Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

5 reviews

jialianyang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

A beautiful tale that quickly snowballs into a haunting, mysterious, sad, and horrifying thriller. Survivors birthing and parenting survivors, a book man seeks vengeance, a mother fights to find her real child, all of these are just snapshots of the twists and turn in this gripping book. It's won many awards for good reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really liked this book. The writing is really charming (which feels weird to say with this type of content) and the fairy tale atmosphere worked really well for the most part. New York and its history were well utilized. There is one plot point in the middle of the book that I thought was kind of silly

(the part at Rikers - considering later discussions that was all absurdly easy and felt kind of pointless)

but overall fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

jbeoin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

SUCH a good book! Victor LaValle has an amazing way of building and exploring character relationships, and he grounds the fantasy elements in such a vivid and real way. He also is one of the best audiobook narrators I've listened to! Great voice, both literary and physical.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

thehmkane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

HOLY. SHIT.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Police brutality, Grief, Stalking, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

malloryfitz's review against another edition

dark

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Fatphobia, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, and Alcohol