombie apocalypse novels can be touch and go just due to the natural of them, but this one was a little different of a take (nothing majorly new though) but with a romance at the heart of it. If you are wanting something gory, action packed and full of zombies, this really is not the book for you. However, if you are looking for a romance set in this type of world, a romance between two shy boys then this is the book for you. 

Now while this is a zombie/undead apocalypse book, it does touch on slavery: exploiting ones that are different to do the work for another, in fear of being killed or found out. There is also a hint of implied sexual assault, but that it is if you squint at the page and if your like me and that's where your mind goes when someone says "they'll be made to do more than just work for them". 

Such an easy quick read, and ill be picking up the sequel as soon as I can! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

bookishpriest's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

It is always a good recommendation when I'm able to sit down and read a book cover-to-cover in one sitting. This is precisely what happened for me with Wranglestone. The blizzard outside may have contributed to the overall atmosphere, but the pacing of the story and a couple of unexpected twists kept me engaged and turning pages. I do not typically read a great deal of YA material and zombie tropes are hit-or-miss for me. Charlton's take on the latter was refreshing, using the threat of zombies primarily as a part of the setting, prompting interpersonal conflict and engagement between characters. This was a far better use of the idea, in my opinion, than the more obvious jump scares, body horror, or race-for-survival scenarios that might also have been used.

The pacing of the story was pleasantly quick. There was plenty happening that kept my interest and engagement with the plot and characters high and included moments of reflection and thoughtful development. In the last third of the story the pace felt a little rushed at times and I found myself trying to keep track of where and how certain specific events were happening, but the narrative held together well.

The main characters, especially Peter and Cooper, are far from perfect but were easy to love and cheer for throughout the book. Their budding romance is tender, sweet, and refreshingly appropriate for teenage protagonists in a YA novel. It is a lovely, healthy depiction of a gay romance between two young men. I was impressed with the variety of responses that the relationship between Peter and Cooper elicited from their community. Charlton wrote them with more nuance and care than I have seen in other writing of similar type and reading level, though I admit my experience here is limited.

Overall, Wranglestone was a fun, engaging read and I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking for some light suspense/horror with a zombie theme, a wholesome gay teen romance, all wrapped up with a few unexpected twists and turns!

A longer, more detailed review is available at www.bookishpriest.com

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Animal death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Sexual assault

paperlo's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

This book started so strong that it had me gripped by the time I was only a few pages in. The relationship between Peter and Cooper from the very start was so charming and so much fun to read, the setting was so atmospheric and the mystery was intriguing.

It moved so quickly that things fell apart just a little for me as the book progressed - although it was still very entertaining and gripping throughout. I read it all in practically one sitting. The plot felt like it had to skim over moments that I would like to have seen, plus Cooper and Peter’s relationship felt as though it went from
the perfect build up to all at once developing much too quickly. All the same, both characters are so charming and their relationship is so lovely that you can’t help but desperately root for them the whole way through. I’ll be thinking about them for a while to come.

The mystery felt somewhat predictable the whole way through, although that never dampened my enjoyment. I wish that some of the moments and plot had been given a little bit more space to breathe and grow.

All the same, it was a fun read. I had a good time! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Genocide

Minor: Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, Slavery, and Trafficking

li_reading's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Torture