Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

67 reviews

rocketdea's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse, Self harm, and Miscarriage

alienexpert's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

An interesting read contemplating mortality and what drives us to stay alive. It held my attention well and I found the formatting of journal entries with theories about the end of the world every couple of ‘chapters’ to be very fluid and helped framing the timeline. I would say there were a few parts that did feel more YA aligned, but nothing that led to me being disengaged with the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Bullying, Death, and Gaslighting

lilcurious's review against another edition

2.5

Very sad gay teenagers. Heartwarming despite everything. Badly integrated anecdotes from a future/parallel reality. Overall forgettable. (Check TWs, some heavy stuff)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Self harm, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Homophobia

liamray's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

I love this book so much. It's a beautiful mix of sci-fi and the emotional journey of Henry leading up to the end of the world. It's one of those books that changes you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Suicide

Minor: Miscarriage

sweetnklo's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

This book was poignant and difficult for me to get through at times because it was so painful. But I do think it was well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Homophobia, Rape, and Violence

fishindices's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Homophobia

hycintho's review

medium-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

2.75

Angst coming of age with sprinkle of sci fi in a contemporary way. I guess I'm over the angtsy rebel phase and got frustrated by the main's pessimistic outtake. But I guess that says a lot about me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

makenna__'s review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Great read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Sexual content

aubreymichelle's review

emotional 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

I knew from the beginning it would make me cry, and it definitely did. This book made me cry and then laugh and then cry some more. It made me think about everything. The characters are relatable (especially for those going through hard times) and loveable as well. The author did an excellent job at showing Henry's character growth, as well as the characters around him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Violence

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Sexual violence

kascjam's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

The main reason I rate this book so poorly is because of the way it was presented to me. At my local library, it was on a shelf titled "Books that will give you hope". I thought to myself, damn, I could use some of that right now. And the title stuck out to me, as well as the blurb, so I checked it out.
 
I finished this book in roughly a day and a half. Not because I was so enamored by the story or anything, but because it was genuinely so depressing I had to know if there was some shred of hope that might be presented in the end. I cried more times than I could count, which. I guess that counts for something. Points for evocative writing, I guess?
 
But um, seriously, any depressing thing you can imagine happening to someone, it happens in this book. I'm not even joking. At some point I thought to myself, Jesus Christ. Well, at least it can't get any worse, right? And then it got worse.
 

Additionally, the scene towards the end with the rich closeted kid attempting to sexually assault Henry felt extremely unnecessary. Like, it's not out of character for the rich kid (I forgot his name) to react terribly and do something crazy, but, I mean. Come on. It was the one thing that I was like, well, at least they didn't go there. And then it did go there.
 
And the ending? I'm still mad about it. I know the message it that like, the future is uncertain but we should appreciate what we have now, but what a letdown. Granted, as I mentioned before, I was reading this expecting something more inspiring than...whatever that was. But still. So much is still left unanswered -- and this book is somehow like four hundred pages! 

Not to beat a dead horse here, but also, why the hell were there randomly scenarios in which the world ends just peppered in throughout the book? (Rhetorical question; I know why.) It was already sad, and it didn't add anything to the story, in my opinion, save for making me break down more than already was. And yes, I probably should have just taken the L and put the book down at some point, but I was so invested and certain the ending would be worth it that I couldn't get myself to.

 

Maybe under different circumstances, I would've enjoyed this book. I did like the overall concept, to be fair; it was just incredibly depressing for, as far as I could tell, no real reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Self harm, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Rape, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage