Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

7 reviews

blue_txt's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

 There's a review on here, by Kendra, in which they suggest that Sim Kern's characters were ideas. I think that's spot on. This book is a hard read - the first 1/3 alternates between expositions of Maddie Ryan's backstory (with toxic relationships reminiscent of Colleen Hoover characters) and didactic dialogue. Every conversation is pedantic lecture from a different character representing some concept to teach Maddie, who I guess is supposed to represent the "reader", a white Christian cis woman.
I've never wanted to experience fictional leftist in-fighting.

I don't enjoy books with thought-experiment based plots, so I knew it wasn't going to be a great read for me. I guess I expected more from the characters since the plot was so paper-thin. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Classism, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicide, War, Death, Confinement, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

kchamp's review

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

2.0

This book is so fucking depressing. It kind of almost redeems itself in the last 5-10 pages? But honestly this felt like a novel that did not need to be written. What is the intention of telling this made up story, with an “alternate future” that’s so obviously parallel to our own that it hardly counts as speculative? It feels lazy. What is the intended purpose of telling this story from Maddie’s perspective? Her character is so underdeveloped, flimsy, annoying, and hard to empathize with. She’s a hollow character with no defining personality trait other than “shame,” and even that feels under explored?

And oh god, don’t get me started on Red and the romantic subplot. Maddie just hops from toxic relationship to toxic relationship and it’s boring. And there was not a single moment of this book that convinced me that Red was “charming.”

I did not give a shit about Red or Maddie, and it infuriated me to have to trudge through their story for the scraps of what was actually compelling in this book. I want books about hope, not just in the last 5 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Addiction

mxfahrenheit's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Police brutality, Vomit, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Colonisation, and Deadnaming

Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

alienskiesabove's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death, Alcoholism, Drug use, Rape, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, and Blood

miggyfool's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Rape, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal death, Physical abuse, War, Alcoholism, Blood, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Vomit

cnnr876's review

adventurous sad fast-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

Definitely a lot of conflicting feelings about this book. The core alt-history to alt-present concept is thought-provoking - what if Gore had won in 2000? How would the late teens and early 20's been different? Kern's imaginings are satisfactory - earlier adoption of carbon-neutral and climate "friendly" policies, eco-fascism on the rise, continued reliance on fossil fuels, continued state violence toward those running counter to monied interests, continued bipartisan refusal to upend the status quo. I think there is some decent exploration of power (im)balances in activist circles, witty commentary on activist tropes (communist vs. socialist vs. anarchist fights lol, Avakian-stans, hating on drum circles, how important yet challenging consensus is, etc), and pretty believe speculative world-building (particularly regarding carbon credits + tax, extensive greenwashing by public and private entities, and at-home imprisonment).

I think my reading experience suffered from a mismatch in expectations - I was expecting something very different from what I got, and I need to sit with that more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: War, Death, Suicide attempt, and Racism

takarakei's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a heavy book, but it's well worth the read. 

There is a big theme in the main character Maddie experiencing that feeling of 'what if' she had done x differently. And of course the answer is that A) we can't change the past and B)such minute things that happen really don't make a difference long term. I found the point of this book to be that anything that has happened in the past if changed (Al Gore winning for example) wouldn't have made any real difference in terms of where we are sociopolitically today. Because we live in a white supremacist capitalistic society and those oppressive societal structures need to be completely removed before society as a whole could drastically change for the largest group of people worldwide. We individually can make certain choices and work together to make change, but ultimate it's these oppressive power structures which keep our society stagnant.

I thought the themes of greenwashing (aka furthering capitalism through consumerism) were so realistic. This captured what it's like to be a white woman involved in activism so well. How there are so many cringe moments when you are trying to help and learn, and sometimes you just get it wrong. It's a rather bleak outlook, but the ending does sew some seeds of optimism and inspiration (the mycelium quote blew my mind).

I know I'll be thinking about this book for a long time and recommending it to a lot of people.

Thank you Netgalley and Sim Kern for the ARC!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Grief, Deadnaming, and Rape

Minor: Transphobia

Animal death/cruelty - some passages I had to skim over of a MC talking about their upbringing were graphic