Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Ophelia After All

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

6 reviews

maple_dove's review

emotional lighthearted reflective sad slow-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

3.75

SDKJASLDHASDIOSADIOASDOS I DID NOT EXPECT THAT?!

Also, I took me 10 days to finish reading this book when I usually only take a few days to finish one. High school WHYYYYY--

I Liked

That this wasn't about Ophelia getting the girl or discovering her queerness because of a relationship. This book was about discovering and loving yourself, which was such a nice change. I loved it. 💛
The complexity was amazing.
How AWARE this book is (the knowledge of a variety of identities).

I Didn't Like

Sammie. I'M NOT SORRY! Sammie was a jerk, and you know it. Hell, he even admitted it at the end of the book. I'm glad he admitted it, apologized (actually, not making excuses), and started seeing a therapist to self-improve. I didn't dislike him every time he made an appearance in the book, I'll admit. It was more like 50/50 like and dislike.
I don't belong in a big friend group (or any friend group with more than three people, tbh), nor do I like being in them so I can't relate to the friend group dynamics.

Favorite Quotes:

Virginal as I am, my golden sexual-advice rule is that if you can't talk about it, you probably shouldn't be doing it. Seriously, be a little mature.

"Ophelia, it's great to see you. What grade are you in now, tenth?"
Daf stifles a laugh. I forcefully hand him back the wine.
"I'm actually a senior."
"No way!" He gasps in that classic I'm An Adult And Cannot Process You Aging At The Same Rate As Me For Some Reason way and turns to Mom.

"But sometimes, when you've known someone for years and they build up this image of you, it's hard to talk about things that mess with that image. It feels like you'd be breaking some bond of trust between you and that person by being different than you were before. I don't just mean subtle, slow changes. I mean, like, the big things that they never saw coming."

I know kissing and liking Talia shouldn't change who I am to them, or to myself, but it does. And maybe they'd say 'Oh, this doesn't change anything!' or 'You're still the same Ophelia we know and love!' but it does, and I'm not the same. And they can't possibly understand that. It's not just that I'm scared they'll hate me for this; I'm scared they won't even see it."
"People confuse acceptance with erasure," he says with the weight of understanding that only someone else who has battled this same internal conflict possibly could. (pg. 284)

I agree with this so much. "This doesn't change anything" and "You're still the same" just never felt right. Of course being queer and/or trans changes things. That's the point.

"Did I ever tell you why I chose Ophelia though?"
"No," I admit, surprised I never asked. "I always figured you wanted something more unique. Or that Dad vetoed Juliet." Dad never wanted to watch adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, claiming it was too tragic for him. The irony of him still loving Hamlet isn't lost on me.
She laughs. "No, he always knew it was my dream to name a child after one of them. Juliet and Ophelia were always my favorite because they are two of the most quickly dismissed among people who refuse to dig past the surface narrative. Juliet is remembered as a foolish teenage girl who threw away her life for a boy she hardly knew, and Ophelia is remembered more for her virginity and inability to accept Hamlet's rejection than anything else."
"Great legacies you left me."
"But that's not who those girls were," she corrects firmly. "Romeo was just as much a hopeless romantic as Juliet, and they gave their lives to show the world that true love mattered more than senseless hatred. Juliet cared enough about her family to die so they could live brighter, wiser lives. I respected her as a character for being more mature than most give her credit for."
"Then why'd you pick Ophelia?" I ask, dusting my hands against my jeans. She narrows her eyes at the crumbs I'm spreading in the car, but keeps going.
"Ophelia was all those things too. But she also wore her heart on her sleeve. She wasn't 'mad' in her final scene; she was grieving without shame. She was begging for someone to hear her desperation beneath the offered flowers."

I recognize the look in his eyes, not quite hunger for something deeper. Longing, love, profound admiration. I'm sure he'd find the same things in my eyes when I look at Talia too, and instead of swallowing that sting of realization, I embrace it. Running from these feelings did me no good. I don't cling to the idea that I have a romantic future with Talia anymore, a future I'm still mourning the loss of, but I shouldn't have to pretend I never wanted one. (pg. 327)

Agatha was right. Prom was never about the dresses or the dates or the ridiculous theme. It was about celebrating, through all those little details, the feeling that holy shit, we actually survived high school.
Well, almost survived it. (pg. 329)

Conclusion:

In the end, my lack of interest for realistic fiction kind of blew it for me. 😓 I know what you're going to say, "ThEn WhY dId YoU rEaD tHiS bOoK?" Because I still wanted to read it. :) And will I continue to read realistic fiction? Yes.

Content Warnings

natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/92e4cca1-4448-4061-9eb5-f2c6010428e7

Content Warnings

violetgarden's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

Content Warnings

luananki's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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 don’t know how to put into words that i absolutely love this book. there wasn’t a single page i didn’t fall in love with. i did not want the story to end.

there is so much representation and not only queer representation but also the struggle of being an interracial child, i related to ophelia a lot.

her not being able to open up and basically pushing everyone away even though she clearly needed someone to talk to and her being scared of destroying the “perfect” imagery her friends and family created of her in their heads and her feeling like she doesn’t truly belong with any culture.

i get her, on almost every level.

wes is (like the author mentions in the acknowledgments) a precious cinnamon roll. i’m so glad he became friends with ophelia

and supported her even though they didn’t even really know each other in the beginning.

he also sounds like a very comforting person to be around. the development of their relationship was one of the thinks i enjoyed the most throughout this book.

i had fun with every single character. their friend group made so much sense. all of them felt real because they all had their own ongoing struggles and flaws to deal with. the emphasis on healthy communication, saying sorry and that queer relationships are about more than having sex, as well as friendship and that no relationship is more important than the other make me so happy.

sammie and agatha are amazing and also lindsay (i appreciate the relationship between her and ophelia so much, it’s sort of painful but also very real) and o’s parents and the youth center and the unexpected aro and ace representation - loved it

i was expecting it to be a full on romance book but i’m even happier it turned out the way it did. the ending fits the story perfectly.

this was a treat in so many ways. i wish i had this when i was younger.

i will hopefully come back to this one day and decide to reread because good queer latine representation is really something i need more of.

thank you racquel marie for writing this story and thank god for booktok for getting this on my fyp <3

Content Warnings

thesawyerbean's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book was such an endearing read. It was a pleasure to read this queer YA coming-of-age story: the diverse cast of characters were well-developed, with believable humorous dialogue and realistic problems that made it feel like a slice of life. The plot was sweet and heart-warming, and a very important representation of growing up queer. Some of the writing was gorgeous and thought-provoking while not feeling unnatural in the context of the novel. A truly pleasant read for fans of YA contemporaries

Content Warnings

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

1. THIS COVER. The minute I saw this cover, I died. So beautiful.

"Ophelia After All" is basically the story of Ophelia Rojas in her senior year of high school. She is "boy crazy," loves her friends, and is a huge romantic at heart. What happens, though, when a girl walks into her life and makes her feel things she didn't think were possible?

This was one of my most anticipated of 2022 and while I liked it, I felt kind of let down. There is a lot to like about this book. It's funny, the side characters are as complicated and fleshed out as our main character, and the coming of age element / figuring out who you are in terms of sexuality is handled in a very realistic way. I could relate to Ophelia's journey to figuring out she's queer in a lot of ways, having been through some of the same confusion when I myself was a senior in high school. I also thought that the literary references were great and they were among some of my favorite parts of the book. There were some scenes where the drama came to a head that had me gasping and turning the pages - well, swiping them, I read this on kindle - extremely quickly.

Unfortunately, Ophelia had some annoying ass friends and they were always present. There was only one or two of them that didn't absolutely make me roll my eyes in the back of my head. I don't know about you, but if someone made fun of me constantly for having crushes on people, I would simply not be their friend. Ophelia's a better bitch than me. I realize this is YA, so I'm not the target audience, but the melodrama in relation to the prom was really difficult for me to care about. However, I DID NOT TAKE A STAR OFF FOR THIS, because I am not the target audience! Having said that, it was an issue for me. I am an adult who enjoys YA, but when the high school politics are very heavy handed, it becomes a little hard for me. One star came off for the friends being total assholes, and another star came off because honestly, I think that this could've been written a little better, and I hate that I think that, because this was a 5 star prediction.

Content Warnings

More...