Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

24 reviews

tina94's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

The only qualm I have with this book is that all the many characters and names became indistinguishable at some point. Powerful and moving stuff otherwise

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Car accident, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Lesbophobia

body image issues

genielle's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

1quillb's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Police brutality

discworldwitch's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Car accident

marsonmars's review

adventurous challenging emotional sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

nervousyoungman's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Gore, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Blood

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual assault, Vomit, Car accident, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Sexual harassment

megplant's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, Homophobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Lesbophobia

jewishpadme's review

challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Police brutality

midgeyu's review

challenging emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Police brutality

Moderate: Transphobia

Parts of this book are very heavy and likely triggering for some, but all content is handled respectfully. re: Police brutality, racism, death, and gun violence:

Cops assault minors and adults (primarily BIPOC) on multiple occasions throughout the book. This ranges from degrading pat-downs that border on sexual assault to an event that permanently injuries a character. Three characters are killed by cops: the main characters's father (before the story begins), the love interest (shot on the page and in detail) and a minor character (off page.)

re: Transphobia:

A Black trans girl is choked by a cop and suffers a concussion. It's implied she was targeted due to her gender identity.

lapis's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 I remember a question on Goodreads about The Hate U Give, saying which would be better to read, THUG or Dear Martin. IIRC, the most popular answer given was something along the lines of "is it better to breathe or to drink water".

Maybe it's because this came out later (I Think), but Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro never came up!

But basically, that Goodreads question and my answer to it kept me up after I dried my tears from this book last night.

I firmly believe if you can only read one, or at least one to start with, and non-fiction about policing is off the table, and you are white, you should read this one.

I know that's a pretty bold statement! I will back it up, I promise.

Undeniably, all books in this micro-genre of "Police Brutality fiction" at least consider the white audience reading it. I've been told they're too big a market to ignore, I don't know if that's still true, but a lot of people believe it.

But all the books approach different angles while considering a partially-white audience. I'm gonna keep these comparisons short because it's been over a year since I've read the other books, please note there are more to them than this.
The Hate U Give shows that some cops at the very least, are not as corrupt or racist as others. It also shows Code-switching and the problem with white feminism. These are important! I won't deny it!
Dear Martin is mostly about how even being the perfect black boy is not good enough, and talks about the often spat out idea of how "Martin Luther King Jr. would be disappointed in BLM" by having the protagonist write what are effectively diary entries addressed to Dr. King (who to be clear, is long dead because this is the modern day). Obviously this is important!
Anger is a Gift deals with organizing protests (and the ways cops try to destroy these protests, this is like at least a 3rd of the book), the problem with white savior complexes, the problem with school funding being tied to tests, and what I think is most important of all: Complacency.

Do you want to know why people talk about defunding or abolishing the police? Because even if police offer relative is, according to you, not a violent, racist cop, they are complacent in a system. Maybe your Uncle John, a cop, didn't shoot an unarmed black child, but did he even try to stop it? Did he try to have justice done to the child's family by calling for accountability for the person who shot the child? I really doubt it. Many of us are guilty of complacency, just oftentimes with less deadly consequences, or consequences we're deliberately ignoring. That is the essence of Hashtag ACAB.

I'm not saying Dear Martin or The Hate U Give don't deal with this. But I feel it's clearest, most-spelled out in Anger is a Gift And that is why I say to start with this one if you are white. Because we often don't think about complacency. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Police brutality

Moderate: Cursing and Xenophobia

Minor: Racism

Blood:

Lots of violent scenes, they're not needlessly gory, but it's there.

Cursing: Some cursing, but it is disapproved of Death:

Two deaths, one close, one just mentioned off camera

Gun Violence: I feel like you know this coming into the book, but

someone is gonna die

Police Brutality: This is the book.

Someone recovering from an injury is made disabled. Also a couple deaths

Panic attacks / disorders: The main character has an anxiety problem and you see panic attacks several times. Racism:

Just brief mentions of the stuff the characters deal with, no slurs or anything

Xenophobia:

People justify the main death in this book based on the fact they were an undocumented immigrant