Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

Man o' War by Cory McCarthy

8 reviews

tinytrashqueen's review

challenging 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Biphobia, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

niararain's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Vomit, Dysphoria, Xenophobia, Racism, Outing, Sexual assault, Self harm, Biphobia, Sexual content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Acephobia/Arophobia, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Medical content, Body horror, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

lynnlovegreen's review

emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

Man O’War by Cory McCarthy is the newest edition to my favorite book list! River McIntyre is drawn to the Sea Planet theme park. When they meet a happy queer person there, they start a journey through gender dysphoria to self-acceptance and true love. Heart-wrenching at times, hysterically funny at others, you’ll be glad you joined River on their coming-of-age trip. 

 

Thanks to McCarthy for writing such a brilliant, life-giving book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Biphobia, Dysphoria, Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Homophobia

It sounds dark, but this book is life-affirming overall.

courtneyclouts's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Deadnaming

kayladaila's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Biphobia, Bullying, Acephobia/Arophobia, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Outing, Pregnancy, Racism, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Hate crime, Eating disorder, and Medical content

caseythereader's review

dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

 - Oh my goodness, this book. MAN O' WAR is one of those very special books that only comes along every few years. It is full of feelings: intensity, confusion, attraction, hate, love.
- I love the depiction here of River coming out as lesbian and then realizing that label doesn't quite fit, and starting over again.
- I also appreciated the way this book shows how sometimes a family isn't understanding or supportive of queerness, but also doesn't kick their child out. I feel like teen coming out stories are often binary: a fully supporting family or immediate disownment, when realities are often messier than that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Islamophobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Alcohol, Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia

Moderate: Pregnancy and Drug use

melaniereadsbooks's review

challenging emotional reflective fast-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

5.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book.

River is like a man-o-war: trapped in a tank they can't survive in, accidentally stings.  They are on the swim team and loving the water, but have extreme body dysphoria and are struggling to survive. When they cross paths with Indy, River is able to see parts of themself they've never noticed before.

This book is an absolutely amazing exploration about discovering who you are and the pain and trauma it can cause when you don't feel like you fit. River is such a complex character--they're vicious and soft and hating and loving. I feel like River's character really shows the way people can change as they grow and understand themselves more.

Some of the moments with River's mom and coach really hurt to read about. They have some toxic people in their life, but also some amazing people that really help them through.

I adooooooore the relationship arc in this book. Cory does such a great job of writing a relationship that is so many different things and showing the way people can grow next to each other and apart. It shows the way someone else can hold a mirror up so you can really understand yourself better, but be able to form that way on your own. It is... poignant, and heart-breaking, and I loved it.

This book does time jumps which I usually don't like, but I didn't have a problem with it here. I thought it did such a good job representing the dysphoria that River goes through and hitting on the important things but still moving the story along. What I was nervous about at first ended up being a great narrative tool that made the story that much better.

I love love love this book and hope you all get it when it comes out in May.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Transphobia, and Biphobia

Moderate: Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Deadnaming, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Outing

Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content

foreverinastory's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

After reading their spouse's book The Heartbreak Bakery I thought there couldn't be another book that would speak to my own tangled relationship with gender identity and then I read this book. I am in tears up to my soul after reading this. I am in pieces but so full of love and hope for the future. I didn't know how much I needed this book.

I haven't completely read all of Cory's backlog, but I know without a doubt that this is their best work yet. Man O'War is full of reflection and questioning. It was not an easy book, but it was one I desperately needed. I'll be singing it's praises all through next year. I loved River's character and their journey into queer identity. There's no single one way to be queer and that point is made many times in this book. We see River, Indy and other characters grow. They change and make mistakes, but they're continuing to learn the whole time.

This review isn't going to be completely coherent because I am still INCREDIBLY emotional about this book. I loved it so much and I truly don't have enough words to tell y'all about it. Books like these are the reason I read contemporary books. This was everything. I can't wait to physically have this book in my hands and cry over it.

Rep: questioning pansexual nonbinary white presenting Lebanese-Irish MC with anxiety and depression, bisexual agender love interest, Lebanese-Irish asexual male side character, Asian lesbian female side character in a WLW relationship, white lesbian female side character, Black cishet male side character, white queer demiboy side character, trans male side character, achillean BIPOC side character.

CWs: Acephobia/acemisia, alcohol consumption, biphobia/bimisia, bullying, deadnaming/misgendering, dysphoria, homophobia/homomisia, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, mental illness (anxiety and depression), outing, transphobia/transmisia. Brief: sexual content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcohol, Biphobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Outing, and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual content