Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

20 reviews

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

gbeanie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, and Bullying

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, and Drug use

Minor: Self harm and Child abuse

veskumelooni's review

challenging emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment

greta_reads's review

dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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

2.5

(sorry, english isn’t my first language) Wow. I really did not know what to rate this book. Because throughout most of it I really, really hated it. But I did not dislike it because of the way it was written or the story itself, but purely because of the fact that it had me in such a depressed and tense mood. The style that the story was written in wasn’t my favorite, but it felt authentic, even though I found it very hard to love the characters even if they were very relatable in part. So overall I‘m very torn, weather to recommend this book or not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Bullying, Dementia, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

bwch13's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Bullying, Violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Abandonment, Dementia, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

louisallama's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.0

In theory this sounds like the kind of book I'd eat right up but unfortunately it wasn't. My two main issues are that I didn't connect with the characters, and that I wasn't satisfied with the way the book handled the world ending in 144 days. This book was by no means bad, it just wasn't for me. 
I think I found it very hard to connect with Henry is because the book felt quite juvenile. Usually I'm fine with YA but for whatever reason it really didn't work for me this time. I'm not sure why but I was just completely uninvested in Henry's life and emotions. He has multiple very big and real problems that are poinient even to adults, and yet he never got past feeling like a whiny teenager to me. 
The other problem is that there are a whole slew of deep, existential questions that could come of finding out that aliens have given you the choice to stop the world from ending in 144 days and this book explores basically none of them. I understand that it was more used as a vehicle for Henry deciding whether he wanted to live, without the trauma of making an actively suicidal main character for the whole book, but he ends up being very blasé about it. The closest we got to Henry asking these questions of himself, was him asking the extremely obvious, "am I going to push the button" throughout the book, as well as asking every character what they would do if they knew the world was going to end but they could stop it, both of which are resolved every time within a paragraph or two. I would think that this is something that I would agonise over, especially if I wasn't fully swayed one direction or the other. And while Henry's life truly is a steaming pile of garbage, linking this back with not feeling connected to him, I never actually felt like he was suicidal at any point, or ever had any conviction to press or not press the button.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Dementia, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Bullying, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Miscarriage, Cursing, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

sppixie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

It's really difficult to listen to the main character's inner thoughts and dialogue. He is sometimes logical, sometimes jumps to conclusions, sometimes totally irrational, etc. Perhaps this was intended to get into the mind of a character his age; however, I found it really annoying and was prone to whiplash.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Dementia, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Classism, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Child death

Minor: Outing, Miscarriage, Addiction, Self harm, and Vomit

aspen_suxs's review

challenging emotional funny 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: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Abandonment, Self harm, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, and Miscarriage

starryophonic's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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: Kidnapping, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Death, Homophobia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Dementia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Bullying, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Alcohol, Violence, and Miscarriage

Minor: Torture, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail