Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

American War by Omar El Akkad

4 reviews

wandering_seal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Oooh this was good in the most grim, unremitting way possible.

I did struggle with the pacing at the start, but overall this was such an interesting piling on of events. I particularly loved the shifting focus at the end - the conclusion was exactly what I expected and also not at all.

I listened to this on audiobook, and while I thought it was so, so well done I do wish I'd a physical copy of the book so I could flick back between some of the events and documentation as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

underwaterlauren's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.0

this was just so wholly unpleasant to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Xenophobia and Vomit

hopefulpterodactyl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hmatt's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Incredibly powerful. This is such a hard but also necessary time to read this sort of work - or just this work, in particular. I read quite a bit of speculative fiction and I still can't quite compare this book to much else. Think World War Z, but closer to home, more realistic, and more political. I was wowed at how I could both disagree with the protagonists and also empathize with them (the mark of great characterization, IMO). 

If you like audiobooks, it's short-ish and extremely well narrated. Plot-wise, it almost lost me about two-thirds of the way through, but quickly turned back around and tied everything together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Suicide