Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

49 reviews

sk8r2natls's review

3.5

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Okay book - would have been GREAT as a book club book , but I wouldn’t personally recommend it as an independent read. It sparked interesting conversations, but the plot got a little monotonous. The back 1/4 of the book was better because the characters became interwoven with one another and their stories/histories were shared more with the reader, but it otherwise felt a bit repetitive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Gun violence, Violence, Car accident

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Abandonment, War

stijlwaters's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Outing

ivi_reads_books's review

4.75

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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The book talks about what makes a life worth living, the level of pain you are willing to endure for the sake of yourself and others. It discusses discrimination, change and solidarity in light of the new information that the mysterious strings that showed up on everyone's doorstep brought up.

I enjoyed every charachter and storyline. They showed the individual struggles but also had a connection to the bigger picture.

Julia Whelan is a great audio book narrator!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Outing, War

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail

agreen1727's review against another edition

3.0

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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There were a ton of characters and story lines to keep straight. I like the overall idea of the book and the messages you can take away from it. The ending had a part that was pretty sad that I didn’t see coming. I feel like the timeline through the book moved at a very odd pace even though all the info needed was there. I’m not really sure how I feel about the book overall. I didn’t dislike it but I also didn’t love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Car accident, War

emilywemily6's review

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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: Complicated

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This book was incredible. I could not put it down! This book contains many deeper themes that are reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made this book feel very personal for me and almost triggering as I remembered the strife of that global event. So if the pandemic is a hard topic for you still this book might be difficult emotionally because of the parallels. But this book was reflective and meaningful and emotional, and I have no regrets that I went on this journey. Told through multiple POVs that intersect at moments throughout the book, this book made me feel for and love every character. This book was surprisingly human and realistic; I forgot I wasn’t living the string reality they faced. The societal issues related to the divisive nature of the strings were portrayed really well through the lens of the multiple POVs. I loved the discussions on discrimination and prejudice and the ties with both history and current examples of discrimination. This book was beautiful and heartbreaking and gave me a lot to think about my own life and what it would mean to know how long I have to live, or how long my family has. If you need a good cry with some hope, this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, Alcohol

Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Classism

tagger's review

4.5

dark emotional inspiring 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: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent

wickedgrumpy's review

3.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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The opportunity to create a new category of othering arrives overnight for anyone over the age of 22 and prejudices flow amidst the panic.

I wish that there was some closure on some of the (what I consider) plot holes, as well as a couple of characters we grew to know over the 15 years that pass in the book, though I was given enough to be satisfied.  It was a bit predictable and cliche, but I teared up a couple times and definitely cried at the end because thinking about life and death and found family gets me in the feels.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Classism

lonelylooper's review

3.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Murder

jamiee_f's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective slow-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

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This book was sad and beautiful and wonderful. The premise is, one day, everyone gets a box with a string in it, where the string represents the length of your life.

Immediately, society stratifies. People pick sides, make assumptions, panic. Some choose to look at their strings, and some choose to never look. This divides families and friends. This book follows the interconnected lives of a few of these people and examines how they choose to live with the time they have left. Even though I saw some of the twists/character deaths coming, the emotional impact was not lessened. I love a book that does glimpse into the future stuff and ends up wrapping things up satisfyingly, and this one did that. It makes you think about what you would do if you knew how much time you had left, and emphasizes how love and family are worth it no matter the length of time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Violence