Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

17 reviews

mimamia's review

dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Bullying, Grief, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Car accident, Child death, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Miscarriage

malise's review

emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

This book was an intense read. I felt all the emotions and could not put the book down. The subject of a school shooting was handled thoughtfully and delicately by the author, giving the perspective of the young shooter, his family, and victims.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Bullying, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, and Blood

Minor: Drug use, Mental illness, Body shaming, Car accident, and Alcohol

starburns's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Homophobia and Suicidal thoughts

jenniferbbookdragon's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Powerful and surprising,  with a twist at the end. Picoult takes us into a school shooting,  the events leading up to it and the aftermath. This brought up a lot of feelings about bullying,  parenting,  education,  and guns in a way that defies the politics and focuses on people. There are no winners,  only survivors,  and a community forever scarred and changed. The equal focus on the high schoolers, parents, police, and lawyers highlighted the humanity of all the characters and reminded me that we all contribute to the environment that creates tragedy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Mass/school shootings, Homophobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Grief

The main focus is a school shooting with bullying over 10 years.

nicole_cob_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide attempt, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore

gabigabful's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence and Domestic abuse

cultbyproxy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

“Something still exists as long as there’s someone around to remember it.”

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult tells the story of a beaten down 17-year-old and the 19 minutes which change the reality of his entire community as he went through his highschool, shooting fellow classmates. 

An aspect of Picoult’s writing that is ever present is her multiple narration, which we see through the process of the school shooting, investigation, and trial. Whilst this is usually done in a more cohesive manner in her later books, this made the reading of Nineteen Minutes quite chaotic, with no definitive switch in narration. This was made more confusing in the never-ending list of characters who were introduced, only to never resurface. As much as this was a negative, it did help in outlining just how broad of a scope the impact of school shootings have on the students, the parents, the community and the country at large; how no one is untouched and the grief divides but also unites people eternally. Picoult’s nonlinear timeline also makes an appearance, as we jump between a pre-shooting and post-shooting society, putting the pieces of the story together leading up to the shooting, as well as the trial (like solving a mystery, or trying fixing something broken?). 

There is mass criticism into Picoult’s writing style, as having the shooter’s perspective and reading his thought process and justifications can come off as sympathetic or defensive of his position and actions. I believe, however, that this was simply a way of portraying the sea of nuance that divides such a polarising issue. That in the aftermath of tragedy, there are those who will look at impact and those who will look at reasoning, and both can bring closure. 

As much as I blitzed through these pages and got completely engrossed in the story, I do find that other Picoult novels were more impactful for me. This could, however, be due to the lack of personal experience I have with the subject matter growing up in a country that does not experience mass shootings, much less school shootings. 

I did find a lot of relatability in the issues of conformity and the pressure to maintain appearances in positions of authority. The removal of the masks we all wear and how beneath them we are all simply people trying to do our best. And how to continue loving someone who has caused harm to so many. I think it is a story about kindness, to other and ourselves. And how the smallest acts usually have an everlasting effect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Abortion, Bullying, Blood, Murder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Car accident, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

nadia_luq's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Death, and Miscarriage

phantomgecko's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

There's a lot in this novel. Because it tackles the issue from multiple perspectives, the nuance is appreciated. I could write an essay about bullying here, but suffice it to say that bullying is a problem without an easy solution, and the book really really explores that. An exchange between a lawyer and the principal really nailed it with these back-to-back (paraphrased) sentences.

Bullying is not tolerated at this school / Disciplining the bullies makes things worse

Moving on, the characters felt real. Peter was neither a monster nor a simple victim but a fleshed out teenager. His mother wasn't a perfect mother nor a failure but someone trying her best and making a lot of mistakes. Tbh, these are the only characters that I really empathized with. But that's not to say that the many other characters weren't also three dimensional.

idk, I won't read this book again, but I wouldn't deter anyone else from reading it. It's upsetting but the message is important, poignant and more realistic than other books I've read about school shootings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Miscarriage, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

juleskr02's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.25

this novel. i was very excited to read, as this was the first book that was suggested to me when i started my jodi grind, and man it did not disappoint. 

i was a little wary at first because it was third person narration, and i wasn’t sure if it was going to be clear to follow with that plus the time jumps each chapter. but i was pleasantly surprised. i actually loved the formatting of narration and storytelling. 

that plot twist. woah. i predicted half of it but still was so shocked with the half i didn’t predict. this story was crazy and maybe an unpopular opinion, but i was really rooting for peter. i know i shouldn’t have but i felt really bad for him. 

i wish i saw more in terms of certain side plots, and i didn’t love how the story ended, so my rating lost a star. but overall, i quite enjoyed reading it, and found myself on the edge of my seat for big chunks. i want to own this book so badly and annotate the heck out of it because that’s how much i enjoyed it. brava miss picoult!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Child death, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Pregnancy