Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Þernan by Nita Prose

129 reviews

samburkhouse's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Grief, Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Deportation

annaofjesup's review against another edition

3.0

hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deportation

readingwithkt's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Grief

Minor: Drug use

misskitty14's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Many murder mysteries are helmed by a neurodivergent detective (Holmes, Poirot, Monk), but most of them rarely get into how their mind works and even fewer acknowledge the challenges faced by these characters' disability (their attention to detail is simply a superpower). The main character of the novel, Molly Gray, is neurodivergent but this does not make her a superhuman detective. Instead, the reader comes to realize how much Molly doesn't see or understand because of the way her mind works. It can be frustrating at times to watch as she trusts the wrong people and misunderstands situations that are very obvious to the rest of us.  I've heard many people with neurodiversity discuss how they hate that their disability is oftentimes represented as a superpower rather than an actual disability (comedian Fern Brady has a whole stand-up about it). Overall, I found this aspect of the novel to be incredibly educational and led to increased empathy on my part.

The reason I don't give this book 5 stars is because of the ending. Prose fell into the classic murder mystery trope of keeping valuable information from the reader.

From the beginning our main character knows who killed Mr. Black (it isn't anyone ever put on our radar) but never tells anyone or discusses it in her own mind.

Before I got to the end of the novel, I thought I figured out the answer, which seemed very obvious from the beginning, but I was impressed by how the pieces had come together. Instead, like all other murder mystery authors before her, Prose decides to justify a left-field answer by withholding information from the reader, information that should be known to us since we are inside Molly's head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Classism

mercy killing

averyprettyboy's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

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just wow wow wow 

this book was probably one of my absolute favorite reads this year. even before learning of it online, i had suspected that molly could be on the spectrum and also might have ocd, but it was great to see this representation even if it might have made her an “unreliable narrator” to some. i was captivated from the very start and throughly enjoyed this book until the very end. 

i nearly sobbed when learning the final fate of molly’s gran, but i also understand why it was done. it was just heartbreaking to learn. i kind of suspected that rodney was involved in some nefarious dealings and that juan manuel may have been as well but was utterly shocked at how deep the pool of deceit went. and the ending??? wtaf i had no idea that the first mrs black would be the true killer, although i am glad that molly left her to peacefully live out her live, even if shes rich, rodney deserved jail time more than she did. im really pissed that we never learned where wilbur went and for whatever reason, i suspected him to be mr black 😭 it seemed like something he would do and with molly being a unreliable narrator and also not always putting the pieces together right away, i wondered if she even knew. but i guess as far as we know wilbur is not mr black. and i was really thankful of giselle for helping molly out, they really both deserve happiness and peace now. also juan manuel and molly getting together is something i wanted since he was first introduced so im super happy about that.

all in all, great read and would recommend to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse

mal_reads_books's review against another edition

1.75

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic friendship

chaotically_katie's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Deportation

basil_plant's review against another edition

4.5

mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Murder

Moderate: Deportation

chrisp189's review against another edition

2.0

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

emmagalt's review against another edition

1.0

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I just found the whole book dull and poorly written. But worse than that, the author seems to want to infer that the main character is on the autistic spectrum and the portrayal is offensive. She is written as an inhuman android.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism