Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Δάκρυα Ξυράφι by S.A. Cosby

50 reviews

tenten's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

Razorblade Tears was a fun, fast-paced book about two Southern fathers, Ike and Buddy Lee, avenging the death of their sons, Isiah and Derek. The fathers, one Black and one white, are not only dealing with grief, but also regret for the strained relationships they had with their gay sons. this regret is the driving force in their quest for vengeance: they feel that they failed as fathers so they’re finally doing right by their sons by embarking on this mission. 

this novel was really absurd! like, these two middle aged men

took out a biker gang and two powerful political figures?

lol. okay. sure! i enjoyed this though–i didn’t pick up this book to be confronted with reality, and this provided exactly what i needed from it. the writing was good enough, though there were some sentences that i felt were really cliche. relatedly, Ike’s constant lecturing of Buddy Lee about racism sometimes felt out of place and a little, like…would anyone really say this in this situation? be forrea;. speaking of Ike, between the two protagonists, i think he experienced the most character growth especially in terms of being able to be more accepting of LGBTQ+ people, but i think part of that was because Buddy Lee was already more accepting to begin with. he obviously made his mistakes with his son, some huge ones, but on the whole seemed less….disgusted by queerness than Ike did. he’s ignorant in a way that is harmful at times, but generally is more easy-going and chill than Ike. and funnier. honestly, if you asked me before i started the book, i never would have guessed that i’d find the white dad more likable. he was just more fun!
everything really pops off in the last 100 or so pages. the identity of the person behind it all felt somewhat contrived to me, but the benefit of a more plot-oriented novel is that sometimes you can sacrifice realism for the sake of a good story. and this book certainly delivered on that front! there were parts when i got real life heated about the characters’ actions. that’s how you know a story is good, when it can get a real rise out of you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Murder, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Classism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs

noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Grab your tissues 😭

Content Warnings: Racism, homophobia, transphobia, violence, gun violence, blood/gore, murder, hate crimes, racial slurs, grief, loss of a child, alcoholism, deadnaming, classism,

This book was an emotional journey as two homophobic fathers attempt to find out exactly what happened to their sons and avenge them.

The journey of them learning from their hateful history and opening their minds to accepting people for who they are, not who they love...well I'm an emotional mess now.

Beautifully written I'll definitely be checking out more of this authors work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, Transphobia, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Hate crime, Child death, Addiction, and Classism

taylor13's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Cancer, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Infidelity, Gore, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Violence, Gun violence, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Torture, Cursing, Murder, and Racial slurs

kaseymkelley's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Blood, Grief, Death, Deadnaming, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Transphobia

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t love the writing style (some strange pov flip flopping), and some of the decisions characters made didn’t make any sense, but overall it was a great action-packed revenge story with a nice character redemption arc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Murder, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Transphobia, Car accident, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Deadnaming, Sexism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, and Outing

leosthetics's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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: Gore, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Murder, Death, Alcohol, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Blood

jmboff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Drug use, Racial slurs, Violence, Cursing, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Child death, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Terminal illness, Murder, Racism, Addiction, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcoholism, and Blood

sarah984's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like this novel about two ex-cons who team up to avenge their sons' murder but I just found it silly and kind of cheesy. Aside from the leads all of the characters felt like caricatures (the "anarchists" were genuinely embarrassing to read, I can't believe that made it to print) and the dialogue could get as preachy and didactic as the worst YA novels. Felt like a long unironic version of the "I love my dead gay son" monologue from Heathers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Gore, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Classism, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical content, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Car accident, Excrement, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Minor: Outing, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, and Deadnaming

amanduhhhpls's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Wow. I have not read a thriller this challenging in my whole life.

This is action-packed in the most brutal way, and there is a lot of violence depicted on page, both physical and against peoples identities. Check your trigger warnings, but if you can look past that there is an amazing story here.

While I can’t say I found any of these characters redeemable, I did find them realistic and this story of revenge forces the reader to focus on the parts of humanity that are uncomfortable and hard to swallow. These fathers have horrible opinions and have done horrible things, but they are attempting to move towards understanding for their sons in the wake of their grief, and that unfortunately is a common story.

This book did everything it set out to do, and I only knocked it a half star because it was incredibly hard to read with the violence, homophobia, and racism on page. Again, be sure to check trigger warnings for this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Hate crime, Racism, Racial slurs, Death, Blood, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Cursing, Deadnaming, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer