Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Female of the Species

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Female of the Species, by Mindy McGinnis

16 reviews

mvanhaas's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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lrn22's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Be aware that this book has pretty much all the trigger warnings. It is a really hard read but also beautiful and haunting and will linger in my head for a long time to come.

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isabellecollum's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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bibleophilia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

if I was being totally objective and critical , I would’ve probably gave this book a 3.5 stars instead of a 3.75 but I feel morally obliged to rate it highter. I mean , it’s a book that SHOULD be read . It should be recommended to the younger generation. It has an important message and it delivers it. The commentary on rape culture was done very well.

But the plot and character development wasn’t. It had potential to be amazing in all its aspects , but it wasn’t.
I don’t know if it’s because it should’ve been longer or because the plot and characters were only there to serve the message or because of an entirely different reason .. but it just wasn’t the best.
I don’t think it’s the writing style . I loved that. There were such good passages , ones that I can’t shake out of my head . I particularly adored the first chapter and the last few . I think the beginning and ending were written incredibly well and they were my favorite parts. And as mentioned before , the passages hinting at the theme being discussed were incredible . No arguing about that.

The character development, on the other hand …
For example , Jake and Alex’s relationship??? That was so out of nowhere . It happened so quickly which gives us no time to be attached to it and that’s really out of character for someone like Alex!
Honestly, if she would’ve made them just become friends , it would’ve been so much better and saved the same purpose .
Not to mention , Jake as a character wasn’t fleshed out all that well . I saw what she was trying to do and I appreciate it. I think it’s an interesting to have such a POV - the typical teenage boy. But , she just didn’t do it all that well. I mean , at the end , it felt like Jake was still mostly driven by his stupid hormones so really, What did he learn from all of this? How did he grow?
Peekay was kind of better in that aspect, you can see how she grows and develops through out the story and I really enjoyed seeing her friendship with Alex .
As for Alex , she really is an interesting character but the root of her nature wasn’t really explored. It is mentioned that this rage she feels isn’t just because of her sister’s murder . It’s something in her nature , some kind of mental illness . But that isn’t dived into , when it should’ve been .
The idea of having 3 different POVs in a story like this is an excellent idea. The execution , as in the development of these three characters , just wasn’t as good as it needed to be , in order to make this book what I thought it would be.

Do I think you should still read this book? Yes . I 100% do. The reasons why I still really liked it are good enough reasons for me to recommend the book despite its flaws.

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jj0's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Amazing. I sobbed my eyes out. Make sure to check trigger warnings.

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airamst's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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enchante's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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glowworms's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

a similar book that is also super good is "what girls are made of" it has similar themes of sexuality, teenage girlhood, complex characters, and violence and it also contains a dog shelter subplot specifically.

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jadeandsuch's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

While it is a young adult novel, this book is deep. It has its moments of being everything you want a YA book to be: quick, cute, popular boy falls for quiet girl. But it’s so much deeper than that. It’s dark and it complicated and heartbreaking and all the other words you don’t think would make a good YA story but it does. The writing is wonderfully quick but you never feel rushed or like you missed part of the story. The characters are well rounded, complicated, and at their core, simple young adults with the simplest of needs. The need to love and be loved. The need to open up and be understood. The need to grieve and be heard.

By the end of the novel I was crying. No shame. A YA book made me cry. All the characters had grown and blossomed and it was beautiful. McGinnis did a phenomenal job of encapsulating grief and love and acceptance. She made sure you felt the loss and the violation and the vengeance each character felt. She captured the hierarchy of girls in high school while also showing the bonds of feminism that keep us together and make us stand up for one another. But on top of it all, she showed us that the female of the species really is more deadly than the male.

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joakley101's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love this book. If you disagree we can fight in a Denny’s parking lot.

“Sometimes I forget for one second and it hurts. It’s a different kind of pain than the constant, the weight that hangs from my heart. It swings from twine embedded so deeply that my aorta has grown around it. Blood pulses past rope in the chambers of my heart, dragging away tiny fibers until my whole body is suffused and pain is all I am and ever can be.”

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