Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

True Biz by Sara Nović

45 reviews

sorenzs's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I haven’t gotten so wonderfully immersed into the world of a book for a while until reading this. At its core, True Biz is about being human. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Car accident, Ableism, Alcohol, Medical content, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism

Minor: Vomit

jialianyang's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

Loved this book. A perfect mix of plot, character development and education. I loved the perspective switching, the incorporation of ASL and Deaf culture and Deaf slang. It was a perfect supplemental book to my ASL class, but it would be great standalone read as well because it is so compelling. Definitely more of a young adult book, but in a good way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, Violence, Ableism, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, and Misogyny

lovealwaysadi's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Dementia, Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Chronic illness, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content

madelinedalton's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

I loved how this novel explored the characters of Charlie and Austin, and their relationship with one another. The thing that will stick with me most is Charlie's journey from being forced to assimilate into hearing culture to gaining language at RVSD and embracing her deafness.

Some criticisms:

Spoiler

February and Mel. I don't feel like either of them developed as characters at all. They were so bad at communicating, and the ending was so rushed that we never got to see them make up or grow from their conflict.

Speaking of the ending, it was SO rushed. We needed at least 20 more pages to wrap all that up. The novel opens with Charlie, Elliot, and Austin disappearing, so I was expecting a major pay-off by the time we circled back to that action. Instead, it felt rushed and un-earned.

Charlie's involvement with the anarchists, and the anarchy plot line in general, didn't jive with me. It felt like Charlie was living two separate lives--normal kid with a lot of issues who is trying to find her way in the world vs. rebel child. Austin's willingness to go along with all of it also felt very uncharacteristic. I understand that Charlie needed some sort of outlet for rebellion, but based on how her character was portrayed, I'd expect it to be more tame than cooking literal bombs and planning to blow up Edge Bionics. That just seems too far for both her and Austin.

Finally, I didn't love the chapters that came from the perspectives of peripheral characters (Kayla, Wanda, Charlie's mom, Elliot, etc). It took me out of the story. I would have preferred that the narration stayed with our three main perspectives and that we were given more of the peripheral characters' perspectives via those chapters. Another cool option would have been to give those characters stronger narrative roles and more chapters, creating a true ensemble cast. For example, Kayla's chapter about racism and BASL was fascinating and educational, but we never circled back to it, and I was really disappointed. I would have loved a subplot about racism that ran through the novel as a whole rather than a couple random chapters. Wanda's chapter felt un-earned because the February/Mel conflict was never resolved.

 

Overall, I think all hearing people should read this to learn more about Deaf culture and support Deaf authors. The book is not without its writing flaws, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content

wy_woman's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Physical abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Grief, Racism, Classism, Sexual content, Cursing, and Infidelity

marissab's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Ableism, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Bullying

oliverreeds's review

emotional funny hopeful 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? No

4.5

fuckin excellent. just some of the kids behavior is a little like huh?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Ableism, Alcohol, Racism, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug use, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Violence, Bullying, Car accident, and Pregnancy

augustar14's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

A wonderful dive into Deaf culture and life at a Deaf residential school. The cast of characters is diverse and well developed, each with their own experience of and relationship with their community, culture, and ability (or inability) to assimilate into the hearing world.  I found the perspective of the main character stepping into the Deaf world for the first time to be a great way to transition the reader into a culture they may know little about.  The interludes between chapters that provided more information about ASL were the perfect level for beginners. I especially appreciated, as one listening to this as an audio book (ironic, I know, but it's the most accessible way for me to read lately), the added noise of hands signing when the text was meant to be signed ASL as opposed to spoken English. It would not have been the same experience otherwise. 
Highly recommend this book both to those who have experience with Deaf culture, and those who have none at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Dementia

Audism

ohheyitskaitlin's review

emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Ableism, Car accident, Medical trauma, Death, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Dementia, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Racism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Mental illness, Sexism, Police brutality, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sarkenobi's review

challenging informative reflective 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Dementia, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Grief, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Violence