Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

347 reviews

rwgabbard's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Kidnapping, Gore, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Cursing, Drug use, Violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Drug abuse, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Grief, and Murder

searobin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Listening to this book felt like watching one of those ridiculous movies where it seems like the people who created it just want to be able to shoot everything, and are imagining themselves as the vigilante/heroes bringing down the bad guys, eighty bullets at a time, violence porn, if you will.
On one hand, I loved it in a guilty-pleasure kinda way and couldn't put it down. On the other hand, a lot of the actual plot was rather weak, the twists were obvious a mile out, the similes were excessive, gross, and/or weird (e.g., "his chest was as tight as virgin pussy"), and the characters were two-dimensional at best. It was just really, really, really violent. I have aphantasia, so gore in books doesn't bother me in the same way as in movies/tv shows, but some of the descriptions were just unnecessary - like, way too much detail about someone's guts spilling out like taffy that had had merlot spilled on it or something, for example.

Also, it was not at all a surprise that Tangerine was trans, so that "twist" was especially weird. I also don't understand at all what the article on her ex would have been about - was it going to be some sort of queer-shaming the conservative politician kinda thing?  If so, gross. It wasn't really clear, largely because we didn't learn much at all about what either of the two did or their lives before being murdered.

I am queer, but don't have a lot of queerphobic trauma, so that aspect of things wasn't triggering for me, just terribly sad and hard to read, but I can see how it would be really terrible for some. 
Idk, it was a weird read. I was so hyped when I finished it; it felt like I had whiplash from the whole thing. However, the more it settles and the more time I have to process it, the more I realise that I think it was more an adrenaline high than a good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Sexism, Body horror, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Racism, Car accident, Abandonment, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Outing, Torture, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Stalking, Violence, Transphobia, and Vomit

Minor: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Cancer

bt_wannabe's review against another edition

emotional tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Razorblade Tears reads like a fast-paced action movie while simultaneously dealing with the serious issues of racism, homophobia, and the ways families often fail their queer children. The mix of action and social commentary didn’t always work for me and felt forced at times. That being said, I still think this was a creative premise for a novel and worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, Child death, Racism, Transphobia, Gun violence, and Violence

eggrolyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, and Murder

cadence99's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

I really wanted to like this more than I did as it came highly recommended, but unfortunately it wasn’t a runaway hit for me. A story of two fathers, brought together in their quest for vegance after the murder of their sons. Throughout, both grapple with how their homophobia towards their sons destroyed their relationship. I liked the fast paced, whodunnit aspects of this novel but did struggle a bit with the intense graphic nature of it. If you have a weak stomach, this book likely won’t go over super well. Our characters are as morally grey as you can get, stopping at nothing to attain their own version of justice. I think there is a conversation to be had here about how the only way these characters were able to accept their sons was at the cost of their lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Racism, Murder, Cancer, Lesbophobia, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Deadnaming, Death, Medical content, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Addiction, Body horror, Grief, and Kidnapping

denjzen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Deadnaming

Minor: Terminal illness

laurenexploresbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional relaxing 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

This work was such a powerful and visceral experience. So much truama, grief, violence and vengeance. This book highlighted injustice and racism and homophobia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Torture, Gore, Murder, Xenophobia, and Homophobia

momlovesbooks17's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

Wow!  Amazing writing.  I think this book is going to stick with me for a while.  The story was very violent so I don't think this will be for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Cursing, Homophobia, and Hate crime

Minor: Infidelity and Deadnaming

_bookish_lauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

First of all, this needs to be made into a movie, for sure. It's giving part Equalizer, part late 90s/early 2000s crime thriller movie. You've got 2 ex-cons that you would think are past their prime, easily proving that they're not, on a quest to avenge the death of their sons who were brutally murdered in a hate crime. Their sons were in an interracial gay marriage, hence part of the motivation for their murders. 

The fathers didn't exactly agree with their sons' relationship, but ultimately loved them and in avenging their deaths, found a way to accept and come to terms with who their sons loved and realized that they were living their own lives wrongly in how dismissive they were.

It showed some pretty significant character development for both Ike and Buddy Lee. They were also a truly unlikely team. 

The story was fast-paced and compelling, while also diving into many difficult topics. Please be careful when reading and check your triggers for the content, because there are a lot. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, slurs, on page gore/violence, discussion of the prison industrial complex (specifically the fathers' experiences while incarcerated in Virginia prisons), kidnapping, and others. 

The only thing was that the identity of the big bad, the person truly behind everything, seemed a little predictable, at least to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Grief, Homophobia, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Hate crime, and Racism

Minor: Deadnaming

itsame_dio's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

It’s not bad it has some funny lines but it’s very predictable and so I felt like it was a slog to get through. If you don’t mind fridging and like old man action movies (John Wick, The Equalizer etc) then it’s good. Cosby seems to understand (or make an honest effort to understand) the trials and tribulations of Queer people not just Black CisHet men. 

I liked the ending tho, it was very touching. 

I don’t really like the narrator. He has a perfect serious deep black man voice but anything else??? Nope

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Blood, Violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Gun violence, and Murder