Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

With Teeth by Kristen Arnett

25 reviews

anxiousnachos's review

dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

4.5 stars.

Did I turn almost 30 and then start unintentionally reading several books that examine the horrific monstrosity of motherhood, my deep fear of having a child when you are clearly not suited to having one, and cementing my desire to not have children. 

This is incredible storytelling, despite the lack of plot. It is a character study of a mother through her eyes as she raises a son she hates (and loves) in unequal measure. Interspersed with short extracts from characters who witness the events unfold around this family, we see the story of a queer family revealed in new light. It is a visceral and humid study of the unreliable narrator, expertly told. Very dark and very horrific and had me on the edge of my seat in horror throughout. It has cemented Kristen Arnott as one of my favourite contemporary writers. 

Content warnings: emotional and financial abuse, toxic relationship, child abuse, cheating, animal cruelty, sexual assault, attempted kidnapping 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Sexual assault

belovedb33's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This (audio)book had me gasping multiple times. When I didn’t think it would go there, it did. I really enjoyed the complexity of the characters and seeing how time impacted the family dynamics. 

When I finished the book, I still had plenty of questions. 

When did Sammie move out? What happened with Monika and Megan? These aspects that seemed to be so important to the plot were just forgotten at the end.

 

I wish that I could have gotten Samson’s or Monika’s perspective at the end— I think that would have allowed for a conclusion to many of the plot strands that were just left hanging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Animal cruelty and Kidnapping

paigeno's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Car accident and Kidnapping

angel_hardy's review

challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Child death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Addiction, Abandonment, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Grief, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

toofondofbooks_'s review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Sammie Lucas is a lesbian mother who, on the surface, has the perfect queer family unit. A beautiful home, a wife she loves, Monika, and their son, Samson. Everything is perfect, except...Monika isn't around a whole lot, and if she's honest, she's afraid of her own son...

This book had me by the throat from the first sentence and then it wouldn't let me go for the next five days. It didn't matter what I was doing, I wanted to pick this up and shut out the world. Don't get me wrong, it's not a riveting tale or anything. It's not plot driven at all, it's mainly a character study of Sammie and how she's clearly very troubled and was never meant to be a mother. I hated her with every fiber of my being. I hated her on every page, every sentence. She was at best, whiny, and at worst, violent. It was crazy how unreliable of a narrator she was. She also struck me as someone who would go to a Planned Parenthood protest on the weekend, but I'm not going to tell you why.

I was so fascinated by this terrible character and her terrible interactions with her son and wife, fascinated by her dealing with religious trauma, her hypocrisy, her complete inability to connect with her son and then complaining about how he was suuuuch a problem. It was insane. The behavior of everyone in this book is absolutely unhinged, but Sammie takes the cake.

It's safe to say this book had my attention, but that being said, the writing wasn't really remarkable and the references to teeth (other people's teeth, what Sammie's teeth were doing, biting, etc) seemed a bit shoe-horned in and obvious at times. I also thought I was going to combust at times at how ableist the treatment of Samson as a character was. You can chalk that up to his parents being bad people - and they are, but it was just too much for me and it made me *too* angry.

Anyway I know that I'm probably going to read a lot of GR reviews calling this bad lesbian rep, but sometimes even queer people are bad and unhinged, and I think it's important to write about that. Argue with the wall. Overall, a really intriguing read.

I forgot to mention that there are little vignettes at the end of every chapter that show contrast between how Sammie sees certain situations happening in a chapter vs. what an outsider experiences and I think they were genuinely my favorite part of the book and I can't believe I didn't mention this somewhere above. Oops! Here it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Sexual content, Grief, Misogyny, Animal death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

onewoman_bookclub's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Child death

opossumom's review

dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Stalking

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Pedophilia and Child death

nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I’m just so confused as to what I just read. ..  I made some notes halfway through reading this that I’ll post here: 
White teeth

I don’t like the cliches of queer life - might be the reality for the author though but I wish the book had taken the portrayal of queer beyond the stereotypes that are already out there…

The characters are super unlikeable which I understand is the point but I personally just get more excited to read a book with at least one character I like. 

Also there are a Bunch of random events that never get mentioned again - attempted kidnapping, swimming lessons where sammie cheats on her wife, therapy and stalking the neighbor (okay most of these come back later in the book but like too late??)

The amount of times there is drunk driving blows my mind - is this normal to some people? I don’t understand it at all!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

bookreviewswithkb's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

what a dark, cool, weird ass book. the further i got into the story, the more i started to realize it was an exploration of depression and alcoholism, and specifically how this can impact your closest relationships, which in this case were parent/child and intimate. 

i wish i could read it again but from Samson’s perspective. 

cw: fat phobia, body shaming, kidnapping, miscarriage, alcoholism, unhealthy relationship, depression, difficult parent/child relationship 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Alcoholism

librarysoflyss's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Kidnapping and Stalking