Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

51 reviews

bookishmillennial's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews because I don’t like leaving them. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial
 
This was wild. Absolutely WILD. The last 20% is where all the meat of the story really is unpacked, but the first 80% had me guessing and wondering who to trust. This book felt like it could've existed in the world of Riverdale x Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, like a nefarious camp horror!! This elite summer camp setting in the Catskills Mountains was eerie and screamed "bad things will happen!" I loved the representation of Mars as genderfluid, but I was confused as to why no one else ever used pronouns besides he/him, when she made it clear that they use he/they/she? Maybe that was intentional to show that everyone around Mars was an "ally" but still fumbling and getting it wrong? They also constantly deadname him, which frustrated me. However, again, I'm guessing it was a deliberate choice to possibly evoke unease and tension from the readers? I'm totally projecting here lol!

Anyway, I appreciated the fact that I had no idea who to trust in this novel. Maybe that's obvious in a horror/thriller, that you shouldn't count anyone out. However, I could not for the life of me (!!!) tell if the Honeys were supposed to be the villains or in solidarity with Mars! It was exhausting to be me, and I think that just shows how talented Ryan La Sala is in their fleshing out of these characters, and how every single moment the Honeys shared with Mars left me guessing how I felt about the interaction. Was that meant to be helpful? Was that threatening? Do they know something? Are they just as scared? This was masterfully done!!! 

I'm excited to read more from Ryan La Sala, and this was the perfect book for me to let go of summer (like truly, fuck summer after reading this book. I want no part of it hahaha), and to welcome autumn and Halloween season! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Child death, Murder, Sexism, Transphobia, and Blood

Minor: Sexual content

queerreaderchaos's review

dark informative mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Murder, Misogyny, Bullying, Gaslighting, Sexism, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Classism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Cancer

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Mars and Caroline are twins. Their mother is a New York senator. When they were younger, they both attended a summer camp called Aspen Conservancy. The camp is mostly for children of the rich and powerful. The exact location isn't given. It is a very forested area. Probably upstate New York. An incident happened to Mars that caused him to stop going to the camp. Caroline continued to go. Their ages at the present time of the book weren't given. They were probably around 16. In the present time, Caroline goes missing from the camp. A short time later, she comes back to Mar's parents' house and dies under strange circumstances. At Caroline's funeral, 3 members of Caroline's cabin at the camp do something strange. The cabin is called Cabin H. The girls who camp there are called the Honey's. Each cabin in the camp has to have a main function. The girls raise bees. Mars want to go back to the camp to try to figure what happened with his sister. He does go back to camp. The remainder of the book deals with his attempts to figure out what happened to Caroline. There are a lot of tense moments. There are many scary situations. There were a couple of twists towards the end that I didn't see coming. I loved the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Death, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent

torrentsofhayl's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Death, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Sexism, Misogyny, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Cursing

abitbetterbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Literally what the fuck.

This was an absolutely wild ride and I loved every minute of it. There was so many twists and turns and gorgeous writing with raw emotion, I tore through this in less than 24 hours. An absolutely perfect book for the cottage at the end of the summer. This book was a fascinating way to dive into the concepts of grief and death, while also exploring gender, misogyny, complicated social dynamics, and the simultaneous exploitation and disdain of young women and girls. 

Outside of the story, the aesthetic design of this book was absolutely flawless. The cover is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, and the honeycomb embossed endpapers are stunning. But I also loved the choices of the melting chapter titles (which matched the same warping of the title on the cover) as the book progresses and the story becomes more convoluted, as well as the multiplying flowers on the title page for each new part of the book. Even the margins on the edge of the page are small, which makes you just feel like something is slightly off while reading; I don’t know if this choice was deliberate but if it was, it was absolutely ingenious. 

I will definitely be reading more from LaSala in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Misogyny, and Body horror

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

wyabook234's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping, Body shaming, and Child death

kh_xion's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Child death, Bullying, Body horror, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Cannibalism, Death, Grief, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cancer, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

imstephtacular's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Blood, Homophobia, Grief, Violence, Transphobia, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Misogyny, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical content, and Sexism

mollieweitzman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

okay so a slow start it took a while to get into but at the end I liked the twists and how everything tied together!! Once it picked up I was like okay I gotta finish this! If you think about the ending though it doesn’t make sense that the boys just got away with/continued bullying Mars the entire time?? And there are a few other plot holes I feel, some loose ends and I just feel like I wanted more with the ending! Overall not bad! The sound effects in the audiobook are cool as hell :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual assault

mganier's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail