Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus

7 reviews

zombiezami's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This is what The Fault in Our Stars wishes it was

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child abuse, Mental illness, Outing, Chronic illness, Confinement, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Cancer, Death, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexual harassment, Grief, Classism, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, Colonisation, Addiction, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Slavery

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

Gosh I loved this. I didn't really know much going in, so one of the main plot points really took me by surprise. This book is so beautiful and it made me cry a lot. I'd definitely recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Homophobia, Child death, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Violence, Physical abuse, Drug use, Confinement, Grief, Sexual content, Child abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

Minor: Slavery, Medical content, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Outing, Murder, and Mental illness

lily1304's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

Audre and Mabel have a sweet little romance. I haven't read any YA in a while, and I missed it. I appreciate how Petrus describes both Minneapolis and Port of Spain with such familiarity and love. She can paint such loving scenes of family and friends supporting one another.

It's impossible for me not to compare this book to The Fault in Our Stars. Though they have a really similar basic premise, they each deal with love and death and grief in totally different ways. I relate much more strongly to the pessimism and spiritual doubt of TFIOS than the optimism of The Stars and the Blackness Between Them. Because I'm John Green trash, I know that he wrote TFIOS based on his experience serving as a hospital chaplain for teens with cancer - an experience which made him decide not to become a priest - and that really shows in Hazel's anger and despair and "what if God - I mean, the author, I mean, Peter Van Houten - is real and wants nothing to do with us?" Petrus being a Black woman already gives her a different perspective than John Green, and I wonder what life experiences inspired her.

I didn't expect New Age spirituality to be so intrinsic to the book - to the point that it's somewhere on the border between realistic and speculative fiction. It made me more mindful of my biases and attitudes about things like astrology and past lives - I have to constantly remind myself that my own religion would sound just as weird if it weren't the dominant religion in the United States. There were some anti-medicine/"food is medicine" vibes too, though, which concerns me a little.

Despite all that... I liked the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Sexual content

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Medical content

bookishcori's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Homophobia

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Police brutality

bencaroline's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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: Religious bigotry, Racism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cancer, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Body shaming, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Vomit, Slavery, and Child death

frenchtoast_n_books's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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? No

3.5

In short, there was so much I loved about this book but there were things that I just didn't get. Let's get into it.

The whole first half was a beautiful narrative of what brought 2 teens together, what hardships they face, and how they braved the love and cruelties of the world to manage throughout the day. 

Then Mabel hears the finality of her terminal illness and this story veers onto another path. The story becomes jumbled with Mabel's dreams that have no real context or reflection in the story, her journey with Audre, and her learning about a man facing the death penalty. 

I'll center on the dreams because that's where the disconnect lies. I love that these dreams are meant to connect Mabel to the universe and the cycle of life and ancestors to help her through her diagnosis, BUT these dreams are of Audre's grandmother, a person Mabel has never met and her past that Mabel has never learned. It failed to meet the mark, especially since there is no reflection or discussion on these dreams. They happen without warning and then they are gone in the next blink. I'm left thinking, "that was the point?" and "why should I care?" 

Then the book ends in a painfully abrupt way that I understand but it will always leave me hoping for more. 

I would have honestly loved the story (5 out of 5) if the dreams were cut or at the very least explained within the text. Though I have heard the creole isn't accurate, but I can't comment on that as I have no expertise in the matter, and I honestly loved the "spoken word" feel the narration holds. It makes me feel like I'm in the person's head. 

I loved the discussions, the relationships, the words, and the story so much. I enjoyed the poems of every astrological sign that marked the passage of time. I loved so much this story had to offer. Though it wasn't perfect, I will read whatever this author releases next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness

Minor: Medical content