Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Black Queen by Jumata Emill

11 reviews

panickat123's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This plot twist was so good 😱 I’m honestly probably just slow and didn’t see it coming which Happens a lot with thriller/mysteries but damn this book got me. Loved it. Also on audio, it has all the bg noises like doorbells, phone chimes, knocks, all incorporated into it and that was new for an audiobook and it really brings you into the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Child death, Grief, Classism, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Suicide, Alcohol, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Blood

bejeweledmeli's review

adventurous emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Rape

jaz_gets_literary's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

Please go over the trigger warnings before starting this book as it may be triggering to some. 

I really enjoyed this book. I thought I had the who done it figured out and I was shocked when it was actually revealed. I did figure out a few things along the way but the actual person had me like 😳 lots of important talking points in this book. Police brutality, racism, classism, and more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Abortion, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, and Grief

Minor: Suicide, Chronic illness, and Racial slurs

walrus420's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Cursing, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia and Incest

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Rape

jillkaarlela's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas meets “Ace of Spades” by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé! I loved this murder mystery, because not only was the mystery really complex, unexpected and nuanced, but the overarching themes of systemic racism opinions towards the police were really well explored. I thought it was a really interesting and smart choice to have this in a dual POV with the friend of the main girl who died as well as a rich white girl who seems to be a “villain” at the beginning, and doesn’t understand how racist and privileged she is. It provided and interest contrast, as we get to see Tinsley’s character growth as she is doing the work and research needed to better herself (although we do hate her quite a lot at times). I also liked the talk about the relationship with the police, especially since the main character (Duchess’s) black father is also a police officer. This is a story full of secrets, lies, deception, twists and turns, important political issues, and tons of nuance. 

Another fun fact about the author, Jumata Emill is that he used to be a crime reporter! I think this really helped his story, and made him able to write such a great mystery.  

Age rating: 14+ (language)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

clare072's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Murder, and Pedophilia

Minor: Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Abortion, Rape, and Vomit

psistillreadyou's review

challenging dark 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Drug use, Cancer, Suicide, Rape, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

This wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was hoping for and I wouldn't say it was good. I liked the reveal of the killer. I didn't care to follow Tinsley for the majority of the book. It was a story with potential but the execution, with the exception of the reveal, was quite meh for me. It was so focused on the redemption of the white girl (and the scandals of the white people in the book) I feel it lost what should be one of the takeaways- black girls/women being the victims of society and how everyone needs to do better so it doesn't keep happening. So would've preferred more focus on the black characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Racism, Bullying, Death, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault, Abortion, Rape, and Sexual violence

reading_under_covers's review against another edition

4.0

Another fantastic debut!

This one is rooted in trauma and racism, and very much written towards a YA audience.

While I loved some of the characters (DUCHESS!!), I wasn’t the biggest fan of the tragedy in this book being used as a way for the white main character to have a redemption arc - felt a bit weird in the overall context of the novel. 

I’m looking forward to seeing what else this author cooks up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, and Suicide

booktribe's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Nova Albright was the first Black homecoming queen at her high school, but now she’s been murdered on coronation night. It’s now up to her best friend, Duchess, and the girl who has been accused of her murder, Tinsley, to find out who really killed her.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. On one hand, I loved the mystery aspect. I haven’t been interested in a mystery this much in a long time. The mystery was engaging with a satisfying reveal and conclusion. In the few chapters before she died, I got to know Nova and really liked her, so her death was hard for me as a reader. But that added to the mystery aspect because I HAD to know who killed her and why!

On the other hand, we have to stop centering, and in this case victimizing, white people in our works! This book was dual POV. One of the POV’s was from Nova’s bestfriend Duchess who wanted justice for her. And the other POV was from the prime suspect in the murder investigation, Tinsley, who only wanted to find the real killer to keep herself from going to jail. And Tinsley was a racist, which is not a POV I want to read from. I feel like the author’s intent was to show that Tinsley was a product of her environment, she comes from racist parents, but that she tries to be better. (Her “better” is still racist by the way) Which, okay I guess I can try to understand why someone might want to write a character like that, but, why was she the MAIN character?? We got more POV chapters from her than we did from Duchess. I think the point of her being so important was to A. Get us to empathize with those raised in racist households, and B. Teach white people about racism. That doesn’t mean that this book shouldn’t be written, but it wasn’t for me, a Black woman who is not trying to hear all that. I assumed Black people would be centered in this story and not just used as a plot point to get white people to understand the error of their ways.

One other thing that bothered me is that when the author, who is Black, wrote the dialogue of the white characters, he had them talking like they were Black. Not talking in AAVE particularly, because that would’ve been very insulting, but just saying terms that only we say. I don’t think it was purposeful, I think it was just the way he probably talks coming through in writing dialogue for them. It’s not a huge deal, but it did give me pause lol.

I loved the mystery aspect of this book, but the centering of a racist really dampened my enjoyment. Also, this story can be very triggering, so check my trigger warnings below.

Thank you to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: racism, micro aggressions, child molestation & rape mentioned, Covid & cancer related deaths in the family, adult/minor relationship, infidelity

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape