Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

20 reviews

treehugger_143's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Alcohol

azileotulp's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

3.5

This is the second time I've tried to read this book. The first time I stopped about 100 pages in. While I made it through this time, it was still definitely a struggle to get into it. As a whole, I would say I liked the book, but it has a few issues that are definitely holding it back for me.

First big issue: POV. I genuinely cannot fathom why this book was written in the third person. Don't get me wrong, I can really appreciate a third person book (although I typically prefer first person). In fact, two of my favorite books of all time are in the third person. However, it just did not work in this book. I just feel like third person perspectives in romances don't work for me at all. (Do you know how many times I had to read the words "Alex" and "Henry" on each page because the word "he" couldn't be used?) I think the novel would have worked a lot better and been easier to get into if it had been in the first person. It would be even better if it had been dual POV. I'm not just saying that because I love a good dual POV book, but I think it also would have prevented the book from dragging, which it did in a lot of places.

Second big issue: Characters. My favorite part of romance is falling in love with the characters, which I usually find very easy to do. By the end of this book, I only really loved one character (Henry <3) and liked two others (June and Alex). I don't really hate any of the other characters (except Richards, of course), but I'm just totally neutral on them. I feel like there were just too many of them to be honest. There were multiple instances where the book was discussing certain characters that I had to really rack my brain to try to remember. I feel like this is another reason the first person POV would have worked better for me. I feel like it's a lot easier to love characters when you're inside the mind of someone who does.

Third big issue: Smut. I swear this book has some of the most confusing smut I've ever read. Now, it's not like I actively wanted there to be super graphic smut. I'm really not a huge fan of it in general, so I won't seek out books that contain it, but I also won't avoid it if it's there. My real issue is that it seemed like this book couldn't decide if it wanted to be Young Adult or New Adult, and the smut teeters on the line between those two. It just frustrates me that it was far too explicit to actually be a Young Adult book, but not explicit enough for it to be understandable. It felt like every action that happened was stated so vaguely that I couldn't even imagine the scene. Every time I got to a smut scene, I had to read it at least three times before I could at least kind of form a picture of what was going on, and eventually I just stopped trying.

Those are the main things I would say hold the book back. There are definitely others,

like the lack of resolution for June's storyline with either Pez or Nora and the very dumb reason Alex hated Henry

but none of them were as bad as the three I listed above. But of course, I didn't hate this book: I gave it a 3.5. (Anything higher than a 3 is a book I consider to be at least okay.) So, what did it have going for it that made up for the previously mentioned issues?

First big strength: Humor. This is actually one of the funniest romances I've ever read. Other romance books usually get an exhale out of me, but very rarely an actual laugh. This book made me genuinely laugh twice. That might not sound like a lot to other people, but it definitely is for me. I feel like the characters played off of each other really well, and there were just a lot of scenarios that led to some really funny moments.

My favorite moment is after Alex comes out to his mom (which includes telling her about him and Henry) and she makes a whole presentation about it. I actually died.

Second big strength: The last quarter. So, you know how I said this book was really hard to get into? That includes a lot of the middle section unfortunately. However, when there were about 100 pages left, the

outing

storyline really caught my attention.

It had me really questioning how the emails got out. Did Rafael actually betray Alex? How would Ellen deal with the aftermath? How would Queen Mary?

It was totally captivating and made up for a lot of the boredom I felt during the rest of the book.

Overall, this definitely isn't one of the best books I've read. It's not even close. That being said, it's very charming in a lot of ways and I can definitely see why so many people love it. If you think you can get past the issues I talked about, then this could very well be a great book for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

pizzaisjesus98's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Outing, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Colonisation

dannothedino's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

chaos_and_chapters's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Outing

Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

sammyelliott_'s review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Biphobia, Cancer, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this book. the premise was really interesting. I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style and would have probably preferred to have the book split perspective between Alex and Henry. I also didn’t like how the scenes would change drastically from paragraph to paragraph, it should have been split in to more chapters really.

Some things felt like we didn’t get a resolution to: June and Pez, June and Nora? It just felt like we had been given all the building blocks and didn’t even get the hint of an answer about any of them. the spice was great but it felt a little glossed over. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think all romance books have to have graphic details of sex in them but the way the writer wrote so graphically about everything leading up to the literal sex acts was the same as any good spice writer, but then it would gloss over the acts and describe the in-betweens and afters, I don’t know if it’s just me but maybe it’s because it’s a female author, writing about gay sex?

Very enjoyable overall but some of the politics went over my head and it just didn’t quite live up to the hype it had been built up to on social media.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Biphobia, Cursing, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

illgiveyouahint's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-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

3.75

After the last book I low key hated I kinda needed something to fix my reading mood so I grabbed this (lol reading this while the coronation of a new british king was happening was lowkey funny). It's lighthearted fun. I don't feel i will be obsessed with it like the others. Will not think it to be top 10 best lgbt books or anything. The comparisons to Young Royals now feel a bit insulting to young royals since I feel like they've been handling the topic better. Like it's clearly a book that's written in reaction to 2016 election. If it was straight I would call it trashy romance book but of course because it's gay that's a level that elevates it.  I enjoyed it a lot but just don't consider it some great quality of writing.
In any case it did it's job. It did what it was supposed to do

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

captainoliimar's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Genocide, and Deportation

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Abandonment