Reviews tagging 'Acephobia/Arophobia'

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

23 reviews

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark lighthearted mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book has a lot of interesting components, so I can see why it's so popular. I can also see why it's divisive. The main character and his backstory were really compelling to me, but most of the side characters were anywhere from fine (not enough page time) to extremely unlikable. I can tell some of them are clearly set up for further development, but I have a low tolerance for smug, controlling types, which this book is packed with. The exception I can think of is the coach. He was pretty good. I don't love that the one confirmed gay—and not white—character, who is set up as the friendly, non-threatening one had to

sexually assault the main character while he was drugged (I get that he's not the only one at fault for that fucked up situation but the other characters motives for doing this were a lot less selfish but still treated as the violation they were)

and it's just brushed off afterwards. 

So yeah. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

samnotwise's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Murder

sophia_pearl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Car accident and Acephobia/Arophobia

mint_frog's review against another edition

dark funny medium-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

4.5

After reading these books 3 years ago for the first time, I was absolutely sure that I would never re-read them. After years of not being able to get them out of my head and obsessing over the characters, here I am.

While the series has its flaws, the handling of some serious and dark topics in particular, I still think that it is incredibly well written, and has some of the most compelling characters I've ever seen.

This book is funny (I forgot just how funny Andrew is, in particular). Neil Josten is one of my favourite characters of all time, and I love how we're clearly seeing everything through his skewed point of view.

Beware of trigger warnings though, especially since the amount of violence goes up in the following books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide, Car accident, and Acephobia/Arophobia

trintrin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

Phewwww

Okay, let me get the things I didn't like out of the way first:

• There are a lot of unrealistic things like the yakuza, the government/judiciary system/or the lack of it?, Andrew's drugs and how they work, drugs in general tbh, the dialogue at times, that one live TV scene, all the violence, so many things about this made up sport, I could go on.  
• Being info dump-y while somehow not dumping any info at all? Focussing on explaining the not-so-important parts (which I actually quite liked), but not properly explaining the things that really matter (which was annoying). I felt like a lot of names just sprang out of nowhere. Bless ebook search function for saving me multiple times. 
• WHAT ARE THE RULES OF THIS GODFORSAKEN GAME? How do they play it? Why is it so violent? What is the shape and size of the ball? What is the shape and size of the goal? What is the shape and size of the racquet? How sturdy and how deep is the net, if they're meant to smack AND catch with it? How did it get so popular in such a short time? I can't visualise anything other than the court. Maybe it's the curse being non-American.
• There are quite a few clichés. Be it the personality of the characters, or their behaviour, or the plot.
• The writing did read like a fan fiction at times. I wasn't bothered by it as long as it didn't leave out necessary details and drove me crazy. Just a thing to note. 

NOW THAT THAT'S OUT OF THE WAY

AHEM

THIS WAS SO FUN??

Like, I do realise that the way I fell in love at chapter 1 was most definitely due to seeing this series EVERYWHERE and growing fond of the characters before I knew anything about them. And the constant comparison to the sister fandoms that I am actively a part of — I'm talking about Tumblr's Holy Corvid Trinity, of course (Six of Crows, The Raven Cycle, and this one, if you didn't know). Plus, it's character driven + gay + dysfunctional + found family + sports + mafia. I mean, that's right up my alley.

Let's talk about the characters. NEIL JOSTEN, my love. I don't know what it is about him that captivated me from the beginning, but I absolutely adore him, he's my little pookie. Although, he's gotta have to sort his priorities out lmao (bro was more scared of Kevin potentially hating him than getting murdered by his mafia family, I gotta respect that). I hope one day my boy is able to live freely without being paranoid about every little thing.

I know, I listed a lot of gripes I had with Exy, but listen, IT'S A CO-ED SPORT!! I love the girls and I hope we get to see a lot more of them in the upcoming books. Renee Walker, I don't know anything about you, but I love you. Matt is an absolute sweetheart. So is Dan. I wish we got to see more of Allison and Seth. Coach Wymack, what a gigachad. I loved his dynamic with the kids, and loved the way he handles them. I need to see more of Betsy and Abby, as well.

Now moving on to Andrew's lot. For a good majority of the book, I didn't understand how I was supposed to believe that Neil is going to end up being friends — or, uhhh, lovers — with any of these people. Nicky, I have to admit, I didn't like him in the beginning, most definitely hated him in the middle, didn't like him in the end. Aaron is... just there, I guess? I forget he exists half of the time. Kevin reminds me of Rin Itoshi from Blue Lock, so I automatically like him. Andrew, well, sometimes I'm absolutely in love with him, sometimes I don't have an opinion on him, sometimes I flat out don't like him. This roller coaster is perfect to his character to a T, so kudos to that. I can smell the sibling angst coming up, and sibling angsts are always the death of me. Praying for my future self.

Random other things I liked: The last couple of chapters were WILD! I literally couldn't put the book down. A lot of messed up things happened. Almost all of the characters are clinically insane and need therapy. They hate each other, but if you try to hate them, they'll hate you more. All the little things Neil did out of paranoia (sitting in the back of the classroom where no one can approach from behind, or in the middle of the car where he could see both the driver and the passenger). The banter and the chemistry between the Foxes. The way the queer characters were represented. How funny a lot of the scenes were.

It doesn't matter if you like this book, or think it's trash. I think we all can agree that the Moriyamas have a special place in hell. And that chapter 7 was mega messed up.

TL;DR
This book is unhinged and definitely not for everyone. If you are willing to overlook certain aspects and just read for the fun it brings, go ahead. But, I strongly urge everyone to look up the content warnings before proceeding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, and Acephobia/Arophobia

I strongly urge everyone to take the content warning seriously as the book covers pretty dark topics. Additional tags include: Explicit descriptions of spiking drinks proceeded by non-consented kissing, rape jokes, overdosing, traumatic childhoods for almost all the characters.

axlroz's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, and Alcohol

lennie_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Did i understand Exy? No
Did i like the characters? I honestly don't know
Could i put it down? Also No

Something about this book dug its murderous lil fingers into my brain. 

Think Haikyuu meets the Yakuza. 

And for the love of god check the trigger warnings before reading this book because wow. 

There are a lot of slurs used in the book, a lot of terrible things (past and present) that happen, a confusing made up sport and some very damaged and toxic characters but idk, something about it just makes me want to delve deeper into the story and characters. 

I'm genuinely not sure of my rating for this and there were parts that were very uncomfortable for me to read.

CW: murder, physical abuse, child abuse, death, overdose, drug use, drug abuse, spiking, rape joke, use of the r slur and the f slur, death of a parent, burning a corpse, homophobia, violence, addiction, blood, injury, toxic relationship, mental illness, 
state mandated drug use (this one is absolutely bizarre). 
And probably more tbh 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, and Acephobia/Arophobia

somills's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

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

5.0

“Remember this feeling. This is the moment you stop being the rabbit.”

Is it problematic? Yes. Does it make sense? No. Is it poorly-edited? Yes. AND YET. Here I am, six months and two rereads later, with a bedroom full of foxes and Andrew Minyard fan art, simping over another murderous blonde twink, practically doomsday prepping for the release of The Sunshine Court. What has my life become?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Ableism and Acephobia/Arophobia

Please heed the content warnings. This is not an easy series, and they should be taken very seriously. If you’re impacted by any of them, please consider. *Content warnings are for the series as a whole*

riccii's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

It's been a while since I read these books. The writing is not amazing and it has a lot of faults. AND YET I devoured this within about 24 hours. I do appreciate the fact that this book mostly sets up the next two books. I like these early iterations of the characters less, but also that is the point, to see how they develop over the series. Especially

Andrew on his meds

is just much less appealing to me as a character, compared to later in the series. 

This does mean that I'm looking forward to the next book(s)! 

I do have to say, that the writing definitely already picks up towards the end of the book, from

the showdown at the tv show

on you already get a good idea of what the next two books are going to look like, as far as character dynamics go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

_persephone's review against another edition

dark funny fast-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

4.25

neil shit-talking riko

at the end is half the reason i'll be reading the next book. get his ass!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Acephobia/Arophobia