Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

21 reviews

caseythereader's review

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, Grief, Alcohol, Murder, Child death, Classism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

mittens_10's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad 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

3.5

I liked the book, and I read it in two days, just didn't find anything super duper original about it, and the writing letters to MLK Jr wasn't as big an aspect as I thought it would be. Would definitely recommend reading it though, was still an amazing read. Really made me think.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcohol, Child death, Violence, Cursing, Death, Grief, and Police brutality

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

solnit_and_sebastian's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

Stone's debut is a poignant and powerful YA novel told from the perspective of a Black teenager navigating his senior year of high school. The reader will witness the microaggressions and overt aggressions faced by Justyce and some of his friends as he questions his own identity, biases, and purpose. This novel has important points to make about privilege, profiling, and race in modern America, and deftly weaves these themes into the gripping narrative. The dialogue was enchanting, and the characters were fun to spend time with. I can't wait to read more of Nic Stone's work!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Grief, Hate crime, Child death, Police brutality, Murder, and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, Gun violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Violence, Domestic abuse, Slavery, and Vomit

blombern's review

challenging sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Murder, Violence, Hate crime, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Antisemitism, Grief, and Gun violence

saara_ilona_muu's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.0

The book probably needed another 50 pages, just to try to make the story and the ending make more sense, and not just cut off how it did. 

I don't want to give any spoilers, but I will say that though it was a very tough read, I loved the first 3/4 of the book. Then things just got to the point where I had too many questions about how things were turning out. Like ... when he's surrounded by so many rich people, why weren't they able to hire a better lawyer and get him some coaching... and why was a kid who was so good at debate able to be painted into a corner so thoroughly, and then with all of the character assassination, why was he just able to head north for school anyway with no repercussions in that corner? Just messy.

Despite all of that, the book was still worth reading and gave me a lot to think about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Murder, Gun violence, Racism, Grief, Police brutality, Violence, Death, Alcohol, Bullying, and Racial slurs

paulabekkerus's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Gun violence, Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Blood, and Child death

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

criticalgayze's review

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.5

I want to be up front that Dear Martin was a pick for a grad school class, so I had to finish this book; otherwise, I would've DNFed and left it without much of a review.

Because I finished this, and especially because it was for a class on reading and evaluating texts when planning high school curricula, I did want to get into it a little bit.

My greatest issue with this book is that it lacks nuance. It is an introspectionless tour of all the trauma Black people, especially Black male teens, can face in this country. Justyce is put through trauma after trauma without processing any of it, both internal or on a larger social scale. I think this is exasperated by a poor editorial decision not to put this one entirely in first-person narrative. This lack of introspection is extra weird when given all of Justyce's avenues for exploration: he's in the prep school progressive "Societal Evolutions" class, he's on the debate team, AND his best friend's mom is a mental health care specialist. All of this leads me to believe the lack of reflective pieces was likely also a poor editorial call to slim down the narrative to be "intense" or something.

Oh, and these boys are also gross about girls. Listen, I get the possible over-sexualization of young people and the hormones and the wealth and class patriarchal elements and the whatever else of it all, but as an educator, I don't hear young boys talking like this about girls to this extent. And, even if they are, you would think a book by an adult, especially a femme author, would want to portray at least one of these male characters as progressive on this front. It's some nausea-inducing that one of the last lines of the book is the main character talking about how his girlfriend is going to "have [his] babies," which caused this one to end on a bitter note for me.

In the book's favor, the tight, "action-filled" plot is propulsive, and the book's middle was successful at pulling on my heart strings, but it still wasn't enough to redeem this one for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Racism, Police brutality, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Violence, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

kathis_wonderland's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

Dear Martin by Nic Stone is about Justyce, who is unjustly handcuffed by a white cop. From this day on, he realizes that even though he goes to a good school, he can't escape racism and injustices. He starts to study the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to see if he can somehow apply his doings in his own life. But more bad things happen and people are murdered.
 
I wanted to read this book for a very long time. It reminded me of THUG but was different in so many aspects as well. What BIPoCs have to face every single day is devastating and a crime. No human being should be discriminated. No matter what. Reading books like this break my heart on so many levels. But is important to get this reality out there more. I learn something new every time I read a book. And I learn even more when it is about a topic that I am personally not affected by. This book helped me to broaden my horizon even more and to keep on calling out racist people and content.
 
I really liked the concept of the journal that Justyce writes. He is trying to apply concepts to his own life, which is good for learning. The entries give a great insight into Justyce's life and how he is thinking about the world. Jared is one character I absolutely hated! He talked about reverse racism and how he was the one being discriminated. He only saw his mistakes towards the end as he realized that ALL BIPoCs experience racism, even when they are the "good" BIPoCs. Even though the second half of the book was really heartbreaking and unjust, I liked how the book ended. It showed that people can change. Beliefs can change. But you have to be willing to open your eyes and listen to the experiences of people and believe them!
 
This book gives a strong message to its readers. The story is heartbreaking and shows perfectly that America has a problem with gun violence and racism (but that is also a problem for all of the world). I can highly recommend it to everyone! Really liked it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Blood, Bullying, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism

tetetaeskz's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Death, Murder, Bullying, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail