Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

22 reviews

halfass_reviewer's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

A story about two grieving fathers trying to get answers about the deaths of their sons is not a story I knew I needed until I had it. (Despite it still taking me days to finish this novel) I couldn't put the book down. This is the kind of novel you read when you want to read about grief and how one person's personal beliefs can ruin relationships. I loved that the fathers, Ike and Buddy Lee, were constantly working through their homophobic ideology and it wasn't like "oh, all of a sudden our sons are dead and I no longer have a homophobic bone in my body." Their views about their sons and their son's lifestyle were constantly changing and getting better until the last page. I'm also glad that other minor characters in the book (friends/associates of the sons) frequently called both fathers out on their bullshit when the fathers tried to pretend they weren't the reason they didn't have a relationship with their sons. It was nice to see these friends still have Derek and Isiah (the sons) back even after their death. This was a great book and the only reason it didn't get five stars is because I had to read through all the racists and homophobic slurs. Also, Billy Lee repeatedly calling Mya (Isiah's mother) and some other women sis made me cringe and I wanted Mya to cuss him out so badly. Lastly, I knew he was going to die anyway (not the sons but another character) but he could've got one more future chapter first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Torture, Murder, Racial slurs, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity and Terminal illness

narbine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Racial slurs, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent and Alcoholism

Minor: Outing, Hate crime, Infidelity, Deadnaming, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

sarah984's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I really wanted to like this novel about two ex-cons who team up to avenge their sons' murder but I just found it silly and kind of cheesy. Aside from the leads all of the characters felt like caricatures (the "anarchists" were genuinely embarrassing to read, I can't believe that made it to print) and the dialogue could get as preachy and didactic as the worst YA novels. Felt like a long unironic version of the "I love my dead gay son" monologue from Heathers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Classism, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Car accident, Excrement, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Minor: Outing, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, and Deadnaming

chaosdemonmonster's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective tense 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

4.5

I loved the way intolerance and learning went hand in hand for this book. It was written in a way that made it really believable that people were able to change their views on people unlike themselves. I found it very uplifting to see that given the current political climate in the USA. This book managed to take on a number of themes but still made them feel cohesive and like they belonged together in the story. I definitely would recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Racism, Murder, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Deadnaming, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Cursing, Chronic illness, Excrement, Addiction, Infidelity, and Vomit

raynaaskiverr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, and Deadnaming

meliroo's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Transphobia, Violence, Torture, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Gore, Emotional abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Car accident, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Child death, and Emotional abuse

tinytrashqueen's review

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Transphobia, Torture, Sexism, Racism, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Vomit, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Deadnaming

mdinkle1's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

3.5

This was an action-packed book that's hard to put down, with some great themes of love, acceptance, and forgiveness and a few unforgettable characters. I'm also so glad I decided to go the audio route—a great narrator!

That being said, there is A LOT of graphic violence in this book, and that is not my thing. Maybe I shouldn't let that affect my rating, but I did, though I was able to tune out the violent parts or skip ahead. The villains felt a bit like caricatures to me, and I think this was because our two main characters are very morally gray. But we're still supposed to root for them, so the villains have to be worse than these morally gray characters—and the only way to really do that is make them caricatures and make them do things that are irredeemable. Also, I figured out who the big bad was pretty early so that reveal was not a surprise.

Back to our morally gray main characters—they made me super conflicted. On the one hand, they're written in a way that makes them endearing and likable despite the terrible things they've done, and they do have growth and development throughout the course of the story. But I'm not convinced that they're actually good people by the end...I guess I just wanted them to take more responsibility for their actions and actually deal with the consequences instead of just seeking revenge as a way to redeem themselves.

Also none of the side characters get any real development and that is always a disappointment to me.

Anyways, this book does make you think and is great for conversation; I think I would have liked it more if it had been more character-focused instead of action/violence/plot-focused, but that's probably on me because the book wasn't pretending to be anything else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Cancer, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Medical content, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia