Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez

9 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

rachiebears's review against another edition

As an indigenous woman who is Mexican & Diné, both my cultures have suffered a lot of trauma due to racism and colonization.

I was already having issues with the way some of the side characters were talking about the main female character.

I stopped reading once I read the N word with the hard R. As there are no trigger warnings on or in the book I was unprepared. The shock of the N word led me to investigate the author, why she felt like she could use the word, and the other contents of the book.

Unfortunately, I discovered this author is white. I cannot continue to read a book that continues to use black and brown bodies and voices to depict a fictional romance that contains real trauma that has happened, is currently happening, and will continue to happen. 

Living through MMIW2S+ and SA traumas through my own family I cannot stand by and finish this book knowing that she is profiting off black and brown traumas and stories.

But to those who read it and liked it, I hope it is a catalyst for you to fight racism, social injustices, and inequity.

Just know that this book isn’t not fantasy for many black and brown  people and communities, this book is an on going reality. Sundown towns still exist. Racism still exist. White patriarch and misogyny are heavily prevalent and affect us all negatively.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Racism, Child abuse, and Violence

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

mslaureeslibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Torture, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

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

craftyanty's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book is dark and emotional, not a light read.  The school explosion was a small, gruesome part of the story which brings on the climax. Instead, it focuses on many different social issues as they would've displayed in the 1930s Texas and includes LOTS of triggers.  At times, events seemed like they didn't quite fit in the same story, but it was compelling enough to keep me listening. The author's note helped make the parts that seemed unrealistic more understandable. 

I feel like I'm all over the place with this book...
It's not quite 4-star read for me but 3 stars don't feel like enough either.  Part of me feels like the author chose the perfect title for this book, while another part of me feels like that title offers too much hope. Readers will understand. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Sexual violence, Bullying, Violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: 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

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