Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

90 reviews

keats1787's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Child death, Hate crime, Torture, Racism, Gore, and Alcohol

Moderate: Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, Medical content, Rape, Misogyny, Transphobia, and Outing

searobin's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Listening to this book felt like watching one of those ridiculous movies where it seems like the people who created it just want to be able to shoot everything, and are imagining themselves as the vigilante/heroes bringing down the bad guys, eighty bullets at a time, violence porn, if you will.
On one hand, I loved it in a guilty-pleasure kinda way and couldn't put it down. On the other hand, a lot of the actual plot was rather weak, the twists were obvious a mile out, the similes were excessive, gross, and/or weird (e.g., "his chest was as tight as virgin pussy"), and the characters were two-dimensional at best. It was just really, really, really violent. I have aphantasia, so gore in books doesn't bother me in the same way as in movies/tv shows, but some of the descriptions were just unnecessary - like, way too much detail about someone's guts spilling out like taffy that had had merlot spilled on it or something, for example.

Also, it was not at all a surprise that Tangerine was trans, so that "twist" was especially weird. I also don't understand at all what the article on her ex would have been about - was it going to be some sort of queer-shaming the conservative politician kinda thing?  If so, gross. It wasn't really clear, largely because we didn't learn much at all about what either of the two did or their lives before being murdered.

I am queer, but don't have a lot of queerphobic trauma, so that aspect of things wasn't triggering for me, just terribly sad and hard to read, but I can see how it would be really terrible for some. 
Idk, it was a weird read. I was so hyped when I finished it; it felt like I had whiplash from the whole thing. However, the more it settles and the more time I have to process it, the more I realise that I think it was more an adrenaline high than a good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Sexism, Body horror, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Racism, Car accident, Abandonment, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Outing, Torture, Homophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Stalking, Violence, Transphobia, and Vomit

Minor: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and Cancer

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

3.5

I really wanted to like this more than I did as it came highly recommended, but unfortunately it wasn’t a runaway hit for me. A story of two fathers, brought together in their quest for vegance after the murder of their sons. Throughout, both grapple with how their homophobia towards their sons destroyed their relationship. I liked the fast paced, whodunnit aspects of this novel but did struggle a bit with the intense graphic nature of it. If you have a weak stomach, this book likely won’t go over super well. Our characters are as morally grey as you can get, stopping at nothing to attain their own version of justice. I think there is a conversation to be had here about how the only way these characters were able to accept their sons was at the cost of their lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Hate crime, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Racism, Murder, Cancer, Lesbophobia, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Deadnaming, Death, Medical content, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Addiction, Body horror, Grief, and Kidnapping

rei_reads's review

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gore, Car accident, Alcohol, Gun violence, Violence, Homophobia, Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Cancer, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Confinement, and Vomit

jkar7's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Loved this book. It felt like a movie. The audiobook was decent as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death of parent, Hate crime, and Violence

Moderate: War, Car accident, and Cancer

Minor: Animal cruelty

takeaim's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

Raw.

That's "Razorblade Tears." This thriller mystery easily could be written off as a violent revenge story, but do not underestimate S.A. Cosby. 

The premise is compelling: A married couple are murdered, and the men's fathers want to find the killers. But that's not the only thing Ike Randolph, who is Black, and Buddy Lee, who is white, have in common. Both have criminal pasts. Neither would have won the Best Dad award. Both refused to accept that their sons were gay. And both are drowning in grief and regret.

The two also combat racism, classism, and homophobia, within themselves and the outer world of rural Virginia. They clash and butt heads, but perhaps there's nothing like getting to know one another by getting into fights and exchanging gunfire with the bad guys.

Yes, this novel is action-packed and violent. But Ike and Buddy Lee's emotional self-torture is an all-too familiar mantra to anyone who has ever lost a loved one. Should've. Could've. Would've. And this is the strength of Cosby's writing. He exposes the gentleness of two troubled men who loved their only sons, but did not know how to love them.

According to Wikipedia, the novel has been optioned for a possible film. Fingers crossed that Hollywood does this novel justice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Racism, Homophobia, Classism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Death

louisekf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Violence

stacis16'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Murder, and Racial slurs

strickortreat's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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 needed even the tiniest bit of subtlety literally anywhere to make it readable. It's a great premise, and it brings up a lot of important issues that all tie together well, but it does so with all the nuance of a bull. Ended up skipping whole sections and speeding through to get to the end of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Cursing

Moderate: Alcohol and Violence

mecmccann's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Initial thoughts: I liked this book a lot. It was dark and violent, but it had depth; it was more than just 320 pages of pew pew. I don’t think that existing lgbtq+ ally’s are the target audience. I think people who are new to allyship are. For that reason it wasn’t a perfect book for me. There were also a loooot of similes, some of which were poorly written, which did take me out of the story a bit. I’m also not a huge fan of the pew pew scenes. A good book, I’m just not the ideal audience.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Gore

Moderate: Transphobia, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Cancer, and Alcohol