Reviews tagging 'Torture'

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

18 reviews

thunderbird's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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? No

5.0

It's been a long time since I stayed up well past my bedtime to keep reading.  This heartbreaking account of desperation brings home a guttural sense of things I can never fully understand as I read here in my privilege. I hope those who read it can find compassion in their hearts for the reality of the migrant experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

jamieholton's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

acerbicread's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

The book makes you feel emotional for a lot of reasons, but I understand the "trauma-p*rn" description that professional reviews have given it. 
It's trauma that feels unauthentic. Read a book about immigrating by someone who actually experienced it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

beccadamb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual harassment

_kermode's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking

orlagal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

jhavens95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Torture

domtheknight's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I feel that I can't rate this book because I'm extremely conflicted about many things.  I read it because someone picked it for a book club I'm in; otherwise I would not have picked it up based on description.  If I hadn't felt that I should finish it in order to participate in book club, I would have put it down almost immediately, and at many additional times throughout the story.  This book was not for me.

As for whether it's for anybody... from a technical writing standpoint, like in terms of making good sentences with words that sound and feel a certain way, Jeanne Cummins has skills.  It's bare and factual for the most part, but every paragraph is screaming in grief, underneath.  Grief, and horror and desperation.  It's creepy in that way, and sometimes that's good and what is right for the story.  But given the subject matter and the author, it honestly crossed the "violence for violence sake and not to further the story" line many times.  

The point of this story, having sat on this review overnight, seemed to be everything that can go wrong will be more awful than you can imagine.  I don't know why you tell that story.  There's no character growth.  Is the point to generate sympathy for immigrants?  Is the point to just be horror?  I think there's too much grief to be horror, but it's not really a grief book either.  It didn't feel like a horror book and it wasn't marketed as horror, but that's the ultimate end story I get from it.  I never cried, I just felt numb.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

I'm not sure I got all the warnings. This book is very dark and fairly graphic about it, the plot is that a woman sees 16 members of her family shot (this is in the first couple paragraphs), manages to save her son, and then must run. They are in Mexico, they take various migrant paths, with some migrants coming from further south countries. There are gangs and violence and Lydia basically decides they need to go to the USA fairly early on and the rest of the story is whether or not they make it, plus some details about situations their fellow migrants are running from. In some cases the details left off the page felt worse than what was on the page.