Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

11 reviews

leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Alcohol, Child death, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Vomit

thekristinashow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is the second book I’ve read in my lifetime (so far) that has absolutely broken my heart into a bazillion pieces. 

I decided to read Out of Darkness as my February pick focused on reading 12 banned books this year, and I’m literally sitting here sobbing and speechless. 

This book is set in the 1930s in East Texas, and the storyline grapples with a lot of deep topics: racism, forbidden love, sexual abuse, physical abuse, school explosion, and more. 

I was completely enamored by the more lovable main characters - Wash, Naomi, Cari, Beto, and the nice supporting characters. But if you’re looking for a warm and fuzzy story, this ain’t it. 

However, if you’re looking for a powerful, layered story that sheds a light on some deep topics - this is it. Just grab your tissue box too. 

TW: all the trigger warnings…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Physical abuse, Rape, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Death, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Racism, and Sexual violence

obsidianchainsaw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this was a throughly engrossing read. with a background based on real occurrences, but overall fictional, the author tells a heart tending tale of love and loss. i enjoy how skillfully she gave us multiple pov that all felt distinct and equally important to creating the larger narrative. even though it was a difficult read at times due to the subject matter, the handling of it was exceptional and nothing felt gratuitous or like it was trying for shocking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Vomit, Infertility, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Xenophobia and Cursing

rhiannon814r's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Classism, Death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Incest, Rape, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexism, Alcohol, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Abandonment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Animal cruelty

aquamarinecadet's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

If you think you can stomach it, read it.

It's a horrible read, as many others have already pointed out, but I believe that the only way to bring stories like these, that tell of such gruesome, infuriating injustices, to light, to bring them Out of Darkness, is to read them. 
To carry with oneself all of the stories that have stayed in the dark for so long, in order to finally give them a voice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Grief, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Child death, Religious bigotry, Blood, Bullying, Hate crime, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs

bridgetlovesbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book is not for me. I appreciate that the author wanted to bring to light the horrific racism, sexism and abuse prevalent in the setting, but it was incredibly hard to read. So much darkness and no light. PLEASE check trigger warnings before picking this one up. It’s got them all, including graphic sexual assault descriptions, racist language, death, murder, guns, discrimination, assault, and more. Spoiler alert, they do not get out of the darkness. It’s all darkness. No light, no hope. The best thing I can say is

that the cat didn’t die (even though there were MULTIPLE graphic descriptions of threats against the cat. < /spoiler> I do not recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Abandonment, Rape, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Murder, Animal death, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Miscarriage

Minor: Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Death of parent

bkmckown's review against another edition

4.0

This book was full of heartbreak after heartbreak. Living in Texas, I have heard about the New London school explosion but this book gave it a face. It also showed how terrible the racism was at the time. Many times we forget how far we’ve come so this is a great reminder so we never get back there again. While it didn’t have a completely happy ending wrapped with a bow, it stayed true to the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Child death, and Adult/minor relationship

lauren_rebecca's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Violence, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Child death, Bullying, and Death of parent

cass_lit's review against another edition

2.25

 am sorry, I know this is a beloved, well accoladed story but I could not get behind this. I absolutely understand the importance of looking at history and dark things because it is real and we have to address it so we can keep it from continuing.  And I’m not Mexican or Black so I’m not the one to listen to on this topic.  As much as I didn’t enjoy this book — I do not think it should be banned from schools. I’m only able to read and review this and think critically about it because I had open access to as many books as I wanted. 

The rest of this will contain spoilers because I don’t think it’s right for anyone to go into this not knowing, especially since it’s marketed at teens. 

This felt like trauma porn. Again, I know these things all really happened and it’s very privileged of me as a white woman in 2022 to say I didn’t enjoy reading about what a Mexican girl in 1937 went through. But this was one thing after another — she (a child) was sexually abused by her step father, she (a child) was raped by her step father, she (a child) was told by everyone in her town (including the pastor AND HER GRANDMOTHER) to marry her step father and be the step mother to her two half-siblings.  We were given the step father’s POV of him having extremely inappropriate thoughts about his step daughter (a child). We were given the POV of “the Gang,” who had not only VERY racist thoughts about Naomi, but also discussed wanting to rape her. There was stereotypical bullying, and then there was the much worse bullying because it was racist. There were even side stories of the lynching of Black men told I think as a warning because our main couple is interracial and the reader is supposed to remember that they couldn’t be together even if they ran away from all of the other bad stuff, but is never again addressed. There’s an explosion at the (white) kid’s school and instead of coming together in the face of a tragedy, there’s racism against a Black child. And a much less important issue, but the girl twin was a B R A T to Naomi, so

honestly I felt less bad about her dying than I would have it had been Naomi it Beto. That’s terrible to say, but we’d never once gotten her POV and I was numb by all the other terrible things by that point anyway.

  There were also a lot of derogatory terms used for Black people in this, which makes me uncomfortable when they’re not written by a Black author. 

It is one thing to read about history so it doesn’t repeat itself. It’s one thing to read about abuse and rape so that people (victims and survivors, not the bad guys) can find themselves in those stories or the writers can tell their stories for people to hear. Maybe for the intended, younger readers this will be helpful in understanding racism and classism and consent. I wasn’t that reader. The author’s note said she tried to balance all of these horrors with violence and connection, but I *personally* didn’t think they were at all equal. I appreciate and applaud the author’s strive to tell marginalized stories, but this one just wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia