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caidyn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-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? Yes
4.0
At first, I wasn't sure about this book just purely because it felt like one where there were tons of pop culture just for "the kids". But I finally got into the story and warmed up to it quite a bit. A great YA retelling of a Shakespearean play that doesn't get enough of a spotlight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual assault
ofthewildland's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
"the truth is, loud and proud is great. but for some of us, it gets exhausting. and confusing."
3.5/ 5⭐.
ARC Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
(Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, self harm, mental illness, biphobia, bullying, implied sexual content, f-slur used to refer to oneself, mentions of alcoholism, mentions of underage drinking, mentions of drug use, parental abandonment, potential outing, mentions of Tr*mp.)
Told in the form of a student theses, Take Her Down is a modern queer Julius Caesar retelling with plot twists and representation that is done flawlessly.
First of all, I will start off by saying that the premise of this book seemed promising.
I loved the representation and how casually it was done.
It was comical to me how, in most stories, characters are usually being ostracised for their attraction to the same gender, but in this book, Bronwyn is "exiled" because of her attraction to a straight, white man.
I think the author did a wonderful job at capturing the uncertainty surrounding queerness and sexuality, especially as teenagers.
The mental health coverage was superb!
As promising as the premise of this book seemed though, the further I read, the more bored I became.
There is an excessive amount of useless information in this book that could have easily been taken out. Backstories of characters who have minor roles. Five pages of pointless inner monologue. The repetition. Irrelevant.
The characters were okay, but I couldn't find it in myself to care for them. There was a disconnect between myself and the characters. They weren't getting through to me the way I thought they would.
The mystery surrounding Jude's narrative was the only thing that kept me completely hooked. I also wanted to see what consequences Bronwyn would face.
The ending felt like a cop out, in my opinion. But I get why the author did it this way.
The format almost reminded me of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, but make it extremely gay and add some biphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, and Biphobia
Minor: Drug use
aiyam's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
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
5.0
First off: Massive TW for biphobia. This is a constant throughout the book, from straight people and queer people alike.
Okay I loved this book so much. The format of the book is just stunning, the characters are enthralling, and I was obsessed from the second I picked it up.
The story is a queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar, and if that isn't enough to convince you to pick it up I don't know what you could need. Bronwyn - Brutus, Cass - Cassius, Porter - Portia, and Jude Cuthbert - Julius Caesar are the main characters that you will come to know and somewhat despise. Do not despise Porter though, I am a Porter stan until I die okay, I will defend this man until my dying breath. He is me and I am okay with that because I love him. Possibly my favorite thing that Whalen did was make me truly dislike some of these characters despite not wanting to. The mark of a good author is the ability to evoke emotion, and I felt many negative ones when reading about these characters and their behavior.
The betrayal and backstabbing is just so well done. The nasty exclusionary high school behavior was so realistic I got chills. There are a couple of bullying incidents from Jude that as I was reading, I could picture who I know that would do the same thing without even thinking about it. Every part of the story unfolds with a crystal clear motive, and it is disgusting what they are doing but I was on the edge of my seat. The impact of all of this being told after the fact is just so powerful and such an amazing literary choice.
Honestly I think everyone should read this (provided you check the laundry list of trigger warnings first). I guarantee this will be a hit with the queer Shakespeare obsessed teenagers (mostly because it was a hit with me) and I hope that a massive audience can read this and take it for all it is.
Okay I loved this book so much. The format of the book is just stunning, the characters are enthralling, and I was obsessed from the second I picked it up.
The story is a queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar, and if that isn't enough to convince you to pick it up I don't know what you could need. Bronwyn - Brutus, Cass - Cassius, Porter - Portia, and Jude Cuthbert - Julius Caesar are the main characters that you will come to know and somewhat despise. Do not despise Porter though, I am a Porter stan until I die okay, I will defend this man until my dying breath. He is me and I am okay with that because I love him. Possibly my favorite thing that Whalen did was make me truly dislike some of these characters despite not wanting to. The mark of a good author is the ability to evoke emotion, and I felt many negative ones when reading about these characters and their behavior.
The betrayal and backstabbing is just so well done. The nasty exclusionary high school behavior was so realistic I got chills. There are a couple of bullying incidents from Jude that as I was reading, I could picture who I know that would do the same thing without even thinking about it. Every part of the story unfolds with a crystal clear motive, and it is disgusting what they are doing but I was on the edge of my seat. The impact of all of this being told after the fact is just so powerful and such an amazing literary choice.
Honestly I think everyone should read this (provided you check the laundry list of trigger warnings first). I guarantee this will be a hit with the queer Shakespeare obsessed teenagers (mostly because it was a hit with me) and I hope that a massive audience can read this and take it for all it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Bullying
eniahreads's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
|| Thank you to BookSirens and Bold Strokes Books for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review ! ||
Honestly if it wouldn't have been an ARC, I would have DNF'd at around 40%, but I wanted to finish it to give a better honest review.
I liked how the story is told: through a project from an external person, all of it made into different Acts where main characters would tell their own story through different media (interview online/irl, voice records, diaries). However, even if each chapters started very well like Bronwyn/Cass/etc was telling their story to someone, the remaining part of the chapters felt more like a regular 1st person POV but more condensed.
I have to say I'm all into school dramas with back stabbing to get to the main goal, and I got a lot here. But it was indeed maybe too much and too harsh? You must beware of TW because all the dramas are around that: biphobia, sexual assault, revenge sextape, hypomanic episodes (bipolar II). And I honestly couldn't get attached to any of the characters because of that, because of what and how they did all of that.
There's also a lot of representation (lesbian, gay, trans, demigirl, non-binary, bi, asexual), and I'm usually 100% for that but maybe here it was too much? I never thought I'd once say there's too much representation in a book but sadly it is in a way it feels hard to believe: somehow almost the whole school is queer or questioning, otherwise there's only white straight cis boys (surprisingly we don't talk about straight cis girls, as there's a huge hate on white -only- straight cis boys, we don't talk about the girls). There's also a lot of mentions about the 2017 US elections (that got me out of the book everytime it was mentionned) and so obviously a lot of hate over Trump (well deserved to be honest but still), and suddenly there's this whole hate and fear of the white stray cis men since he was elected? Honestly it doesn't feel realistic that so much stuff from this book is put ON these elections.
And I also must say that it was very long, the 1st Act is basically an introduction to the story but it's almost half of the book, all of that to give us a deeper view of the synopsis but nothing new. The remaining 60% are that "after synopsis" and I still don't feel good about what we got because we "only" got "that". Honestly I was expecting way more stuff happening after the synopsis, more dramas, than what we got here.
That's my biggest review so far but I had to say what was good and what wasn't, because it was a hard read for me.
TRIGGER WARNING:biphobia, bullying, bipolar II with hypomanic episodes, drug, rape (graphic), self-harm (graphic), and Trump can be a TW too.
Honestly if it wouldn't have been an ARC, I would have DNF'd at around 40%, but I wanted to finish it to give a better honest review.
I liked how the story is told: through a project from an external person, all of it made into different Acts where main characters would tell their own story through different media (interview online/irl, voice records, diaries). However, even if each chapters started very well like Bronwyn/Cass/etc was telling their story to someone, the remaining part of the chapters felt more like a regular 1st person POV but more condensed.
I have to say I'm all into school dramas with back stabbing to get to the main goal, and I got a lot here. But it was indeed maybe too much and too harsh? You must beware of TW because all the dramas are around that: biphobia, sexual assault, revenge sextape, hypomanic episodes (bipolar II). And I honestly couldn't get attached to any of the characters because of that, because of what and how they did all of that.
There's also a lot of representation (lesbian, gay, trans, demigirl, non-binary, bi, asexual), and I'm usually 100% for that but maybe here it was too much? I never thought I'd once say there's too much representation in a book but sadly it is in a way it feels hard to believe: somehow almost the whole school is queer or questioning, otherwise there's only white straight cis boys (surprisingly we don't talk about straight cis girls, as there's a huge hate on white -only- straight cis boys, we don't talk about the girls). There's also a lot of mentions about the 2017 US elections (that got me out of the book everytime it was mentionned) and so obviously a lot of hate over Trump (well deserved to be honest but still), and suddenly there's this whole hate and fear of the white stray cis men since he was elected? Honestly it doesn't feel realistic that so much stuff from this book is put ON these elections.
And I also must say that it was very long, the 1st Act is basically an introduction to the story but it's almost half of the book, all of that to give us a deeper view of the synopsis but nothing new. The remaining 60% are that "after synopsis" and I still don't feel good about what we got because we "only" got "that". Honestly I was expecting way more stuff happening after the synopsis, more dramas, than what we got here.
That's my biggest review so far but I had to say what was good and what wasn't, because it was a hard read for me.
TRIGGER WARNING:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Biphobia, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Bullying and Mental illness
Minor: Drug use
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