Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

River's Edge by Kyōko Okazaki

3 reviews

sandramarinis's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed reading this book, but I don't think I would rate it higher as it felt like the storyline was a bit unclear from time to time.

Positives:
Even though it's a sad story about sad people I think the book brings forth good examples of toxic relationships and self sabotaging behaviour and mental illnesses in a way that gives people something to reflect on. The problems and issues of the characters in the book aren't solved, which makes you feel as hopeless as them, and I think that might be intentional. We get to see examples of a narcissistic romantic relationship and how the main character felt compelled to stay in a hopeless relationship due to fear or hope. We also saw how everyone were living lies and longing for more, yet finding comfort in old and bad habits that would prevent that change from happening. I think that part was well done.

Negatives:
In the beginning I struggled differentiating between the characters as I didn't see the difference between several of them. Eventually I did though. Some parts weren't as good as others. I also didn't like that it was unrealistic when it came to the whole

dead bodies-storyline

. I think the quality of the drawings varied a lot. Sometimes it was very good, and other times it looked unfinished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

yellowbinge's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Publishing date: 

27.06.2024

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC. My opinions are my own. 

The book as a meal: I am eating out, but somehow my ex found me and disturbed my meal

The book left me: Feeling pretty horrible

Negatives: 

Trigger warnings galore, be warned

Positives: 

Very realistic portrayal of teenage/young adult troubles

Doesn't shy away from horrible things 

Interesting story

Features: 

Content warnings in the millions, interesting artstyle, dislikeable characters, themes of growing up, different situations for the same age group

Why did I choose this one? 

I have heard stunning things about this manga, so I thought I should dive into it. 

At the time I was in a mood for more comics as well. The cover is also very eye catching to me. 

Pick-up-able? Put-down-able?

Devourable. I finished this one one sitting. I had to see what would happen next and how they would handle their current situation. The way these characters keep getting into the most avoidable trouble is outstanding to me. 

What was the vibe and mood?

This had the vibe of watching a dramatic tv show. Everything went wrong, everyone got into trouble, tragedy after tragedy occurred. Almost like a car crash you can't look away from

Final ranking and star rating? 
S tier, 5 stars. This is a read I know will be living rent-free in my mind for a long time. A read I think a lot of people should try out. However, it has every trigger warning under the sun, so please check which it has before diving into it. Great story with a lot of drive. Fitting artstyle. A lot of personality. Very good read. Will recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia and Vomit

hazelwood's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Very dark. (Kittens get murdered. People die.) I'm not sure what the point of it is. Something about desire. These kids are fucking each other up the whole time. Nothing really gets resolved either. It just didn't really speak to me, specifically. Interesting story, but kind of depressing. Heed the content warnings, lots of heavy topics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide attempt