Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

91 reviews

snowhite197's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Outing, Dysphoria, and Domestic abuse

kellyeweber's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Transphobia

alliereads_'s review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad

2.0

For a long time, Jodi Picoult was the automatic answer to “who’s your favorite author?”. While I still love her work, this book really started to feel redundant to me. The style and expansive metaphors became almost cringey to me. I’m not giving up on Picoult yet, but this book really did nothing for me. The one positive was the tie-in with characters from previous stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

morganegrant's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, Suicide, Violence, Bullying, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Grief, Outing, Self harm, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, and Murder

Minor: Abortion

kbweis's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Child death, Outing, Sexual assault, Suicide, Deadnaming, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Grief, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Car accident

melissafirman's review against another edition

emotional sad

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 I have mixed emotions about this book. Let's start with what I liked.

1. I'm a big fan of Jennifer Finney Boylan's writing and a bit less so of Jodi Picoult's. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have picked this up if JFB wasn't a co-author. For those new to her work, I highly recommend her novel Long Black Veil and memoir I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted. This is the third book of Jodi Picoult's I've read and all have been 3 stars.

2. For most of the first half (perhaps even 3/4) of the book, I was fully invested in the plot, wanting to know what happened. I felt the pacing was excellent, up to a particular point.

3. I loved Lily, felt like I knew her, and was truly sorry she was dead. (Not a spoiler-it's right on the book jacket.)

As we got closer to the end, however, it felt like several key aspects started to unravel. Mostly, I HAVE ISSUES AND LOTS OF QUESTIONS. Rant below:

WTF was that ending with Maya confessing???!! After she outright lied on the stand? Why didn't anyone do any semblance of investigation??!! It was like, oh, there's Asher's fingerprints, his shirt has Lily's blood, he's the spurned boyfriend, must be him! I get that Gina Jewett was trying to make a name for herself as the prosecutor (and I think that, in that regard, her last name is unfortunate at best and stereotypical at worst) but nobody talked to Ava about people Lily had problems with in the past, like HER FATHER who clearly knew where they now live and had a previous violent past in regard to Lily? What about that Jonah asshole, who conveniently pops up at Dartmouth? Why didn't they interrogate Maya more? I just didn't get it.

Some other issues: There's a lot about beekeeping, almost too much. I think those sections could have been greatly condensed. Plus, there are a lot of heavy topics included in this novel (read the trigger warnings) and that felt a bit like trauma p**n at times, not to mention repetitive, particularly regarding Olivia's relationship with her ex-husband. Overall, this could have been much shorter.  

3.5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Bullying, Self harm, and Child death

Minor: Abortion and Stalking

amandas_bookshelf's review

emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Transphobia, Child death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Outing, Bullying, and Hate crime

Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy

ashley1233's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

I found it was stressful, intense and emotionally taxing.  There were too many traumatic experiences for me.  It was not enjoyable.  
That being said- it is a well written book.  It’s an interesting plot.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Child death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

jamby4546's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Murder, and Child death

sjp8987's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Death, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Suicide, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Murder, Child death, Bullying, and Body shaming