Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

14 reviews

clemireads's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Racism

imlfox's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, and Gun violence

Moderate: Slavery

jesshindes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense 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

5.0

Massive recommendation from me for My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson: it's an absolute banger. It's set in a future America, but not all that future: the electricity's stopped working, food is hard to get hold of, and crews of white nationalists are cruising the streets of Charlottesville brandishing automatic weapons. College student Da'Naisha Love, her grandmother MaViolet, and her white boyfriend Knox take flight, along with a bunch of neighbours from their run-down block, and end up hiding out in the place where Da'Naisha spent last summer working: Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello. Nobody's sure what will happen next. For now, they wait.

My Monticello is a short novel and it drops you straight into the action. Johnson doesn't waste much time setting up the circumstances through which the situation has been reached. She doesn't need to. Instead, she gives you a complex, nuanced set of characters and relationships to get to grips with. You care about Da'Naisha and her neighbours immediately: you fear the instability of their situation, the unknown of what's happening in the city at the bottom of the hill, the certainty that help will not be forthcoming any time soon. There's not a ton of plot to this story - to the extent that I don't want to really say more about the actual events for fear of spoiling - but for me it was a very compelling lens through which to think about contemporary American society. Da'Naisha is descended from Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings so there is obvious significance there in terms of Black history and exploitation but just in general and anyway it's a scary, persuasive variant on post apocalyptic fiction where the apocalypse feels frighteningly imminent. Go and read it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Slavery, and Gun violence

chwinters's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

most of this rating is b/c i read the last story, my monticello, over a pretty long stretch of time— so it felt like it dragged, when really, it didn’t. 

don’t stretch the novella story out over almost a month like i did. 

other than that, this book is really good, and you should definitely pick it up. it starts off with a bang, and just keeps going. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Police brutality and Gun violence

purplepenning's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Bullying, Gun violence, Racism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Slavery, Kidnapping, Vomit, and Car accident

amberlfaris's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy

sunah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? No

5.0

I loved this, I was hooked from the very first page!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Vomit, Blood, Gun violence, and Death

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Racism, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Slavery

foreverinastory's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

5.0

What an amazing collection of stories.

CWs: Racism, violence, death, gun violence, hate crime, slavery, grief, car accident, pregnancy, ableism, chronic illness (asthma), cursing, infidelity, police brutality, murder, fire. Moderate: Fatphobia, rape, sexual content, war. Minor: adult/minor relationship, sexual assault, blood.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Ableism, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Gun violence, Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Cursing, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: War, Rape, Sexual content, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Car accident, Gun violence, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual content and Fatphobia