Reviews tagging 'Death'

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

4 reviews

brookey8888's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

4.75

Wow. What a important story. It is very hard to read at times, but there are a lot of light moments as well. I really loved Riley as our character. They were just very relatable in many ways like being awkward. I thought the friendships and the family relationships were so important. I learned a lot and think other people will as well. Definitely look up trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

meibles's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

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

this is what happens when cishet people write about being genderfluid for a 2016 age audience. tws for assault, homophobia & transphobia

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

Moderate: Suicide and Death

kaii_theratgod's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

so, as a genderfluid person, this book very quickly became a comfort book to me, even before I realized I was genderfluid. the romantic relationship is adorable, but I like how it also focuses a lot on Riley, their struggles, their internalized issues, and their friendships. It's a book that I can and have read multiple times just because it makes me feel safe. despite this book having very heavy topics, it's strangely comforting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Outing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Transphobia

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual assault

w_t_effi's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Spoiler

Things I liked:
- that Riley's assigned gender was never revealed
- the emphasis on how important online communities are for trans teens
- that the right terms were used to describe being trans
- the accurate description of anxiety and dysphoria (at least accurate to me)
- the happy ending

Things I didn't like/found weird:
- Riley pretending to be able to tell what Bec's gender identity is without asking
- Riley asking for Bec's "real name" (like what was that all about, surely a trans person would know that the name a person uses for themselves is their real name?)
- the incessant use of "he - or she" instead of they (the English language has an inclusive gender neutral pronoun. a gender fluid person would probably know to use it.)
- the brief mentioning of Solo's race at two points in the book when it was otherwise not included in the story at all. this felt a bit like wanting to include a non-white character to be more "diverse", so basically tokenism.
- something about the author being a cis man and writing this book makes me uncomfortable. maybe it's just the fact that he's making money off of marginalised people's issues, or maybe I especially didn't like how this story focuses so much on bullying, abuse, and even (attempted) suicide. I think if you're gonna write about trans people as a cis person, you shouldn't make the violence we face one of the main topics. I don't think it's a cis person's place and it felt like misery porn to me.
- the author's note made me extremely uncomfortable. the story about the author's friend talking about a trans girl by using the words "probably just a pervy boy trying to see some boobs" and nobody saying anything was honestly just painful to read.
- the failure to use content/trigger warnings is not uncommon with books but should still be mentioned as well

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Violence