Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

4 reviews

keats1787's review

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

4.25

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

There is so much for me to say. What an original work of art this book is. I was immediately intrigued by the premise and was excited at the prospect of reading main characters who in any other story would more than likely be characterized as villains. 

It was complicated for me at times, reading about how much hate these fathers held for their sons' queerness. Complicated and painful to watch them grieve and reflect on the ways that they failed. It was also rewarding to read as the two fathers learned to accept what they didn't understand and also accept each other. I think the way that the learning came about seemed realistic to me, and of course they weren't perfect at any point throughout the whole book, but I don't think that was the goal. The characters are morally grey, and everyone is going to have a different stance on them, but I thought that they were interesting and often painful to read. This book took me longer than most books do, I feel, in part because of the brutality within the pages. This book is SO violent, y'all. I knew that it would be going in - after all, it is a story about revenge, but that didn't stop me from having to put it down and take care of myself once in awhile. I recommend that if you decide to pick this up, that you do the same! 

BTW I found it so validating that I was picturing Buddy Lee as Sam Elliot and he is described as a Sam Elliot type more than once in the book!!
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thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

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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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v171's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

A riveting, heart wrenching story of vengeance, justice, INjustice, and redemption. This book was everything I was hoping for and more. I am generally very critical of the 'bury your gays' trope, but I absolutely don't think this book falls into that category. Rather than using queer people as a device that pushes the story forward, the queer experience is central to the plot and is handled with both realism and graceful compassion. In addition, this book explored themes of racism, classism, corruption, and police brutality. Each of these were explored fully and expertly. In addition to the flawless structure of the book, the emotions this book put me through.... white hot rage, grief, compassion, love... the author was fantastic at eliciting these feelings from cover to cover. If you like books, read this. 
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