Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

7 reviews

hmih's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Alcohol, Addiction, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Cursing, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit and Blood

anafuentes's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler follows Tess, a newcomer to New York City, as she begins working at an upscale restaurant learning all that the job entails. While there, she becomes closer and closer to her coworkers, in particular Simone, who acts as an emotionally removed mentor, and Jake, the bad boy bartender she wants a relationship with. Simone and Jake have an extremely close relationship that is mysterious to anyone outside of it, yet it fascinates Tess, who works to ingratiate herself to them. 

The writing style is unique and unexpected. Different sections of the novel employ what appears like a blank verse poem using snippets of chatter at the restaurant, passages jam packed with sensory imagery, and descriptive prose. I overall found the writing style to be very effective in that it elevates a service profession to a living art, something that I definitely did not feel in real life while working at restaurants; hence, very impressive.

While I appreciate the overall prose, I'm not fully convinced by the dialogue of the characters. The characters, specifically Jake and Simone, talk in a philosophical way thats sometimes difficult to understand because it feels like they talk in riddles; but maybe that's the point, because they try to be impressive people to others.

This is probably one of the darker "coming-of-age" stories I've read. Tess, while if she tried to reflect on her life more could have seen the red flags in all her interpersonal relationships with her coworkers, really gets a rude awakening at the toxicity of her situation and the behavior/habits she's fallen into. She definitely grows, but in a very difficult way. Because of this though, this book will likely stay on my mind for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse

ashleysager's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This book grew on me the more I read it. Very interesting coming of age story; however, the ending was kind of abrupt and disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Vomit, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Drug use

cboll's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

sydneybedell's review against another edition

emotional funny 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment

time_travel_tragedy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This is like one of the most depressing books I've ever read. She goes to New York and we find out way later she was supposed to be pursuing creative aspirations but she spends the entire book drinking and doing drugs, and overall wasting away. Even the ending, when she realizes the reality of her situation, she doesn't make it better, she does something in line with all her other self destructive actions and then the next day it's like on to better horizons. The ending could have been uplifting, but this character was broken in so many ways, and we get no glimpse into what her future might hold. I needed something a little more at the end to believe there's hope for the character after the novel ends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual harassment

orireading's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content