Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

19 reviews

stellahadz's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.75

I've wanted to read this book for ages (I read Monkey Beach for a university course a few years ago and absolutely loved it), but I decided to get around to it this year because I'll be teaching it to my grade 10 students. 

The writing was engaging, even though I'm a little older than the target demographic and I'm not usually a big magical realism reader. Some parts were very cringey, (but it's about a teenager, so that's to be expected), some were genuinely very funny, and others were heartbreaking. The pacing wasn't quite to my taste, but then again, it's part of a series, so maybe it makes more sense in that context. Eden Robinson is a great writer and I'd honestly recommend anything of hers. I look forward to seeing what my students think of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Excrement

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Vomit, and Cannibalism

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense 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

This book made me really sad. It's not at all what I expected. But it's still incredibly well written and you feel like you're right there, going through everything together with Jared, the young protagonist. 

Poor Jared's life is all kinds of fucked up, thanks to his parents - the biological and the non-biological - and the world around him - the physical and the metaphysical. Jared's too young to be so jaded and dealing with all the shit he's dealing with in this first book. 

His world gets shattered in more ways than one, but there seems to be a big change coming by the end, hopefully for the better in the next two books. But since he's the son of a Trickster, that might not be so easy, if it's even possible... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

you know...i went into this book thinking i wouldnt like it as i HATE the only other book ive read by this author so i was pleasantly surprised to not hate it, but its not as if i liked it a bunch either :/
this book up until the last 7 or so chapters is just...a bunch of NOTHING happening aside from partying and drinking and drugs and horrible parenting and bad decisions on behalf of almost all the characters, and then its like everything starts happening simultaneously and none of it makes much sense at first because theres wasnt a gradual lead up of like...anything??? or, there was a lead up but it was so fukcing convoluted that it just ended up making things much more confusing. the hints that are dropped need hints to help understand them, i swear. the writing also isnt the best either. there are pockets of really good writing (i feel like the few snippets of poetry were really good, i would have liked more!!!) but for the most point its just kind of boring. and i guess its alright because this book is the first in a trilogy and it did sent things okay for more books, but just as the book is itself its definitely nothing special.
oh also i hated all the sexual scenes between the teens in this book. i dont wanna be reading about that!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Incest

cynthiareads's review against another edition

dark sad slow-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

2.5

I was tempted to DNF as there wasn’t much plot and there was a lot of vomiting.  But picked up around the half way point.  Interesting concept and I’m interested to see where it goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual content

nat_montego's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

tbyrdistheword's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, and Suicide attempt

doomdodo's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Some may believe this is a young adult book but it is not! It deals with graphic adult content and the writing is challenging to follow.

samants's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.75

Darkly funny at times, confusing and anticlimactic at others. I felt that the "climax" was less interesting than the vignettes into Jared's life, though Jared's life is so depressing that you really feel bad for the kid. The magical realism elements kind of come out of nowhere and could have been better developed. I was rooting for Jared, and his strength as a character makes me want to read the sequel.

I don't normally put content warnings, but this book has a lot of very graphic content, so I'm including a bunch of content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail