videosnyper's reviews
11 reviews

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

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emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

Content Warnings

Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

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medium-paced

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

1.0

Completely devoid of anything remarkable or thought-provoking. Give a Boy a Gun is basically just a make-your-own-school-shooting exercise without any desire to flesh out the characters or world in any way. The use of interview excerpts from the witnesses and shooters' family members as a way of establishing how the shooters were perceived by others sounds clever on paper, but the result is miserably boring and leaves you feeling absolutely nothing for any of the characters. The inclusion of real-life journalistic excerpts from real-life shootings in the footnotes alongside Strassers narrative was likely an attempt to tie the book to reality, but it was just extremely distracting. I can't recommend this to anyone, really. There's not a single redeeming thing about it that I can think of at the moment. It tries way to hard to be an engrossing narrative yet educational at the same time and it all comes of as extremely condescending.

Parkland by Dave Cullen

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medium-paced

3.0

Dave Cullen's journalistic skills shine far brighter in Parkland: Birth of a Movement than in Columbine. My biggest gripe about Columbine was that Cullen attempted to juggle far too many aspects of the story at the same time, resulting in some shoddy sourcing (particularly in discussion of the shooters lives and personalities) and overall questionable decisions in the writing process. Parkland, however, is a straightforward and engrossing story from beginning to end. It's fast-paced yet informative at the same time, though the writing style can be somewhat dry. You would have to read more books on the topic in order to get a truly comprehensive understanding of the MSD shooting and March For Our Lives, but Cullen has created a great introductory reading to the topic.

Monday Redux by Robert Favole

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adventurous fast-paced

3.0

An interesting take on heroism and responsibility from the point of view of a teenage boy. It doesn't do anything revolutionary, and the plot is quite predictable at times, but it's still quite a fun read. I recommend it if you're in the mood for a more niche read with some coming-of-age themes.

Content Warnings