Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau

5 reviews

stepnic's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Infidelity

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Classism, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Cancer, and Alcoholism

macglass8's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Racism and Xenophobia

zoecht's review

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective 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

4.25

uh i loved it? yeah there is no plot but it’s so good! pure sweetness, i love the characters so much that i was proud of them (mary jane construction >) and even if it’s so sweet there is still a lot of important topics (addiction, drug, racism, family…) anyway i don’t even know why but it was so cool

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Infidelity, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Alcohol, and Drug use

Minor: Cancer

thepaperwitch's review

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.0

 This was such a good, solid, and well written book. It was nice to dive in to a story that explored the tumultuous changes you go through as a teen that really focused on the uncertainty and confusion that comes from your family and the values you have grown up on coming into conflict with the person you are becoming. The stark contrast between the rigid, neat, racist, cold parents with the messy, loud, open, and honest found-family Mary Jane babysits for brings her a whole new understanding to the vibrancy and diversity the world offers. The struggle she has in trying to balance the two worlds with her own happiness is what makes this book shine.

I liked that this book shows that relationships of all kinds can be messy, but that the people in them are the ones that define their happiness and what love looks like for them. I felt that this was the unifying theme that defined the ending and wrapped the book up well. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Drug use, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

stephanie_co's review

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.75

While I did enjoy this book, I'm a bit torn about it, on the one hand I enjoyed it while I was reading it but on the other I found it hard to want to pick it back up once I had set it down. However, it felt like a really wholesome coming of age story; yes it deals with lots of heavy topics but they are all pretty surface level nothing bad happens and overall, there is a happy ending. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism and Xenophobia