Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchinson

51 reviews

criticalgayze's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I hate when a book successfully makes the case against DNFing.

Coming in at 504 pages, there's a lot of room in this YA tome for streamlining. A better editor would have talked Hutchinson into slimming this down by cutting down on the performances and the ruminating on abuse and the " white gay man reflects on how hard America has been for marginalized people" and the "is this thing that is definitely the plan the plan?" Then we could have had a really great 300 page novel.

I know this is asking a lot of the "too much to read" among us, but the back 30% contains the evidence of a really great novel waiting to be edited out. Once the thing that has obviously been the plan is officially revealed to be the plan, the novel kicks into high gear. The romance becomes achingly cute (see the bottom two quotes), the tension ramps up to WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN levels, and the inclusion of illusions becomes a really fun plot device.

To add a quick note on white men including greater inequality in their MM romances, I did find it troubling how much "America was really racist" plays into the novel, yet the story also exists in a world in which sodomy laws aren't a big deal with the moments at the end of the story in which the leads display fairly public displays of affection.
 
Quotes:
"'I was running because I didn’t want to be late,' Wil said. 'He was waiting for me and I said I would meet him. I was afraid I had taken too long, but then I saw Jack standing by the entrance to Cairo, and he smiled when he saw me as if it were his happiest day instead of my own.'" (52%)
“'Yes. Yes to today, yes to tomorrow, and yes to whatever comes after that.'” (76%)
"I think it must’ve been a person who’d wished for love but had never known it who’d created the first clock. Because time is a reminder of how quickly the present passes and how little of the future remains, and no one in love would want to know that." (76%)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Murder, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

halfi's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Racism

scorpioreads_'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent and Kidnapping

erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Oh my god I loved this so much :)
It was super cool and I loved the magic/historical fiction stuff going on, it was great.
Honestly I loved every single character in this book except for Teddy and George (Evangeline wasn’t great either but she was slightly better than they were and she was interesting) 
 Jack and Wil are adorable and every time one of them was in danger I was so scared, this was really really good I really loved it :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Physical abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Misogyny, Racism, and Vomit

jasminsbookshelf's review against another edition

hopeful fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, and Emotional abuse

nicsnovellife's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

flameoflareon's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a decent urban fantasy romance YA book, and I thought the depictions of various types of abusive relationships the protagonists are caught up in were realistic in a meaningful, if sometimes frustrating, way. And the romance between the two mains was sweet. But the ending was lackluster;

it was just exposition after exposition, so there wasn't any real tension. I get that explaining to the antagonist how you pulled off your plan is a common heist movie trope, but it wasn't adapted well to suit a book

. All in all, it's a decent story with room for improvement.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Racism and Murder

simixfe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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? No

4.75

The only thing I didn't love were the "inspirational" and "deep" quotes the author threw in at random

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Racism, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Alcohol and Death of parent

lessthelonely's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

4.25/5 stars.

Read my review here: https://lonelylesspage.wordpress.com/?p=699

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death, Confinement, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, Vomit, Torture, Sexism, and Racism

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

3.0

 Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this to review! Shaun David Hutchinson is probably one of my favorite YA authors, and I was super excited to dive into this historical fantasy.

Let’s start with the characters. One thing Hutchinson is always great at is writing characters that maybe you don’t always love, but you really enjoy reading about them. In this book, we get narration from both Jack and Wilhelm. Immediately, you feel for Wilhelm, who’s been trapped in this incredibly abusive relationship from the beginning. Jack is a bit more of a morally ambiguous character, but you can definitely tell that he has a good heart. The two of them have a lot of great chemistry, and they are what make this book worth it.

However, I think the pacing overall for this book is mostly what threw me off. At first, time passes incredibly quickly, skipping over weeks at a time. It slows down a bit in the middle, but for me, this made for a kind of odd reading experience. I think the book could have been shorter and the story still would have been just as effective.

There were also some moments with the narration that I was just taken out of the story. At times, it seems like maybe the narrators are talking directly to the reader, and at other times, it doesn’t. For example, there’s a moment toward the beginning when something is said in French, and then the narrator says it will be translated from then on. It was little details like that that took away from the overall story.

While this is a promising historical fantasy, it just fell a little bit flat to me. You never know what you’re going to get with a Hutchinson book, and this was definitely the case here. 
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I have mixed feelings about this one. The characters were great, but some of the plot and pacing felt off to me. More to come in a full review soon!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Racism and Sexism