Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold

12 reviews

l1ndz7's review against another edition

3.25

This is a feminist retelling of Red Riding Hood written in second person. It touches on toxic masculinity, women empowerment and shame. 

It uses menstruation as an empowering tool instead of something to be ashamed of, which I appreciated. It definitely feels taboo to talk about. Judging about the amount of reviews saying how gross it was that menstruation was a component of the story, I wish talking about it was more normalized. At first, I was taken back by how much menses was mentioned but once I understood the purpose, it didn’t bother me as much.  

This book portrays toxic men as wolves which was great but her message at the end of the book implies that the only way to deal with this is to treat men the same way they’ve treated women. I don’t agree with that message at all and judging by the reviews, a lot of people heard the same message. At first, I thought this book was portraying all men as wolves but it was refreshing to see that our FMC had a wonderful, loving, supportive bf the whole book. 

I wish this wasn’t categorized as YA because there is explicit content in here that I wouldn’t let someone as young as twelve to be reading. I would categorize this more as new adult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying and Sexual harassment

whut_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

4.75

Loved it and the concept. For 5 stars, I would have preferred there to be a greater discussion around picking apart the root of mysogyny in relation to the male perspective. But overall, I quite enjoyed it and the themes it explored. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage and Misogyny

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

maaartha's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

bookwyrmsam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

There were some things I greatly enjoyed about this book, particularly the prose. Arnold's writing is stunning and I definitely want to read more of her work in the future.  I do have some complicated thoughts about the ways sensitive subject matter was handled and the theming of the book, but I do not agree with reviewers who felt Arnold was suggesting violence is the only answer to misogynist abuses of power, in fact her characters directly oppose this idea on multiple occasions. I do think this book is not for the faint of heart. If body descriptions and gore make you uncomfortable you might need to take your time with this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Death of parent

bbygirl21's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm not used to this pov style and the ending seemed really abrupt, I wish they was a little bit more to this story, but I really enjoyed this book. I love the four female characters Meme, Bisou, Maggie, and Keisha. I love how strong and brave they each are whether they are/were a wolf hunter or not. 

I think Sybil's (Meme) story was tragic and sad. I really liked her husband Garland until what he eventually did when he found out what she is. He was a really sweet character and even though I understand his reaction in a way I wish he would have understood everything and stayed. 

Bisou's boyfriend James was also really great. I love how supportive and protective he is of Bisou even while not knowing what Bisou is. 

I wouldn't loved to see more about Maggie's stalker and maybe figuring out who he is and whether or not he is who is suspected in the book or someone else.

I would've also looked to know who this self proclaimed incel is who sent several letters to Keisha to be published in the schools newspaper. And I would've liked to know if Maggie's stalker and Keisha's random letter sender are the same person.

So obviously that's plenty of questions that went unanswered, the ending being quite abrupt, and the pov style not being one I'm used to all are what brought my rating down. But I did enjoy the story. I loved how the book deals with a lot of women's issues and how they impact women.

I do suggest looking into the trigger warnings if you're looking into possibly reading this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Rape

binibabe's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book is very odd. It is very feminist and speaks of bodily functions including mensturation a lot. There are far too many events that occur in this book, any one of them could have easily been their own book. Nearly the entire book is written in 2nd person which was definitely different. I didn’t like the 75 page section from an altered point of view. I found it too long and nearly unnecessary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Sexual harassment

caitlink's review against another edition

Writing sex between minors even though the author was most likely an adult when writing this seems weird. At least make them college age(chapter 1) Talks about said sex and the girl’s body in chapter 3 - writer is weird Constantly bringing up that this 16 year girl is naked(chapter 2) Sexual assault between minors and no one does anyone - are there no cameras in the school? Lot of talk of breasts

• Don’t like the use of “you” a bunch. Like you’re the reader/didn't like the writing style

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Moderate: Murder

directorpurry's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

stressejesse's review against another edition

adventurous dark

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion and Alcohol

malloryfitz's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy