Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Any Second by Kevin Emerson

1 review

kaidoz's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

3.25

The main characters were definitely likeable. They had their issues- a lot of them, in fact - but it just made the story better. As for literally every other character in the book? All annoying, except for maybe the cops who had names but didn’t really do anything besides be side characters. The story itself is good, but at some points I could just tell that a man was writing a teenage girl. The way that two queer girls were both bisexual and one of them insinuated wanting a foursome with two men, or how the main character’s girlfriend was just acting so much like how a teenage boy would when she quite literally wasn’t one kind of irked me. Maybe it was just a feeling, but it weirded me out. Other than that, the story is great. It did a good job at displaying mental illness and inner turmoil. I really enjoyed the plot and where it went. Even though

the ending wasn’t completely satisfying, aka tying up every loose end

I still found it acceptable. I also liked how

the author didn’t force a relationship between two very damaged characters, despite it being mentioned a bit.

I didn’t feel the need for another chapter or anything. Over all, I liked it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Gore, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Excrement, Fatphobia, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

Okay, there’s a lot to get into with this book. The main characters are both recovering from a trauma they experienced. The trauma is one of them attempting to bomb a mall for his kidnapper (this is written in the summary, so no spoilers). Since mass bombing, a subject frequently mentioned in this book, is not an available tag, I tagged it as mass shooting. Mass shootings themselves are also briefly mentioned at one point. The main female character has trichotillomania, dermatillomania, anxiety disorder and PTSD, so there are multiple scenes where she is seen ripping out hair, picking the skin off of her fingers, or having panic attacks. The main male character has intrusive thoughts which represent his captor. This paragraph will be talking about spoilers related to the adult/minor, child abuse, kidnapping, rape, animal, and psychosis tags.

It is revealed within the story that Eli, the male lead, was kidnapped at 11 and brainwashed by a man who believed they should rid the world of the consumers and sheep. He was also very religious. The man raped him and made him kill animals. Eli also believed that his captor had kidnapped his sister and killed his mother, and said he could hear his captor raping his sister upstairs. This was very traumatic for him.

This paragraph is related to the sexual harassment, emotional abuse, gaslighting, toxic relationship, bodyshaming, vomit, drug and excrement tags.

Maya, the main female lead, has two toxic relationships where her partner only really wants sex and/or drugs from her. Throughout the majority of the book she is dating a girl named Janice who manipulates her, pressures her for sex, pressures her for her anti-anxiety medication, and shames her when she doesn’t deliver. Later in the book Maya is in a portable toilet when it is tipped over by two men. Vomit and feces gets all over her. Maya is also cyber bullied for her condition and for how her body looks. At one point, a boy attempts to masturbate to her and her girlfriend making out by spying on them.

This paragraph contains spoilers related to bullying, suicide, toxic friendship, mass shooting, gore, mental illness, lesbophobia, and misogyny tags.

Eli befriends a mentally ill boy named Graham within the story. Graham is obsessed with the kidnapping/bombing case Eli was a part of and has many traits which resemble his captor. He is very violently bullied by other students but also eventually fights back by stabbing them with plastic utensils and threatening them with murder. At one point he has a conversation with Eli about how he contemplated suicide but decided against it, because everyone else deserved to die, not him. He frequently mentions how the world would be better if the majority of people were murdered, and he writes a fictional short story in which he kills a mother and her young daughter. He is also misogynistic and shames Maya and her girlfriend for their relationship even though he was spying on them and enjoying it. He calls them a slur. He talks about planning mass bombings/shootings in detail.