Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Bruised

Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

serendipitysbooks's review

emotional 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

4.0

Bruised is a YA novel that follows Daya’s journey and grief following the sudden death of her parents. Unsurprisingly it is sometimes an uncomfortable emotional read, especially when Daya resorts to self-harm as a way to manage her feelings.

I loved the diversity in this book. Among the characters there is a range of ethnicities, genders, sexualities, abilities and ages. There are some unique quirky individuals and I love the warm, caring relationships that exist or develop among them. I thought the story was well paced and structured. The backstory that was interspersed provided some key details crucial to understanding Daya. I’ve long harboured a fascination with roller derby but have absolutely no interest in ever participating. I loved that this story let me learn more - from the safety of the page! Finally, I loved Daya’s story arc, the way she came to learn that one way to be strong is to be soft rather than hard.

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lddecker's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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sweetsandlo's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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sarah984's review

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emotional hopeful 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

3.0

This is a young adult novel about a young woman (the character is still in high school but she's 18) who joins a roller derby league while dealing with unresolved personal trauma.

Like a lot of other reviews, I was surprised how severe the self-harm content was, and how often it came up in the book. Daya is also extremely obnoxious for the first half of the novel as a self-defence mechanism. It's understandable but it does make parts of the book a slog to get through. The romance was fine but a little underwhelming. Daya obviously benefited but the love interest kind of felt like a prop. The storyline with Kat dragged on way too long and never really felt resolved.

I did like the parts about the derby itself and all its events. Daya’s friend Fee and most of her derby friends were fun characters. I think it's valuable as well to show a character who is still struggling with trauma despite a supportive environment, and I loved how kind and understanding Daya’s aunt and uncle were about her sexuality since you don't usually see that in novels about immigrant families.

The second half of the book was wonderful, but I'm rating it a bit lower for the rough first half. I would not recommend this book to anyone with a history of self-harm because the narrative dwells on it for so long but I would recommend it to anyone else.

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k_overt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

3.5

This book is a coming of age story of a teenager who just lost her parents, trying to find their identity and trying to navigate grief and growing pains. It was a good read. I like how they portrayed trauma and grief. I also appreciate how they portrayed people of color, the culture was subtile. By subtile I mean they are people living their life, and as a Black women I appreciate seeing all races being allowed to just live their life. I love how the characters were not cookie cutter or stereotypical. The only problem is the way the story wrapped up. I don’t like rushed character development, and I dont like rushed endings. And the ending left me wanting more from the main character. I kinda felt that change was kinda realistic , with all the baggage the character was dealing with I feel like I wanted to get to know the “new” main character more. What I mean by that is I wanted to see them in their new form. But maybe I should just be satisfied with the ending and come up with something inside my mind. Sometimes (unlike the MCU) books just end and that’s good thing. So if you like books with good laughs, embarrassing moments, lovable characters, many diverse characters(including poc and LGBTQ+), heartfelt moments, Great characters growth. Then this is the book for you enjoy.

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