Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

15 reviews

elderwoodreads's review

dark funny mysterious reflective slow-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

5.0

This is the most unique book I read this year, possibly ever. Bray's writing style was a little odd at first but once I was in I was in. Everything I have found listed as cons by other readers were pros to me. I loved the plural first person narration, the slow burn, and the overly verbose descriptions. Please give this one a try. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Animal death, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Minor: Blood, Misogyny, Outing, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Medical content, Classism, Death of parent, and Racial slurs

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Body shaming, Misogyny, Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Racism, Stalking, Homophobia, Sexism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Fatphobia, Racial slurs, War, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Excrement, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Death, Cancer, Infidelity, Rape, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Child death, and Suicide

ameliez's review against another edition

funny lighthearted

• 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Racial slurs and Animal death

camieh's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

This was very slow paced. Long extended paragraph of explanations happened frequently. It was funny and I finished it but it was just ok. Trigger warning- sexual relationships without explicit consent are included. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, and Infidelity

annablume's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this but there are a couple of things i don't like: I wish the main characters got like... equal page time. With some of them I didn't get to spend enough time to really get to know them. I was a little disappointed by the ending

the time jump.. i wish i could have been there at the final game and I didn't really care for the all grown up versions of the team.

I did not enjoy the adult-minor-relationship and the commentary on that... left a sour taste in my mouth that i'm still sitting with, even more so when paired with that one little comment on sexual abuse ...
i really liked the story and the writing style so it still gets a (maybe spineless on my part idk) high rating

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, and Alcohol

Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, Stalking, and Infidelity

leahb88's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

3.0

This was funny and campy! Cool concept where the occult elements emphasize themes of teamwork and how far people will go to achieve what they want. Love the teen girl camaraderie, acceptance, and figuring out identity! The writing style and perspective of the narrator just wasn’t for me and

coming back to present day and reading the climax as a flashback just took me out and I wish I read the final game in 1989 time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Infidelity and Adult/minor relationship

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective medium-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

2.75

Had to really force myself to finish this one as the writing style confused me a lot of the time. Despite only being 360 pages, this book feels really long for some reason (30+ page chapters?). The witchcraft was cool and cute in equal measure, but the sports talk was very boring for me personally. I liked several of the characters but since the focus kept changing between the whole team, I never felt like I got to really know any of them. Unfortunately, by the end I was also completely done with the romanticization of high school girls in sexual relationships with adult men and was ready to put the book down and never pick it up again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

3.5

This entertaining story by acclaimed author Quan Barry is a tour of feminine force. We Ride Upon Sticks is set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, where the accusations that led to the 1692 witch trials began. It follows the 1989 Danvers High School Falcons field hockey team, that will do anything to reach the state finals—even if it means channeling some disarmingly dark powers. Barry brilliantly ties together the individual and communal evolution of this charmed squad as they crash their way through a remarkable season in chapters filled with 1980s iconography—from Heathers to big hair.

The Falcons, led by good-girl captain Abby Putnam and co-captain Jen Fiorenza, prove to be astute, inventive, and daring, defying society's antiquated conceptions of femininity in order to discover their wonderful true selves via the furnace of team sport and, more importantly, friendship.

This book is the identical result of Stranger Things but with hockey. This book is intriguing, but the run-on phrases and overly detailed chapters are not for me. Although I wasn't a major fan of the writing style, I like how dense and witty it is. I expected horrors in this novel, but halfway through, I knew there would be no horror, only black magic. Finally, this novel would have been better if the conclusion had been more interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Homophobia

Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, and Infidelity

amandalorianxo's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

This definitely is more about the twists and turns of what it's like to be on a sports team in addition to the flaws and quirks of female friendships. It's definitely a heavy prose-filled novel but we get to know so much about our characters in this rambunctious group of field hockey players that I didn't mind when we took a deep dive into nearly every player's life story throughout this almost four hundred page novel. I loved that it was set in the tail end of the 80's (some of the references I actually understood/ picked up on as a 90's baby) I also like that you don't have to be an expert at field hockey to understand what's going on. It caters to your inner sports fan, whether you played on a team or not.  If you are going in for the witch aspect of it, it doesn't play as huge of a role as I assumed it would.  I also assumed Abby Putnam was going to be a bigger character than she ended up being but I still was able to know about her as much as I did the rest of the group. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, and Fatphobia

peachani's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Stalking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Vomit