Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

4 reviews

debz57a52's review against another edition

4.5

This book fell on my radar almost a decade ago because of the Goodreads nomination, so I'm glad I finally got around to it.  The story of Ava Lavender is quite a tale, mesmerizing and sad but joyful and lovely too.  What really makes this book, though, is the story of the women (and some men) who came before her; knowing their stories and how they feed into Ava's experiences is what gives this story the depth that enchants readers like me.  The magical realism is pretty special, too, though.  There were a few slow-ish parts, which I mostly skimmed through, but this is such an enjoyable book that I never once thought the skimming was good.  I was just an impatient reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal death, Sexual violence, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Mental illness, Homophobia, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Infidelity, and Stalking

julyaphelion's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.25

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why people love this book as much as they do. I couldn't stand any of it. All it was was three generations of trauma at the hands of men wrapped up in a little "we're so strange haha" bubble. They WERE strange and had every right to say it, I'll give them that, but the way the entire book is written and the contents of the book had me hating almost every second from about halfway through. 

The only reason I'm giving this 2.25 stars is that the author is very good at descriptive writing, and I enjoyed those parts(especially the food), and the last 20-30 pages were really nice. I even didn't dislike the ending as much as I thought I would.

Even with these things, I couldn't make myself like it anymore thank that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Animal death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

swaggynikki's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

Fucking BANGER of a book, it's incredible and haunting and weird and everything I love in a story. I read this book for the first time in middle school off of a booktube reccomendation and I was definitely not ready for it (I think I was 13 at the time?). It's graphic and parts of it are very disturbing, but that doesn't take away from a beautiful story

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Violence, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Hate crime

binches's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Body horror, Death, Animal death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Blood, and Hate crime

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, and Stalking

Minor: Eating disorder