Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Man o' War by Cory McCarthy

7 reviews

garlinds's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual harassment, and Racism

Minor: Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship

mattyb's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Dysphoria, and Transphobia

Moderate: Mental illness, Drug use, Sexual content, Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Grief, Islamophobia, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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.

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

lettuce_read's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Self harm, Acephobia/Arophobia, Deadnaming, and Sexual harassment

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