Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Bright Lands by John Fram

12 reviews

pancake_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

michaelb123's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Outing, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Homophobia, and Hate crime

ramintah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Sexual assault, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Murder, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

donnyeatsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

It’s Friday Night Lights meets Twin Peaks by way of Stephen King, with the biting social commentary of a Jordan Peele flick.

It’s also gay. As fuck.

John Fram methodically chips away at the pearly-white veneer of small-town Texas and exposes the eldritch horrors beneath, commenting on conservatism and faith-based hypocrisy in the meantime, and making you question everything you thought you knew about “traditional values.”

If that isn’t enough to convince you to rush to your nearest online checkout, then I don’t know what is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Hate crime

whiteraven191's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

mr_cain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.75

This book has so many twists and turns, it's a beautiful maze. It had me sobbing at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cursing, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Vomit, and Addiction

eegrasse's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

thingquail's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, and Gun violence

juliezantopoulos's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.0

I can respect that this is an own voices thriller/horror and appreciate it for that, but this wasn't for me. I understand the commentary on toxic masculinity, especially in sports and in the south. However, the "horror" in this book was not actually scary. I really thought I was getting a horror book and instead I got a murder mystery. I know this is an own voices book with a gay main character, but the use of queer slurs and homophobia was too rampant for me. Which is not to say it's not a reality, but I didn't want to read it....especially with the direction the book went! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, and Police brutality

rliedtke's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

 

This will leave you saying what the f***. I wasn’t really sure where it was heading throughout the book but I definitely wasn’t expecting exactly what we got. The climax is about 100 pages long which sounds crazy but it was pretty epic and still felt fast paced, I couldn’t put it down once that scene started. 

What I liked: multiple POVs, short chapters, the problems it discussed (homophobia, racism)

What I didn’t like: the writing felt mediocre to me and a few lines made me cringe 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Racism