Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

15 reviews

cdundes's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted to stop listening to this book about halfway in but I couldn’t find out who the culprit was from the internet so I did indeed finish. 

This book glorifies trauma with, IMO, little to no payoff. I was so intrigued by the concept but so so disappointed in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Hate crime, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury

cow_png's review

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I really was looking forward to this book! "A lesbian nun solving a arson case?? WOW I haven't heard of anything like this!"
But I just felt like it was ok?? There is a lot of serious topics and subjects in this book but the way it is written just sorta feels like a bad Netflix show? 
Hoilday was probably my favourite character cause she was the most fleshed out (Cause she is the main character) and cause I love a female MC who knows her worth!

The mystery was interesting but I felt like you could have seen it coming from a mile away.

It is a nice book and shorter than other books, so if you have on your TBR I feel that you should read it :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Incest

scaredykatbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Incest, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

knitterscasket's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction and Rape

Minor: Alcoholism, Hate crime, and Incest

yulia's review

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the premise and author's style. There are some really hard hitting emotional parts that I loved.

However it just felt all over the place, especially closer to the end. There were some scenes that just lead nowhere.

Like Holiday's ex girlfriend appearing for a chapter out of nowhere and without particular significance to the plot/character development.

I had mixed feeling on the main character, but there were barely any likeable characters in the book so by comparison she wasn't so bad. 

I also felt that her attitude to cops was very inconsistent considering her history. Especially her betraying John's secret to the cops without any solid reason

Not a hard read, but if you like any joy in your stories, I would pass on this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Self harm, and Medical content

grunbean's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

The first half of this book would’ve been a two and half stars for me. The second half was closer to three and a half stars. But the ending was like reading something that had a deadline, and the author realised it was due the night before. 

The idea of a queer nun detective is fresh, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I think the religious trauma and exploration of what it’s like to grow up queer in these communities was interesting. But these didn’t really have much to do with the story of THIS book. A lot of the book didn’t have much to do with the story and mystery. I don’t know whether I’m not smart enough and I didn’t pick up on all the clues, or whether the answer to the mystery was shoe horned in at the end.

I found myself questioning the choices of the characters a lot. Not because they’re bad, but because their choices just didn’t make sense to me in the context. 

Given that this is a series I feel like more time was spent on building up this world and characters for the series than on the story. It sort of felt like the author remembered there was a mystery to answer at the very end. It gave me whiplash, but not in the ‘oh my gosh I don’t know how I didn’t see this coming’ way. It was more of like ‘was I meant to see this coming’ way. If that makes sense. 

There’s a lot of promise and the writing is beautiful in places. The author definitely has a flair for description. There’s a lot of promise, but it doesn’t deliver here. I will be picking up the next book in the series out of curiosity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

harpoonholly's review

There is content that I couldn't get past, that disturbed my experience. What started a NoLa teacozy murder, took a swift dive into themes I just was not prepared for, which is my fault for not researching more thoroughly before downloading it (audiobook read by Mara Wilson, who is an excellent reader), but shouldn't a reader be able to look at a standard back cover and some reviews and have that be enough? Who wants homework? Trigger Warnings aren't going to hurt the story, I promise you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

sophie_63's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

simkei's review

adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

maddiereadswords's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Read this for a queer book club, and honestly I might have DNF-ed if I hadn't wanted to finish it for the discussion. I think part of it is just that I'm not a huge fan of hard-boiled noir in general, so it's already starting at a disadvantage, but also this book still overall felt like a draft; there are a lot of interesting ideas and concepts, but nothing feels fully fleshed out. All the characters with the exception of Holiday feel completely one-dimensional, and speaking of Holiday, her backstory is so drawn-out that by the time we got to what actually happened to send her to New Orleans, I hardly even cared anymore, but also the backstory was so ridiculously over the top and horrifying that I didn't even want it. Literally the last hundred or so pages of this book felt so needlessly brutal, and it just left me so uncomfortable at the end. Also as other reviewers have mentioned, there are basic things that are just wrong? Everything about diabetes, as well as the fact that there are A TON of Catholic schools in New Orleans and the surrounding area, both of which feel like things that should have gotten picked up on in another round of editing and revision. 

Literally the only reason this book is higher than 1 star (which literally just means I finished it) is that every once in a while she would drop an absolute BANGER of a line about Catholicism or the intersection of religion and queerness, and as a lesbian who grew up Catholic and is still nebulously religious, I LOVED that. I wanted so much more of that!! But instead most of what I got was a shoddy, boring mystery with forgettable characters, and a whole lot of trauma right at the end. I know this is meant to be the first in a series, and I truly hope that time and practice can smooth out some of the issues I had with this book. I could see myself potentially picking up another Sister Holiday mystery in the future just to see how on earth she moves on from this book, but I'm not optimistic that I'll like it any better than this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury