Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry

34 reviews

mecmccann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.5

I’m so torn about how I feel about this book. I’m going to write out all my rambling thoughts, please forgive the messiness that will be this review. 

Saving Noah is about a young boy who molested two five year old girls at swim practice which he coached. He was arrested and sent to a juvenile correction facility where he would receive treatment to lower the chances that he would reoffend. We follow his relationship with his mother who loves him endlessly. 

The mom comes across as if she thinks he’s a victim. He is indeed a perpetrator, but he is a victim of the justice system and social scrutiny, which I won’t comment on the morality of. I didn’t necessarily appreciate this aspect of the mom’s response to the situation. About 40% into the book, it does become more self aware, the dad calls her out on this and she addresses it. So I guess I can forgive that. 

After it became aware of what it was doing, it was just so sad.

The portrayal of depression and the horrifying suicide attempts were a lot. It was haunting being in the head of someone witnessing such darkness in their child. I did cry in the last chapter from the mom’s perspective.

I called the twist right at the beginning. I knew the dad was a pedophile the whole time. I thought maybe he was the other POV when they talked about shock therapy, just because that’s supper outdated, but I wasn’t certain. And I’m willing to bet that, even though he didn’t admit it, he was molesting his daughter too, she showed signs of sexual abuse like wetting the bed.

Overall this book did elicit an emotional response, so I think it did its job. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

laufeysvoid's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Pedophilia

smileysam's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I have a hard time picking a star rating for the book. I really enjoy Lucinda Berry’s writing and have a hard time putting her books down, and this was no exception. Her books often feel more realistic than a lot of thrillers which makes them all the more gut-wrenching. That being said, I had a lot of conflict with Adrianne as our narrator because I often did not agree with her. The book felt like it wanted to lead the reader to sympathize with her. I know that they say a Mother’s love is unconditional, but I myself could not love a pedophile, no matter the relation. Parts that felt even more lost on me were when it was clear I was supposed to sympathize with Noah. I didn’t. I still don’t.

It bothered me that Adrianne couldn’t believe her son, a sexual abuser, could in turn, be sexually abused. The irony here was not lost on me, though. And I found myself wondering if Berry’s goal was for me to sympathize with Adrianne here, or if her goal was to see the juxtaposition of events.  Honestly, jumping back to Noah, his understanding of his actions being wrong but himself and other characters in the book viewing that as “just how he was born” and “something he can’t control” felt abhorrent. I also had wondered about Lucas - at first, I fully agreed with him, but the more chapters I read from the unnamed man, I grew suspicious. I expected the twist to be that it wasn’t Noah, especially given the mention of electroshock therapy.

All in all, I enjoyed this book but at the same time, I didn’t, if that makes sense. I think it’s a good read and worth the read, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

misslaurenreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow - this was good but so dark! Definitely a topic people don’t talk about much and an interesting one too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

cegleston's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

muumi3000's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

interesting but the ending was unnecessary. this book made me deeply uncomfortable but overall, it was captivating and presented a very interesting narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

golddot31's review against another edition

challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

lolalynnmitchell's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This is hard to rate bc it’s written well, but the content is difficult. I appreciate her writing as to she really makes the characters feel real and not embellished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, and Suicide attempt

readliketay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Went in blind. Was not what I was expecting. But I love books that make me think. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

zoebb94's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail