Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

10 reviews

hcop's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

ngoodenb's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, and War

meggyflemreads's review against another edition

inspiring 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? No

5.0

My first 5 star read for 2024! An incredible and heartbreaking story of determination, grit, and endurance. Highly recommend. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Grief, Death of parent, and Deportation

beccalora's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Deportation

Minor: Rape

texashippie's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

sherpa2015's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Slavery

ezahn17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Murder

opal_scorpio's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Deportation

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Classism

teslacannon's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

domtheknight's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I feel that I can't rate this book because I'm extremely conflicted about many things.  I read it because someone picked it for a book club I'm in; otherwise I would not have picked it up based on description.  If I hadn't felt that I should finish it in order to participate in book club, I would have put it down almost immediately, and at many additional times throughout the story.  This book was not for me.

As for whether it's for anybody... from a technical writing standpoint, like in terms of making good sentences with words that sound and feel a certain way, Jeanne Cummins has skills.  It's bare and factual for the most part, but every paragraph is screaming in grief, underneath.  Grief, and horror and desperation.  It's creepy in that way, and sometimes that's good and what is right for the story.  But given the subject matter and the author, it honestly crossed the "violence for violence sake and not to further the story" line many times.  

The point of this story, having sat on this review overnight, seemed to be everything that can go wrong will be more awful than you can imagine.  I don't know why you tell that story.  There's no character growth.  Is the point to generate sympathy for immigrants?  Is the point to just be horror?  I think there's too much grief to be horror, but it's not really a grief book either.  It didn't feel like a horror book and it wasn't marketed as horror, but that's the ultimate end story I get from it.  I never cried, I just felt numb.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

I'm not sure I got all the warnings. This book is very dark and fairly graphic about it, the plot is that a woman sees 16 members of her family shot (this is in the first couple paragraphs), manages to save her son, and then must run. They are in Mexico, they take various migrant paths, with some migrants coming from further south countries. There are gangs and violence and Lydia basically decides they need to go to the USA fairly early on and the rest of the story is whether or not they make it, plus some details about situations their fellow migrants are running from. In some cases the details left off the page felt worse than what was on the page.