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ofthewildland's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
"the truth is, loud and proud is great. but for some of us, it gets exhausting. and confusing."
3.5/ 5⭐.
ARC Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
(Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, self harm, mental illness, biphobia, bullying, implied sexual content, f-slur used to refer to oneself, mentions of alcoholism, mentions of underage drinking, mentions of drug use, parental abandonment, potential outing, mentions of Tr*mp.)
Told in the form of a student theses, Take Her Down is a modern queer Julius Caesar retelling with plot twists and representation that is done flawlessly.
First of all, I will start off by saying that the premise of this book seemed promising.
I loved the representation and how casually it was done.
It was comical to me how, in most stories, characters are usually being ostracised for their attraction to the same gender, but in this book, Bronwyn is "exiled" because of her attraction to a straight, white man.
I think the author did a wonderful job at capturing the uncertainty surrounding queerness and sexuality, especially as teenagers.
The mental health coverage was superb!
As promising as the premise of this book seemed though, the further I read, the more bored I became.
There is an excessive amount of useless information in this book that could have easily been taken out. Backstories of characters who have minor roles. Five pages of pointless inner monologue. The repetition. Irrelevant.
The characters were okay, but I couldn't find it in myself to care for them. There was a disconnect between myself and the characters. They weren't getting through to me the way I thought they would.
The mystery surrounding Jude's narrative was the only thing that kept me completely hooked. I also wanted to see what consequences Bronwyn would face.
The ending felt like a cop out, in my opinion. But I get why the author did it this way.
The format almost reminded me of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, but make it extremely gay and add some biphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Biphobia
Minor: Drug use
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