Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

103 reviews

emilypolcyn's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I had a lot of problems with the dialect in this book — the inaccuracies, the classism (only “bad” or “stupid” characters have a dialect, and once someone becomes educated or good they lose the accent), the racism (white lady failing pretty hard at writing AAVE in the 60s). Plus the prose would occasionally have dialect (like saying “likker” instead of “liquor”) but inconsistently and seemingly for no real reason? Not sure what that choice was but it always threw me out of it.

Very flowery writing but also was kind of giving thesaurus.com… and lots of small details about nature and food that interrupt the action without contributing anything thematically (besides that nature is beautiful and they’re in the south, which, yeah). If she mentioned grits one more time…

Also weak character development + characters who say every thought they’re having out loud (also in well-articulated prose) (unless they’re dumb and poor)

I think this really picked up during the court sequence (which I genuinely was interested in and a bit hooked by) but then slowed down again and got detached at the end. But maybe that’s just because Owens was referring to her own connection to a murder trial (which I only heard about after finishing this book and oh my god…. That lady for sure killed someone)

Spoiler

Rolled my eyes SO hard at the Amanda Hamilton reveal… like omg no way this clunky bad poetry that’s been shoehorned into random scenes the whole book was actually ~her~ the ~whole time~ wow I am so shocked

Also weird sex scenes?? And every single time she gets close to having sex she uses the phrase “circling her nipple”. Literally happened like four times 🥴

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Murder, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Injury/Injury detail

reemoony's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

before anything else, fuck delia owens. now, this was genuinely the best book ive read this year. it sucked me in on the first page and kept me there. following kya from her childhood all the way to adulthood become my favorite activity for a week. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Infertility, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Bullying, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, War, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Death, and Cursing

embreads98's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

I generally enjoyed this book, but there were a few parts I took issue with. The main love interest begins when the main character is in her early teens and her pursuer is 18, and there are passages that imply he is attracted to her naive qualities. That gave me a bit of an ick feeling. The other thing is that there is a minor character (Jumpin’s wife, Mabel) who is repeatedly described as notably fat, and yet when her weight is mentioned it is “almost 200 pounds”. It’s a small detail but as a mid-sized person who is over 200 pounds, it made me feel like the author has never actually met a fat person. All of this said, I enjoyed this easy read and found the writing to be good but not great, not necessarily worth the hype that this book has received.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Alcohol, and Violence

tiffyd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Grief, Racism, Alcoholism, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Infertility, Infidelity, and Car accident

skylar_jo_3's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.5

The beginning is very slow and hard to get into but the more you read the better it gets!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Murder, Violence, and Death

pixelited's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Hate crime, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Car accident

t_1208's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Classism, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Self harm

jg34's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book!! It drew me in pretty quickly and I was curious the whole time through wondering what would happen. I seen some negative reviews but they all sounded very pretentious in my opinion. some say it’s not believable - neither are many fiction books I read, it’s fiction. I did find some parts in the beginning far fetched but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story. Another I seen complained they could not find a category for this book - romance? Mystery? YA? I don’t find that to be an issue at all, it allows for a more fully fleshed story. Anyway I guess if you are too good for most things you may dislike this book but my simple brain loved it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Grief, War, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, and Adult/minor relationship

joygarcialim's review against another edition

dark relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I’m confused by this book, in some good ways and in some not so good ways.

The settings used in the book are stunningly described and Delia Owens has a way of weaving words into art. However, this is overused throughout the book, although it gets less as the plot thickened. I do wish that there were points where things were more direct. While the places were so serene and heavily embossed with tales of nature, this is a thriller too and it almost loses the seat-gripping effect.

Kya starts out as a curious little thing and she just gets curiouser and curiouser. It was hard not to feel whilst her story unravelled. Whatever she has grown into, albeit debatable(though Tarzan was a thing so why not), made her an enchanting protagonist and it was undeniably hard not to root for her.

The romances are the parts of the story which I had the most problem with. Especially with Tate, because Chase was obviously a creep. Tate was kinda creepy too tbh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Classism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Infertility and Suicidal thoughts

sierrabedwell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.0

I thought this was a great historical fiction / murder mystery. The ending was not something I could predict so I was satisfied on that end. The whole story was okay but overall it wasn’t the greatest thing I have ever read. But still good. Overhyped but not bad! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Sexual content