Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

12 reviews

faeriefangss's review

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Stalking, Drug use, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

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

lindsayerin's review against another edition

funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual assault

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

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

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

githgorlfriend's review against another edition

funny inspiring lighthearted 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

so much fun and i got so easily attached to every single character. i never ever say this but i want a tv adaptation. absolutely raving abt this book UNTIL the ending which was underwhelming. mel should have been a lesbian no matter how cliche it was i’ll die on this hill.  also i didn’t really like the time jump and anticlimax basically the last 35 pages felt weird to mebut up until then it’s genuinely so wonderful and i loved the ride. perfect perfect use of a character ensemble 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Sexual assault

kteq's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Deadnaming, Racial slurs, Animal death, and Stalking

Minor: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, and Sexual content

cheye13's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.0

"Eleven sticks bundled together can withstand anythinng. One stick out in the cold all on its own can't even withstand itself."

This was a fun and unique read, but I wanted more out of it. It's pitched as truly absurd, and I set my expectations too high. I wanted the story to push further – push the witchcraft, push teen angst & rage, even push field hockey further. Instead it precisely toes the line between fantasy – "magic is real" – and ambiguity – "is magic real?"; while both options could've worked, this story avoided the choice, building an ominous tone with no ultimate payoff. And while the end didn't pull the typical "married, suburbs, 1.5 kids," it still felt far too much like an epilogue to me.

On the other hand, the teen girls & their diverse personalities and experiences were stellar. The 80s east-coast suburb was nearly tangible, a great foundation for the story. I appreciated the nuanced contextualization of the 80s norms; serious topics like sexism, sexual assault, racism, etc. aren't simply swept away with "it was a different time," but addressed in-story, then further contextualized in relation to today. While it's not one of my favorite reads, I do think it's a good book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Stalking, and Vomit

iygatac_reads's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Listened to this as an audiobook. It was comedic and I appreciated the way the book showcased and reveled in the weirdness and wonder of being a teenage girl, but it just wasn't quite the book for me. I think part of if it is that it's very set in 1989 and if you weren't a teenager in the late 80s, the throwback references don't mean as much to you. But the very end did make me tear up because

of the whole, being in the company of your oldest friends and doing things together and reminiscing together thing

. The end definitely left me with a better feeling about the book than I was having throughout the rest of it.

If I'd been reading this as a physical book, I would have dnf'd it right within the first chapter. I knew that right away, but since I was listening to this during my walks, it was easy enough to just listen as someone else read it to me. But even with that, I kind of wonder if it would have felt different to read this as a physical book.  I appreciated how Barry managed to create several unique characters - all the girls from the team stick in my mind as distinct and interesting characters. 

Many descriptions I saw of the book before reading really made me think this was gonna be a different kind of book. But I'd never read anything by Quan Barry before, either.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship