Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

199 reviews

mollz12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was actually surprised to love this book. I decided to listen to it for some of my road trips and it was worth it. I could hear the parts I would have put it down and had a hard time coming back. 
I was confused a lot why they would back track with Lily’s memories. I kept thinking I went backwards but I think they did it on purpose. 
It was very intense and very sad. The hopeful parts were of the mothers saving their children. 

The parts of Lily recounting Ash being mean; yelling , grabbing her, speeding, etc. were interesting to add especially because Lily never shared them out loud, and the court scenes were of him being nice and calm. 
I thought that these pieces were silly to add because I wanted justice for Lily that Ash wasn’t the greatest. Or I wish it was more smaller anger emotions that he apologized later because of his trauma. I think I was disappointed that Lily never got to share it. The true character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Outing, Death, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

ashleythomas's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Homophobia

rshute95's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

The ending did feel quite rushed to me and there were some parts that felt a little too show-offy or expositionist but for the most part I really loved this book! It was a great mix of contemporary with mystery vibes that I love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Sexual content

Moderate: Physical abuse

This book centers a battered wife and a

trans teen girl who has been through bottom surgery

and bullied by both her peers and her father. There is some explicit description of sex and

of the physical transition from male to female genitalia including the logistics and specifics of cosmetic and functional features/changes

hannahjacobsen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I found the writing to be really engaging and I loved the character development. However, while I did learn a lot, it was a bit heavy-handed on the hot topics for a fiction book and came off preachy or over-the-top at times. The twist that came halfway through the book was unexpected and really changed the focus of the story, which I wasn’t anticipating based on the synopsis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Child abuse, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.5

When her son’s girlfriend is found dead, Olivia becomes the mother of an accused murderer and she begins to question how she got to where she is.

This book was written in captivating language. It talked about difficult topics in a way that was easy to understand and not too preachy.

I did figure out the ending almost immediately though, which is why I’m not giving it four stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Grief, Deadnaming, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

kayls2315's review against another edition

medium-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

2.75

I gave the book 2.75 stars. The only reason it’s not lower is because it started strong, hooking me in from the beginning. However, around the halfway point, at a crucial twist, it began to unravel. It felt like the story was suddenly forced into addressing numerous societal issues—LBGTQ, transgender, suicide, abuse, abortion, race, bullying, gender roles, feminism even squeezed in a brief mention of a school shooting. This overload detracted from the initially good storyline.

 This book didn’t land in my DNF only due to the fact that the beginning was put together so well and as a hobbyist beekeeper myself, I appreciated the well-researched beekeeping elements. Listening to the audiobook saved some time, thankfully. Lily’s character and her narrator became tiresome. The rushed ending crammed in every controversial topic, almost making me feel duped into reading about subjects I wouldn’t typically choose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Abortion, Transphobia, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

mountainstobeach's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

3.5

The topic of the book is interesting but I found it slow moving. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

madisonlcollins0917's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Transphobia, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Violence

alexandramiller's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative tense 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

4.0

Learned an awful lot about bees

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Outing, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Misogyny, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Self harm, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Violence, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Mass/school shootings

sariereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Bullying, Child death, Outing, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia