Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

81 reviews

galacticvampire's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"It's about second chances, Neil. Second, third, fourth, whatever, as long as you get at least one more then what anyone else wanted to give you."

The Foxhole Court isn't for everyone. It has a unique style exclusive to books that didn't go through an editorial process, what can be either refreshing or amateurish, depending on personal taste.

It's different, the characters feel alive, and the plot is so surprising it's borderline nonsensical. The writing style is direct and portrays dialogue extremely naturally, until it doesn't and it's outright weird.

Because the characters are weird. And problematic. But that's clearly intentional and I have to give praise to the author for daring to give her characters unlikable flaws and make them genuinely morally questionable, completely unsanitazed.

The main problem with this book is that, given that is over 200 pages, not much happens. Space is taken by a lot of infodumping about the made-up sport and characters' backstories, that albeit necessary, are not integrated that seamlessly or naturally in the conversation. The result is that, by the end, the actual plot and story are still on very early stages, and the reader is seeking the next book as if it were simply the next chapter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexism and Death of parent

violette_magpie's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism and Child abuse

elskabee's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Re-read 2024:

So Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard made it into the AO3 top ships for this year, scraping in at number 100. Subsequently I felt an overpowering urge to reread this (despite a fat stack of library books I have checked out) and I am so glad I did!

On re-read I'm bumping this up to a 5 because this book made me so feral and I can overlook its flaws a bit more than I did in the past (it's self-pub, and compared to some trad pub I've read, this is like peak literature lmao). It still requires that suspension of disbelief for a lot of aspects but those aspects are just set up for the character interactions and the intense drama - a.k.a the juicy bits that sent me spiralling on a chapterly basis. I was highlighting like almost once per page and my kindle notes are all some variant of "i'm screaming" "ashkjsdhahsjk".

Neil is my scrungly, my blorbo, my woobie. Watching him go from extremely skittish to fighting his own survival instincts to stand up for his fellow foxes and show people a bit of the real him? I am NOT okay <3

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Original Review 2021:

4.5

It's not the kind of book I can recommend easily. Like, someone described this series as "gay sports mafia" and I was sold because I love contemporary that's completely off the walls. I really don't care that it's so unrealistic because that's exactly what I love about it.

It's a tense rollercoaster that just gets more and more interesting and I will be losing my mind until I get my hands on the next book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Vomit, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia

During a night out Neil:

is drugged against his consent and also kissed without consent

solinel7's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

All the talk about the sport got me lost, but like the characters, and where they're going. I obviously have a lot of issues with them because they're abusive and have a lot of problems but I wanna know where this is going and how is gonna unravel. It's contradicting but oh well. 
Look up the Trigger Warnings if you plan on reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-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

4.5

Neil Josten is living under the radar, squatting in an empty home when he can and sleeping in his high school's locker room after Exy practice the rest of the time. Neil isn't even his real name, but the latest in a long line of aliases he has used to hide from his mob boss father. When Coach Wymack of the Palmetto State Foxes shows up wanting to sign Neil to PSU's Exy team, Neil should run the other way, but he's tired of running. Things only get more complicated when Neil meets the rest of the Foxes, who all have their own dark pasts, but it's also the first time Neil has belonged anywhere—even if he knows it can only be temporary.

I've read a lot of great books this year, but this one was different. It's not my normal type of book at all because it's much darker and more violent than I prefer (please check the trigger warnings!!), but I still couldn't put it down. The Foxes made me love them in spite of their problems and violent tendencies, and Exy intrigued me even though I don't think I'd ever watch it if it was real. No hints of romance (yet), but I know it'll come in the later books and I can't wait.

I kind of love knowing that Andreil will be a thing because I can pay extra attention to all their interactions and recognize the small details now instead of having to go back and piece them together later. 
I had heard before I read it that the plot doesn't always make sense, and that's fair for a book about a fictional sport and the Japanese mob, but honestly I thought it'd be a bit crazier; the only time I was really surprised (again, taking into account the extreme premise) was when Seth overdosed because it was so abrupt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia and Murder

_forestofpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Pros: the characters (and their unresolved sexual tension)

Cons: the unrealistic nature of the world which is supposed to be the real world. 

UPDATE 2024
Its ridiculous, truly. 

This book series is very readable and dramatic; due to the main characters actually insane backstory and the team of weirdos he joins to play the most ridiculous sport, I found it fun to read at times. However, I don't recommend it.

I didn't enjoy the first book's lack of plot,  and its frankly painful misrepresentations of mental illness and medication, or that sexual assault/drugging scene that no one ever talked about again.

There are also several instances of ableism from Wymack and Neil that really bothered me. Just words being used that did not need to be there and Andrew being referred to as a psychotic midget like five times. Just, why? 

So overall. It was less horrible than I expected, but still pretty bad.

[I updated this review with content warnings too and Dear God there are soooo many)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

korgi's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

first, i want to heavily advise reading the trigger warnings before reading this. i went into this book not having a clue what it was even about and i’m lucky that nothing was triggering for me but it might be for someone else. that being said, this book was dark. a lot darker than i was expecting it to be. and i absolutely loved it. i was hooked from the moment i started reading it and hooked the moment i finished it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Vomit

jbellomy's review against another edition

2.5

ugh dnf. this reads like fan fiction and not in a fun way
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EDIT DEC 2023
I did it. I read the unhinged fake lacrosse yakuza book. Someone on tumblr said this is a sports anime in book form and it clicked (particularly the psychotic love interest, who speaks and behaves like one of the twins from Ouran). I don't know if I like it exactly but it is for sure entertaining. Check those content warnings -- impossible for it to not be entertaining.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

rab373's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, and Vomit

czerny's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Suicide

Minor: Ableism, Death, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, and Vomit