Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

True Biz by Sara Nović

9 reviews

kaywhiteley's review

emotional hopeful informative 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

Holy shit did this book cover a lot of different subjects. Somehow it worked though. What a great great story and the way Deaf culture was interwoven without feeling awkward or out of place was truly masterful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Death of parent, and Ableism

Moderate: Dementia and Child abuse

Minor: Police brutality

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

FUCKKKKK WAS THIS GOOD!!! I CANNOT RANT & RAVE ABOUT THIS BOOK ANYMORE THAN IM BOUT TO. EASILY MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2024 (so far)
this book has everything and more
- as a disabled person i go NUTS for representation. a book where most main characters are deaf, written by a deaf author? im a rabid dog im so thrilled
- the excerpts following charlie were so brilliant and added to this book quite a lot, such as the excerpt on alexander bell when she's learning about him in history class
- the excerpts about signs too!!!!! i loved them!!!!! 
- the mention of the intersectionality between race & disability AND gender & disability.... chefs kiss
- highlighting BASL (which i didn't even know existed!) (granted im australian but still)!! this taught me so much about deaf culture in such an endearing and interesting form
- loved to see a CODA. i used to be able-bodied (long story) and as a child of disabled parents i resonated with february. obviously in very different ways, but mainly due to the underlying commonality between us (or at least a commonality that used to exist)
- wlw rep LETS GOOOOOOOO
- charlie and austin..... my loves. my little baby grills. i also loved kayla a LOT. couldn't stop picturing mel as mel buttle but u know what it works! every character felt like their own person, with motives and goals and a LIFE outside of the main plot. 
- writing style was magnificent
- writing FORMAT????? ugh i was in love. the little italics to show when a character was signing vs orally speaking? perfect. the chapter titles being the main pov's initial fingerspelled???? magnificent.
this book accomplished so much. there were so many themes and none of them felt poorly fleshed out. this book covers everything - grief, eugenics, isolation, race, ableism, jealousy, teenage romance, rebellion, gentrification, community, ableism (both outright and unknowingly), and so much more. 
i don't think i can truly put into words how much i loved this novel. this book is very clearly a love letter to the deaf community, and i have to say i fell hook line & sinker.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Dementia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Racism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Police brutality

marioosa517's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Drug use, Alcohol, Medical content, Medical trauma, Ableism, Cursing, Dementia, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Child death, and Racism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Police brutality, and Vomit

marissab's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Bullying

ohheyitskaitlin's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Ableism, Car accident, Medical trauma, Death, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Dementia, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Racism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Mental illness, Sexism, Police brutality, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sarah984's review against another edition

informative mysterious slow-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

3.0

This was a frustrating reading experience for me overall. I loved Charlie's story of acquiring language and access to Deaf culture, and realizing that adults you trust can fail you just as much as those you don't, but the resolution to her plotline is so heavy handed and the "if you don't support teens they will Have Sex And Do Drugs" bit is cartoonish. The main conflict with the teacher is boring because it's entirely her fault, and all of the love triangles are stupid. I liked the sign language examples, but some of the full text wikipedia article stuff felt pointless

(including step by step instructions for building a bomb if you're into that)

and could have been included in other ways. There is one major character of colour and she exists solely to experience anti-Black microaggressions and explain the concept of BASL to Charlie.

The story itself was whatever to me but the way the dialogue is written - between verbal, sign and text dialogue - was really well done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death of parent, and Medical content

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Pregnancy, Racism, Vomit, Infidelity, Police brutality, and Self harm

A major plotline involves teen characters

building pressure cooker bombs

imds's review

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Grief, Car accident, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Dementia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Racism, and Self harm

Minor: Police brutality

town_scar's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Grief

vthecreature's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This is definitely a one-of-a-kind read in terms of story and subject matter. There’s POVs from Deaf characters in different situations, and each of their experiences provide insight into the Deaf community. This definitely inspired me to try to learn ASL again, and taught me a lot about Deaf history, culture, and issues. The writing style was also unique and quite good. My favorite aspect was the representation of Charlie learning ASL: a blank when she doesn’t understand a word, then another character fingerspells and teachers her the sign, and then the sign is added to her vocabulary.
However, this was only a 3.5 star book for me. It seemed as though the author was very passionate about Deafness and wanted to share that with the world, and so packed as much information as they could into a book and then laid a plot overtop of it. There was very little about the actual school, instead focusing on unrelated issues in each character’s life. There was too much going on (especially in February’s storyline) and it detracted from the story. Several characters were problematic or poorly written.

Charlie used Austin’s Deafness to make the hearing people in her life angry or jealous. February was dishonest with her wife and emotionally cheated on her.

Some characters existed solely to point out an issue faced by Deaf people, rather than being complex characters.

Eliot (who was in the book blurb) was largely absent from the story until he showed up at the end to reveal his tragic backstory to some people he’s barely talked to.

Then there was Kayla, a token Black character whose role was to shine a brief light on racism in the Deaf community, and then disappear from the story.
Another character that stood out to me was the shallow bully Gabriella. I thought people were done writing female characters this way!
Lots of aspects of this story served no purpose, so the exposition in the first several chapters (besides the very first one) was unnecessary and hard to get through.
 Then there were the graphics. I liked the visual cues about ASL, since it’s a visual language. But other things (like a Wikipedia article on Robespierre, or a

literal homemade bomb recipe

) were jarring. Besides that, the ambiguous ending and lack of resolution just sealed the deal for me. I think you’d like this book if you’re interested in Deaf culture/history/issues, you’re used to reading YA, and you’re not super analytical about reading and writing.
Other things to keep in mind:
• There are no quotation marks, in spoken English or ASL.
• This book is tagged as lgbtqia+. Yes, there are queer characters (February and her wife) but the relationship is unhealthy and feels straight, if that makes sense. 
• Read the content warnings. There’s a lot of questionable behavior in this book that doesn’t lead to any consequences or lessons. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Drug use, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Confinement, and Racism

Minor: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Police brutality

bombs, explosion, implied forced medical procedure