Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

16 reviews

ecokeefe's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Physical abuse, Torture, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder and Animal cruelty

Minor: Suicide and Deadnaming

snerp_reads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Firstly, the prose in this book is absolutely beautiful, and really makes me want to look into Tamblyn's other works. While yes, it is very poetic at times, there are very clear distinctions between the voices of the main characters, both in speech patterns and personality. If I was basing my review based off quality of prose alone, this book would be a solid 5 stars.

I was a little unsure going into this book because of the framing of the perpetrator; expecting her story to follow the archetypal 'Stranger Danger' plotline so often used in stories of sexual assault, despite only making up a fraction of the actual crimes. However, I think Tamblyn utilized this archetype very well, and was actually beneficial when reading the survivors' stories as both personal accounts, and as an exploration of the larger culture around these topics. 
My main critiques are of the character Michael, and of the ending. I disliked that the only trans male character was the only victim to entirely lack a voice of his own; we only got to learn about him through social media posts (largely targeted at him through transphobia). While I was very hopeful to see a trans man being represented in a book about sexual assualt, I feel his story was the least fleshed out of all of them. This was especially disappointing considering that trans men have the highest rates of sexual violence against them, even compared to cis women. Giving a voice to a trans male character would've greatly benefited both the story, and the readers, especially compared to how long was spent giving a voice to an extremely misogynistic cis gay man instead. 
The ending was slightly confusing, and I feel it flew over my head, which is my only critique of it.

Overall, a very well written book, diverse cast, but does fail to equally represent certain minorities portrayed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Rape, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Racism and Murder

spinesofsam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Violence, Deadnaming, Pedophilia, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicide, Animal death, Transphobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Rape, Self harm, and Animal cruelty

eeiquihua's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Rape, and Murder

hazedover's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death, Gore, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Body shaming, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Violence

acg2285's review against another edition

dark

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Dysphoria, Animal death, Murder, Sexual violence, Ableism, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Fatphobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, and Cursing

tallhousecookies's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Rape

Moderate: Self harm, Transphobia, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Deadnaming, and Alcoholism

Minor: Murder and Terminal illness

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

2.5

Well, I was looking for a change of pace and I think I got it.  The topic itself is hard to read about, hard to talk about, etc.

The writing was quite well done, kind of a bit of mixed media with the journal entries, chat logs, transcripts, poetry, and radio show vibes.  The first three victims were well fleshed out and their trauma was ever present and horrifying.  The later ones felt more superficial though I'm not really sure why.  There were also quite a few questions that were raised in the plot that were never answered that made it feel a bit rushed.

I do think this is a good book that has a lot of value in representing sexual assault as a whole and especially in male victims.  However, with all that in mind, I don't feel like I was the intended audience because I don't generally like to read books about rape.  I suppose I didn't expect it to be quite so graphic about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

I reeeeally loved the voice and style of this book. I came into it fully expecting an everyday novel style but was quickly surprised and sucked into the flow of poetic vision among such a hard topic. So well done, I could not put this book down. Every character had such a unique experience, reaction, and coping mechanism to what they experienced. Just wow. So well done, I can't believe I didn't read this sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Transphobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Murder, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicide, Ableism, Physical abuse, and Homophobia

megcrs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Blood, Self harm, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Misogyny, Deadnaming, Cancer, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

Minor: Alcoholism