Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

This Town Is on Fire by Pamela N. Harris

7 reviews

imstephtacular's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Racism, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

aformeracceleratedreader's review

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

Overall really enjoyed this one. The characters could be frustrating but I have to remember they are teens and teens do a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense as an adult.
Really enjoyed Naomi's journey of discovery and embracing her blackness while navigating through the things her white friends said/did that were racist. 
I mainly disliked the romance aspect between Naomi, who is a high school girl, and a college boy. I don't like college kids having romantic situations with high schoolers as a general things. I don't think his age was ever given (so he could've been 19), but I would've preferred her having a high school love interest (so her age, 17 going on 18) instead of a college one.
I honestly didn't expect the twist and did really like the ending. There were some resolutions that were good and gave the reader some hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Racism, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Racism, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Police brutality and Murder

fizzy_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

lettuce_read's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, Police brutality, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

legalplanner's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.0

First and foremost I want to thank Netgalley and Quill Tree Books for my advanced copy.

We're in 2023 and many of us think that race relations aren't an issue. But This Town Is on Fire is the perfect example that we still have so much more to do. Naomi has every right to want to be a normal popular high school student, but by questioning how and where she fits into the world as a person of color changes the dynamics in her life more than she could possibly know.

Reading this in heavy world where we've had pandemics, protests, and violence a lot made this read much heavier than I was expecting. There were times where Naomi, Kylie and crew seemed more naive than I expected an 18 year old to be. I know at that age I was more aware of things going on and figured that these kids would to but it was like they had wool over their eyes and that was a bit hard for me to overlook sometimes because I wanted to reach in there and smack them.

This gave me How to Get Away With Murder vibes because you start in the present and work your way back to that given moment. That type of reading experience allowed me to form opinions about how she was being treated during those "present" times, but it also allowed me to be fully informed from the "past" moments.

Overall, I Harris did an excellent job discussing race relations and dealing with problematic people, police violence, and greed in America. I think this was a great read and should absolutely be read but also acknowledge trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death and Emotional abuse

missrosymaplemoth's review

4.5

A contemporary novel that deals with racism among a friend group in a small town. It showed what teen activism can look like. Three main character, Naomi, comes to realize that a lot of what goes on around her- mainly her friend Kylie’s and Kylie’s family’s behavior- is racist. The ending felt anticlimactic. Still, I would recommend this to YA readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying and Classism