Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold

4 reviews

l1ndz7's review against another edition

3.25

This is a feminist retelling of Red Riding Hood written in second person. It touches on toxic masculinity, women empowerment and shame. 

It uses menstruation as an empowering tool instead of something to be ashamed of, which I appreciated. It definitely feels taboo to talk about. Judging about the amount of reviews saying how gross it was that menstruation was a component of the story, I wish talking about it was more normalized. At first, I was taken back by how much menses was mentioned but once I understood the purpose, it didn’t bother me as much.  

This book portrays toxic men as wolves which was great but her message at the end of the book implies that the only way to deal with this is to treat men the same way they’ve treated women. I don’t agree with that message at all and judging by the reviews, a lot of people heard the same message. At first, I thought this book was portraying all men as wolves but it was refreshing to see that our FMC had a wonderful, loving, supportive bf the whole book. 

I wish this wasn’t categorized as YA because there is explicit content in here that I wouldn’t let someone as young as twelve to be reading. I would categorize this more as new adult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying and Sexual harassment

maaartha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

bookwyrmsam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

There were some things I greatly enjoyed about this book, particularly the prose. Arnold's writing is stunning and I definitely want to read more of her work in the future.  I do have some complicated thoughts about the ways sensitive subject matter was handled and the theming of the book, but I do not agree with reviewers who felt Arnold was suggesting violence is the only answer to misogynist abuses of power, in fact her characters directly oppose this idea on multiple occasions. I do think this book is not for the faint of heart. If body descriptions and gore make you uncomfortable you might need to take your time with this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Death of parent

malloryfitz's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy