Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

18 reviews

takarakei's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I didn't love this as much as I was hoping which is a shame. The magic in this book is really amazing, and there were some truly fascinating parts to read. Also a few 'gasp' moments that surprised me (in a good way). However, there were far too many background characters and their roles were not adequately described, so even though I took notes I was still confused. For example, there are these magical 'councils' that oversee the different types of magic and there are people on these councils who are mentioned ex: 'so-and-so is priestess of etc' but there's no explanation of what that means? So I felt the world-building could have been fleshed out more.

3/5 🌶️ -

there is one explicit sex scene 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Car accident, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Bullying, Sexual assault, Grief, and Hate crime

Minor: Slavery, Addiction, and Alcohol

SA/rape:

Main character Cris finds out her boyfriend used a love spell on her and their whole relationship is a farce - they had fooled around, but not 'gone all the way' yet...

jouan87's review

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

2.0

I received this book for review on netgalley. It is twin 16 year olds whose mom is dying but it turn out it's a hex and they have to figure out who is doing it. The book is okay, some things are clearly left for the next one. It is labeled as YA however, there is sex in this book between teenagers, and I'm not okay with that in a book that is supposed to be YA. That instantly made me want to dnf but I wanted to know the end

thank you netgalley for letting me review this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Racism, and Racial slurs

purplepenning's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

There is a lot going on in this dark, contemporary urban fantasy. It's a great concept, but it didn't end up working for me. (I'm not giving a star rating because I'm definitely not the target audience.) Blood Debts is, as promised, absolutely dripping with generational magic, trauma, and family and community drama. But the cast and scope felt too big, and the characters managed to feel both underdevoped and belabored. I hope it works better for other readers, or that the series as a whole comes together better than this first part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, and Infertility

Digital bullying, necromancy

acwhite's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense 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

4.0

I struggled getting into the first 25-30% of this book, but once it took off it was tough to put down. A fascinating tapestry of plots that came together in a beautiful tapestry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Racism, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Cursing, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

marleywrites's review

adventurous dark emotional fast-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? Yes

4.5

It was foolish to think he could outrun a god. 

Thank you to NetGalley and TorTeen for this e-arc!

O.M.G. This book!! 

This story was incredible. I loved every second. The magic was so cool to learn about, and I loved the characters. The whole family was amazing, even Justin 😂. 

The fast pace really worked well for this story. I didn’t want to stop reading! 

Benton-Walker’s writing style was so great- the action scenes were good and punchy and the descriptions were fantastic. The way the tension built up over this story was incredible as well. The ending was worth the build up for sure!

I will definitely be reading more that this author writes. I loved the Black excellence in this book, and the anger and what the characters did with it was possibly one of my favorite parts. 

The only reason I withheld a half star is because Clem’s stubbornness absolutely killed me! It was frustrating at times but that’s Clem I guess 😂  But:

I looooved the set up for a possible book 2!

;)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Car accident, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Infidelity, Chronic illness, and Medical content

mshiiken's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

BLOOD DEBTS floated across my inbox from Booklist Delivers, and I am SO GLAD it did. NetGalley provided a galley in exchange for an honest review and this book rules. A fuller review will be posted to Mzinigan Mshiiken, but brief incredible points: 

- fascinating magic system
- political intrigue, both mundane and magical
- New Orleans
- LGBTQIA+ representation and love
- messy family ties

The only reason this gets 4 stars rather than 5 is because the writing at times was a little tough to get into. It was a little bit like getting a firehose of description to the face, and I found myself having to re-read sections to parse what was being said. Granted, the chapter titles helped a lot with perspective and the character changes were fascinating. Others have noted that the beginning is slow and I agree - that said, the latter half of the book had me on the edge of my seat for the few hours it took me to speedread. I think teens will really like this book (although a few scenes are a liiiiiittle more explicit than I like to recommend), and plenty of adults will too. I'm excited to see what comes next in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Death of parent, Racism, Murder, Homophobia, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Infertility, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Car accident, Sexism, Alcohol, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

yadira315's review against another edition

2.25

I was so excited to read this book as the description and concept of the book sounded really interesting but unfortunately, the book was just not for me. One of the first things I struggled with was the multiple point of views. We have our two main characters that have POV‘s but then there’s multiple side characters that also get their own POV throughout the book and the main problem with that was that the perspectives will constantly change so the MC’s POV would be in first person, present tense, and then some of the side characters would either be in third person or past tense, and that would constantly take me out of the story and would be jarring. This also made it confusing to follow, which character was witch, and the relationship between the characters.  I also did not like it because we have so many characters involved with the stories. The relationship was not properly flushed out, and there was no room for the characters to have proper development.  So many things are thrown at you so many life altering event in a matter of days that the characters really did not have a lot of time to properly communicate, despite the length of the book. 

I had to keep in mind that the characters are teenagers, so they had very strong feelings for the people that they were meeting and their relationship towards each other. However, the adults in the book were completely ridiculous at times, and there was a lot of inconsistencies between their relationships at points they would not trust their family members because of something that they did in the past, but then would go and completely trust a random stranger that was just introduced to the book.  

I really enjoyed how there was great queer and mental health representation throughout the book. The author challenges, a lot of heavy topics throughout the book, such as homophobia, lynching, violence and complicated relationships. The author constructed a great magic system but I found that the execution was not there. I gave the book 2.5 stars. 

 Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Racism, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

A Voodo-inspired magic system, queer Black boy love, generational trauma, and messy family drama intertwine in this older YA urban fantasy. 

In the wake of their father’s sudden death and their mother’s suspicious illness, twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau struggle to solve a decades-old murder that cost their grandmother her throne. 

All of the above are what I appreciated about this book, but I had a lot of challenges: the messaging around eye-for-an-eye violence and vengeance, the family relationships so strained and unloving to the point of having a hard time rooting for the extended family, and ultimately being frustrated that the book didn’t seem as invested in the political depth that the dedication and epigraphs indicated. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence