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cokester's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Homophobia
jacobclark's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, and Self harm
Minor: War, Abortion, Miscarriage, Outing, Islamophobia, Alcohol, and Drug use
Broadly speaking, because of the subject matter and setting in an American evangelical church youth group culture in the early 2000s none of the content is very shocking on its face. If you’ve been through that setting and have past trauma this could be either a liberating or suffocating read depending on your healing process. The worst part comes toward the end of the novel with a section where a youth pastor replicates the often-told story of people with guns coming into a church to scare kids into not denying their faith.gdavis254's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Mental illness, Body shaming, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Outing, Homophobia, Sexism, Gun violence, Alcoholism, War, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Racism, and Car accident
afternoon_sunshowers's review against another edition
5.0
Isaac’s coming of age story is both foreign and relatable. I grew up in a church nothing like his but some parts rang so true and I hadn’t thought of in more than a decade. And the beats of life in the early 2000s were dead on.
His struggles, his inner monologue conversations, REGRET, sorry…it was all just so real. So believable.
I’m so glad I’ve followed Jason for years because I never would have picked this book up but I’m so glad I did. A story of an evangelical upbringing and subsequent questioning of the faith could have been so heavy handed and full of caricatures, but this book shines by showing the humanity even in people you just fundamentally cannot understand in some circumstances but deeply relate to in others.
I can’t wait to reread and quite possibly annotate a book for the first time.
Graphic: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Homophobia, Gun violence, and Death of parent