Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Susza by Jarrod Shusterman, Neal Shusterman

14 reviews

a_cera_t0ps's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense 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

5.0

Dry is about as cute and heartwarming as it is tough.

In alternating perspectives, our cast grows and shrinks.
The characters are well written. The book shows many of the different arguments/reasoning/stories without drowning out plot A or disrupting the collective pace of the story. The characters feel like real people, with real connections. While there is a crush and romantic connection, it never once cuts into the action. It only presents itself as a motive: a catalyst for an even and consistent amount of the story. The ending is realistic while still having a satisfying conclusion.

The Shusterman authors worked to gether to create a compelling dystopian story much in the same way George Orwell worked time and time to do. They wrote the book with a message. However, instead of creating an atmosphere of hopelessness, the Shustermans help to build a future, to show the fall out of if and when disaster passes. They don't water down (ha) the message, the importance, or the level of disaster, but they leave the reader with an enjoyable story. It's believable, even if extreme in nature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Car accident, Child death, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Pedophilia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Police brutality, and War

bisexualchaos's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

Beautiful book- I’ve loved Neal Shushterman since the Unwind dystology. Another dystopian book that can hit close to home regarding climate change and the state of our world. I literally gasped out loud at one point.

I was convinced everyone was going to die at the end, but alas, this is a YA book. Somewhat of a twist at the end how they were saved! The ending was just a tad cheesy, and I would’ve personally preferred just a little bit more sadness or death for realism, but it was still wonderful!

Would recommend to anyone who likes dystopia like Hunger Games, and if you like this book, you’d LOVE the Unwind dystology!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, and Blood

zoejjj's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This is the most infuriating end to a book I’ve read in recent history. I almost quit at the end of the climax because I was SO MAD. Anyway. I would not actually recommend this book. The preachiness of climate change and virtue signaling and everything that goes along with that made it very, very hard to get into the book at the beginning. The plot itself was a 3.5, if it had ended the way I thought it should, probably would’ve been a 4 even with the preachiness! Now it’s a 2

There are things good about this book. I liked that the kids had to face decisions that made them “monsters” and how they dealt with that. I like the way stories interconnected. I like that the drought brought out the actual core of people making the good even better, pushing them to make the right choice. 

every single thing that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Which was fine. Shooting Brady, the bug out being ransacked, that’s all fine and good. It made sense. I don’t mind everything going wrong because I was tenseeee. I get mad when Alyssa was literally about to SHOOT HER BROTHER and magically!! A miracle happens and the plane drops water on them. No!! This whole book was about how no one was safe, everyone suffered and 9 in 10 people wouldn’t get water. Commit to the incredibly dark and real this book has been and make her shoot him. You want to preach about serious climate change is? Then why did Every. Single. Person. Live. Kelton could’ve died at least. Jackie living is a joke. Everyone’s parents living? Basil living? I don’t think so. The twist that Henry was actually 13?! Hated it. 13yr/o’s are so dumb, they’re not going to be able to manipulate people like that. Kelton and Alyssa admitting that they mean something to each other and that in “30 yrs they’ll dance with each other” is the most annoying thing ever. I wouldn’t’ve minded the conversation if it ended with “can I have a kiss to hold me over?” or “can I kiss you before then” because the author just admitted he’s scared to commit to to killing of his mc’s bc this is a kids book, but he’s not going to let his mc’s be kids and have a SINGLE KISS?! The more I think about it the more I dislike this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Medical content, Sexual assault, and Violence

char42's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Self harm

Minor: Child death

glorytowers05's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Car accident

Minor: Cursing, Rape, Alcohol, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship

oliverreeds's review against another edition

dark 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

fucker can rot in hell. yall know who im talking abt. WARNING. this shit is a tough fucking read. its really fucked. like be prepped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Classism, and Gore

elleceeveee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

Persevere through the seemingly cliche beginning, so worth it! Last paragraph had me instantly bawling!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

anniereads221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Grief, Child death, Death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal death, and Gun violence

Dehydration

bill369's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful informative tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This book got me out of a reading slump. The story is interesting and I like it, however, it didn't surprise me. Felt more average than amazing.

My favourite character is Jacqui. She's the typical outcast cool character and from all the characters she was the most fun and relatable. All the characters are forever changed by the end of the book, the character development is there. Despite all this, I didn't grow to love any of the characters and soon or later I will most likely forget them. They aren't undeveloped, but they aren't strong characters either.

On the other hand, the theme of the book is awesome! I enjoyed all the facts and how fast it all happened. It kept me hydrated throughout the whole book! Also, it was quite fascinating to see how quickly people turn on each other in just a matter of days. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

There isn't any line/scene in particular that caught my attention, but there is a term „water-zombie“, strongly dehydrated human, I liked that one.

I like that the ending was clear. It was known what happened to who, therefore I didn't have to wonder for hours to come.

Lastly, there isn't anything I disliked, but the book isn't emotional/deep enough for me to give it more stars. So overall fascinating, fast and dry read which is great for a reading slump.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Death

Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Stalking, and Car accident