Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

4 reviews

inkysplodge's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault, Racism, Animal death, and Death of parent

smasson13's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book. 

It is so faced paced, I read it so quickly, yet it feels like it took years out of my life to sit with these characters. 

At the start, I may have gotten a little lost between who was who and where everyone was, but the character list and map were very helpful. 

Really this book was a beautiful reflection of being a young person, with a foot in the adult world but not all of the pieces. It was soft and heartfelt and made my soul hurt just a little...but in a good way.

I would love to teach a book like this to teenagers, I think it would really help young people feel seen. 

Absolutely read this book. 

Note: while the topics of this book are very heavy, it's written in a lyrical way through the eyes of children, so there is a heavy weight to these topics...yet nothing is graphic 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, Mental illness, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

quirkyhelma's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I really love this book. It was short straight to the point and emotional. Even tho the book isn’t plot driven I was hooked into the story. The characters were interesting not flat. I do have a critique about the diversity. It is set in the 70s but it was published in 2012 so keep that in mind. They were NO LGBTQ Characters. They were native people and it shows their struggles as those. But still the author makes the parents of one of the native people alcoholics. And they were racial slurs used. I’m not native, but it seemed kinda of to me. I still like the story and the way it shows the struggles of teenagers, wich arg still relevant today. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Hate crime, Grief, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Gun violence, Bullying, and Body shaming

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

3.5 stars. The writing is beautiful. I realised I'm not the biggest fan of intertwining stories though. They just seems so coincidental and unrealistic often. 
I don't know what this story is trying to tell me, I think some message of hope and connectedness? Dora's story made me cry.
Uhhhm might update this review once i've gathered my thoughts haha. 


I probably forgot some trigger warnings 😬 lmk if I need to add any!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Racial slurs