Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

8 reviews

zoepagereader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

1.75

I haven’t been more confused about my feelings for a book and for the actual book itself in a long time. I can’t tell if it was meant to be a conspiracy book or just a magical realism book, but I feel as if that could have been easily cleared up if it had an authors note or at the very least was dystopian. And while I would have no interest in reading a sequel, a cliff hanger ending like that with no sequel is brutal. And one last thing, a 418 page book should not have 224 chapters. A chapter is more than half a page. I have strong opinions about that. I don’t even know what to rate this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexism, Body horror, Death of parent, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

elizakay's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault and Cursing

oliverreeds's review

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

the writing style in this book is impeccable, and the characters are incredibly believable. this author writes teenagers so well and knows how to breathe life into her narratives. her writing reminds of benjamin alire saenz specifically in the way that she weaves in her families ideas of the world in short chapters and guides her readers to view certain characters and certain issues in a productive way. these are the parts of this book that i greatly enjoyed, and i would not have guessed it was this authors first novel. sometimes, however, the dialogue and scenes would be split in odd places– almost like the author didn't know what she wanted to write. it was honestly distracting and annoying to have the scenes split up like this when they would have workd better as cohesive dialogue trains that moved from one person to the next and one topic to the next. the chapter breaks just weren't necessary. i also felt like this was two separate books. the first section is all about sia's life, her mother, her grief, and her relationships, and then like 200 pages in there are just... aliens? and the aliens aren't a spoiler because they're on the back of the book, but they aren't actually adressed for a while, which was just weird for me. this also made the climax of the book move incredibly quickly in a way that i don't think worked for this particular novel. the ending was so fast that i didn't feel like there was any resolution until

everything was kind of back to normal

. the only reason i rated this book so highly is because the author is just honestly incredible at writing. i was willing to deal with the weird plot just to know more about these characters, just to live in the mythology of sia's life and learn the way she sees the world. would i read this book again? probably not. am i glad i read it? yes. 100% because even though some of the metaphors were a little heavy-handed, i genuinely think this is a well-crafted book that provides SO much information and characterization of the hardships faced and culture cultivated by people of color even though our society likes to believe everyone is equal in the eyes of the law and that any culture other than that of white people is bland in comparison. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Racism, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

rosita's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

Minor: Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

rhguerrero's review

adventurous emotional sad medium-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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Murder, and Racism

bookowllover's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Blood, Cursing, and Kidnapping

stormywolf's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

  Though I planned to read this as one of the 25 Reads of December from RivetedLit, I actually missed the deadline for opening the book before the day was up, so I ended up picking this up from my library as both an e-book and an audiobook instead. This one caught my eye firstly from its gorgeous cover, and secondly due to its interesting premise which promised to blend immigration issues with aliens?! Bizarre? Maybe. But surely it had to be exciting, right?

 
 Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. I loved the slice-of-life narrative that dominated the first half of the story (with the romance, heritage, and social justice issues), but I just never bought into the Sci-Fi storyline that crashed into the second half. I honestly do think combining the issues of illegal aliens with space aliens was a clever idea, I just didn't find the execution of that combination to ever come together. I don't know if it was the breakneck speed of the story, the continual escalation of wtf moments one after the other, or simply my own cynical nature that made me refuse to suspend my disbelief, but I just couldn't reconcile that second half with the first. I still would recommend this to those who are looking for a YA book with a focus on Mexican-American traditions, immigration and racism struggles, and a romance that isn't afraid to deal with and work through trauma, but also enjoy huge twists and action-packed Sci-Fi. And who knows, maybe I'll come back to this one in the future and find the whole allegory works great the second time around. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Torture, and Police brutality

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Blood, Bullying, and Kidnapping

stormywolf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read by Inés del Castillo
 Unabridged Length: 8.2 Hours
 Listened at 1.5x Speed

 Read my full review at The Wolf's Den 
 
Overall, this was fine for those already familiar with the audiobook experience as a whole, but does pose some unique quirks that might dissuade some from trying it. The previously mentioned chapters pose one issue. Another concerns the language of the book. There are quite a few lines in Spanish that never receive a translation, so unless you're fluent or just unbothered (like I am), you might prefer a text version if you want to run any quick Google Translates. So unless you use audiobooks as your only/preferred option, maybe use a text version in tandem or instead of for this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Police brutality, Torture, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Cursing, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse