Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

188 reviews

irisandfoxglove's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-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

5.0

This was a beautiful, heart wrenching book. I thought the way the chapters were set up was so well thought out and poignant, especially with the epigraph at the beginning. I’d recommend people check the content warnings first before reading.

I loved the moments we got of Ava.

Her planning and forethought for the picnic wrecked me, it was so sweet.

For what we found out about the “day of” by the end of the book,

man, fucking Maya. Based on her telling, it was clearly an accident. Why didn’t she call 911? Or come clean? If I was Asher, I would never forgive her for that. But, I accept her actions as believable. And I’m glad we got to know what happened. I also so fell for Dirk as a red herring.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Bullying, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment

The transphobia is not endorsed by the main characters of this book and is thoroughly dismantled. The suicidal attempt describes the method factually, and the emotions graphically, but only describes the set up in detail and not the actual attempt.

the method involved blades, and the character describes several times being triggered by knives and blades elsewhere in the story

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amandalachelle's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Cursing, Child death, Death, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexism, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Mass/school shootings

nicrose's review

dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Death

danajoy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Transphobia

ladyinverse's review

challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.5

this was an amazing novel of love, bees and a lot of bee facts, trans voices and I was simply blown away by the end. and definitely crying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

emiritz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

sjbryson's review

dark emotional informative tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Abortion, and Child abuse

kailahulsey's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

chaaaaaaaaar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Physical abuse

boba_n_books's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.5

Spice Rating: 🌶️ .5 / 5

Mad Honey is one of those books that sucks you in and just doesn't let go. I went into it not knowing much, and there were multiple times where I audibly gasped at this story. 

Olivia and her son, Asher, have been through hell and back. To escape Olivia's abusive ex-husband, the pair moved back to Olivia's childhood home in New Hampshire to take over her father's beekeeping business. Lily is a high school student who also needed a new start. She and her mother moved to New Hampshire to start over. Asher and Lily eventually cross paths at their school, and the two teenagers can't help but fall in love with each other. Olivia is so happy for her son, but one day, she gets a call from Asher: "Lily is dead." Of course, as Lily's boyfriend and the one who found her body, Asher is the number one suspect. Through a dual timeline and dual POV, we follow Lily through the past leading up to her death and Olivia as we watch Asher's trial. 

This novel surprised me in so many ways, and it really was such an amazing collaboration between the two authors. I listened to the author's note at the end and found out that Jodi Picoult wrote Olivia's POV while Jennifer Finney Boylan wrote Lily's POV, but I would have never known that from the way their writing styles complemented each other and blended together. It was such a unique story that centers around secrets. What secrets are that, secrets? And what secrets are ones that are private information that should only be shared by their owner? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Abortion, and Suicidal thoughts