Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

9 reviews

cosypuck's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

sophia_pearl's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

bridget_magpie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

This is such a strong 4 stars book, I will give it a 4.25 instead. The writing is amazing, Melissa Albert is clearly crazy talented, this book makes me want to check out her other works. 
The characters are so well written half of the time I was conflicted if

Becca is a good person or an antagonist because of her toxic and manipulative behaviour presented a few times in the story.

The ending was good enough for a small town mystery novel, I just didn’t like how

little we got of what happened after. Nora’s other friends didn’t even show up at the end, not even mentioned which I though was unfortunate.

But all in all I really enjoyed this book and I devoured it as fast as I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Gore

spadefootfrog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Alcohol

arrr's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This book does such a good job of accessing that transitional period between magical thinking and growing up. Explores topics of trust, honesty, consequences, vengeance, justice, and friendship. Empowered young women and supportive peer groups. A few queer characters. Good example of kind masculinity. Good examples of how young people can process and cope with the actions of the "bad ones" while being true to themselves and maintaining their power. 

Best friends play the bad kid version of the goddess game and unlock an old mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Pedophilia, Self harm, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

paulineerika's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

I love that Melissa Albert is not afraid to be dark. Her characters and her stories are not necessarily light and happy and even if the ending isn't bad, it doesn't mean it's a happily ever after. 

The Bad Ones is billed as a story about semi-toxic friendships and the thin line between reality and make-believe in children's games. It mostly lives up to that billing.  This book was hard for me to put down, even in the slower parts.   And while the ending is happy-ish, you still get the sense there's unfinished business or trauma that's not being dealt with. It's all still very much in the air.  

Nora and Becca are best friends, but the friendship doesn't seem particularly equal or even healthy at first. But as the story goes on, we learn more about what Becca has experienced and given her (implicit) already-somewhat fragile mental state, her susceptibility

to the goddess games and the "goddess" herself

is not surprising. 

What is surprising?

The fact that it wasn't Becca at all.

Or maybe I'm just slow.

I wasn't entirely clear on what happened to Becca's body while the goddess was possessing Nora or how Becca came back with such scarred lungs, etc.

I would have liked to read more about her and what she went through in her own POV, versus Nora's. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

sonygaystation's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was kinda messy but in  way I enjoyed! The time jumps were a little jarring with the perspective changes but once I got the handle of it (I listened rather than read the book) I could go with the flow better. I think there could’ve been more room for character development with the side characters because I enjoyed them and would’ve liked to see them more. I think James literally just served as a love interest (which I don’t dislike because lorde knows so many writers dump women in their novels as side characters just to serve as the MC’s LI) and I wish his role in things was a little more prevalent. I did really enjoy Nora’s extracurricular scenes because I really liked Ruth! With Becca, there was one line Nora’s sister said where it was made pretty clear Becca isn’t seen as good for Nora and (alongside a convo with Nora’s mom) implied that Becca’s too overprotective of Nora to the point that keeps Nora from making other friends. That felt like a big theme to have but it didn’t really go anywhere? Like all we see of their relationship is from Nora’s perspective but she spends 80% of the book only referring to their falling out and we only hear about the good parts really as they were when they were kids so that felt off. But! I had a good time and I’d read it again for sure!! I’m also happy it ended the way it did because Nora deserved some good things coming her way 🫶

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol

veereads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

I've realized that I'm slowly moving away from YA novels these days and leaning more towards adult fiction. That being said, I actually enjoyed this book more than I was expecting.
It starts off as a bit of a slow-burn but after the first 1/3, it picks up pace and kept my attention. 
The story itself is on the more mature side of YA fiction, tackling difficult topics like grief and loss, alcoholism, and the individual growth that takes you away from that magical time of childhood and into adulthood. These themes really brought depth to the story and I liked the way the author presented them to readers. 
The characters were also well developed with nuanced personalities and the ability to communicate effectively - for once, we have a story that doesn't rely heavily on the misunderstanding trope! 
The descriptions were vibrant and eerie, really ramping things up for the readers. 

But after all the buildup, the ending left me wanting more. There was simply not enough development of the supernatural elements that had been hinted at throughout the story. The explanations were also not as satisfying as I had hoped and I wish the myth and legend had been given as much depth as the rest of the story. While I was glad for a more positive resolution of the events at the end, I did feel slightly cheated by how conveniently things were wrapped up. 

At the end of the day, I did enjoy the story so I'm giving it 3 stats for that reason. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Mass/school shootings

i_love_fob's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia and Mass/school shootings