Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

10 reviews

iannec's review against another edition

This content is definitely not for a ya audience and while I understand the need to be real about history this story filled me with despair. I know not everything is sunshine and daises, history often isn't, but this seemed to be improperly handled.

It was also very graphic without warning. I've read other books that handled this topic in a way that does not make light of the situation or shy away from the realities of it, but they also did not provide crude play by plays. This seems as though it was done rather brash for the sake of making it "more real," but I don't think it actually did that. 

Many an author have written very real, raw, honest, heart-wrenching stories about horrific things without it feeling like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gun violence, Child abuse, Racism, Death of parent, Hate crime, and Sexual content

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

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.5

So many dimensions of fucked up. This author is excellent at capturing emotion

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Rape, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Toxic friendship, Racism, Grief, Gore, Blood, Incest, Sexual assault, Torture, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Cursing, Sexism, Death of parent, Violence, Vomit, Hate crime, Child death, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Bullying, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Slavery

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

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

schausjk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I read this book for Banned Books Week because it was the #4 most challenged book of 2021. The book itself tackles a lot of tough issues, but who picks up a book about a school explosion expecting it to be light? That being said, the author did a good job of mixing in moments of joy amidst the characters' terrible situations. The pacing itself was too slow for me, and I did put this book down for an extended period of time because of that, but now that I've finished it I do think that elements of this story really are going to stick with me going forward.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Racism, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Hate crime, and Child abuse

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Murder, Child death, Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism

Minor: Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

A school explodes due to a gas leak

bookish_teacher23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Child death

katy_alice's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gun violence

greeneyedrobin's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Murder, Racism, Violence, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Bullying, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

raethereviewer's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I read this for my young adult fiction class. It wasn't an enjoyable reading experience for me and I'm just going to list out some of my general thoughts about the novel:

It feels weird classifying this as young adult, especially with some of the explicit content. I honestly don't think this would be good for anyone under 16.

I don't think I've ever hated a fictional character as much as I hate Henry.

This book had no business being this long. It honestly dragged for most of the novel and if I didn't have to write a paper on it for class, I simply wouldn't have finished it.

Things started to get interesting in that last section. Still hated it though.

There was so much trauma for trauma sake in this novel. I get that it's historical fiction. I get that it tackles tough issues. But there has to be a limit, right?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racism, Child abuse, Child death, and Murder