Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

22 reviews

maite_moonchild's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

I apparently totally forgot to review this book when I read it, but it was the second book for the Besties Book Club. (But then no one showed up lol.)  I want to continue this series, but I think I'll listen to the audiobook for the next one because the writing is so heavily accented, that I think I'm missing some of the cadence by reading it myself. As someone who isn't super familiar with a Scottish accent and can't easily recreate it in my head. But whew, this one got heckin' dark. It was quite scary, but I thought the characters were a lot of fun, and there was significant tension for things not seeming incredibly okay.  A fun read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Confinement

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Blood, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

2.0

 Finished reading: December 24th 2023

“Doing something when it is hard, because it is the right thing to do, matters more than doing it when it's easy. The world needs light now more than ever.”

I know that I don't read a lot of YA anymore, but I do tend to enjoy a good urban fantasy and there was just something about the blurb of The Library Of The Dead that had me fully intrigued. I was SO excited when my TBR jar thought it was time to finally read it, and I actually expected to end up finding a new favorite... But sadly the complete opposite happened. This had nothing to do with the premise itself, and everything with the writing. I simply clashed horribly with the writing style, and the way the premise was developed was actually rather confusing and vague at times. I strongly disliked all the slang and cursing; instead of feeling natural, the tone was rather forced and I sometimes struggled to understand certain phrases. My dislike for the writing also ment I wasn't really a fan of the main character Ropa, which was where most of the slang appeared. Even my curiosity for the bookish elements, the library and the magic couldn't redeem this story for me, and I confess that I started skimreading long before the halfway mark. I guess it won't come as a surprise that I won't be continuing this series in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

fionamclary's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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? No

4.0

This was a fun time, but I was kind of surprised that the protagonist was so young based on how others had talked about this book. I'm not entirely sure what age range is the target audience. Not that a book can't be for everyone, but I like it to be clear who the main audience is. If someone had pitched this to me as a teen/YA novel I might have rated it a bit higher since my expectations would have been met. I'll probably read book 2. Ropa is a fun protagonist and I am looking forward to reading more about her friendships with Jomo and Priya and hopefully getting some more backstory on Gran.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Trafficking

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Slavery, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Rape, Police brutality, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bessadams's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad 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: Kidnapping and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Car accident

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Car accident, and Alcohol

Drowning, sex work.

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad 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

3.75

Ropa might be one of the most interesting characters and POVs I’ve ever read. Just the way she looks at the world, and that mixture of so smart but so worldly. The lore is given really sporadically and sparingly, which is nice so it doesn’t get weighed down by it but I did end up wanting more. I’m excited to read the rest of the series. 

Paranormal Mystery, Little but coming of age 

“Doing something when it is hard, because it is the right thing to do, matters more than doing it when it’s easy.”

“Evil doesn’t happen because good men do nothing. It happens because they get sucked in, they participate. There are no neutral observers in this world, Old Albert E. showed us that already. We’re all in the game, whether we like it or not.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

enbae's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, and Abandonment

Kidnapping of children, Maiming (a.o. of children), Poverty

mattyb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Trafficking, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Police brutality, and Alcohol

atlantiareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

The Library of the Dead was not my typical read, but was a nice change of pace. Theres a good mystery and great cast of characters. I found this book to quite creept at times. Even though the main character is 14, this book i feel like is definitely better suited to an older age range.
Overall i felt the first 130 pages were too slow and were difficult to get through. Truthfully consideted dnf'ing.

I feel like learning more about the greatly detailed magic system and spending more time in the hidden library would have brought me more enjoyment with this book.

Unsure if I will continue on to book 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Police brutality, and Medical trauma