Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Los muros que nos encierran by Nova Ren Suma

7 reviews

sometimes_samantha_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

I liked it and how mysterious it was but the writing itself was hard to follow along with. It was a bit too poetic for me to follow and I didn't really warm up to any of the characters at all because the dialogue didn't feel natural to me. Idk maybe it was intentional and I didn't grasp it.

Overall the concept was interesting. It was a slow burn but it was satisfying to have your suspicions confirmed over the course of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Violence, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Bullying, Body shaming, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Confinement, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content and Vomit

phantomgecko's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I barely cared about the characters in this book. Did not relate.

But the storytelling was delightful. Time is a construct and reality is layered. Author used foreshadowing well; things were predictable, but you still needed to read on.

idk I kinda like stories where all your starting questions are answered, but you're left with more unanswered questions at the end. Strong short story vibes here.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, and Toxic friendship

marciafelis's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

This book had a slow start in my opinion, and in the first half I almost grew tired of the constant hints at a larger mystery that never seemed to get any closer to resolving. Still, I was curious enough to power through and the second half made up for my temporary frustration, though I'm not sure whether I'm fond of the ending or not. Violet and Amber are both unreliable narrators, and it was interesting to see their accounts change over the course of the story, getting ever closer to what actually happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Bullying, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

thewoodlandbookshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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: Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Classism, Racism, and Police brutality

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Drug use, and Gore

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Self harm, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Body shaming, and Suicide

mongoosenamedt's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Murder

ollieshark's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

**this book contains descriptions of homicide, death fantasies, beatings, poisoning and vomiting, blood, violence, and mentions of rape, self-harm, and suicide. if you are sensitive to these themes, this may not be a good read for you.**

i went into this book mostly blind and was delightfully confused until everything started falling into place. i didn't expect to enjoy it as much as i did, but i did, and that's something.

i have some issues with the prose, mainly in how amber and violet's voices are exactly the same except one's a dancer and the other is a prisoner. their manner of speaking and word choice does not differ from each other, and the only thing preventing me from getting the two confused is that violet dances and amber is an inmate. did you forget violet is a dancer destined for julliard? she's dancing at julliard in a couple of weeks. i also didn't like how meandering the narration tended to be. several sections repeated the same sentence structure multiple times, mostly in memories, and i skipped those parts because all of those minute details are unnecessary. some, yes, but not more than three in one paragraph.

aside from that, i have no complaints with the novel. i enjoyed several aspects of it, including the fact that romance is not a major factor in this ya novel (shocking, i know). though there are boyfriends, they aren't central to the story and in fact are very minor characters. i also love how the novel doesn't sugarcoat the crimes committed. though there is some unreliability in the narration, the crimes committed in the novel are just as gruesome and gory as they would be in an r-rated film. i'm also a fan of the prison/juvenile detention center aspect, as none of the other ya novels i've read have even touched the concept of teens being violent in such a way. usually the teen protagonists just show mercy.

this was a great read, if violent and squicky at times. i don't recommend this book if you've had bad experiences with the content listed at the top, but it makes for a great read if you're into horror/ghost stories. a perfect spooky season read, if you ask me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Body shaming, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Addiction, Gore, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Self harm