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ohmygoshtosh's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Sexual content, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Medical content, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Minor: Racism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
avasbookmark's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Trafficking, and Infidelity
Moderate: Alcohol and Drug abuse
priadrummond's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, and Drug abuse
Minor: Pedophilia, Violence, and Trafficking
alaina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a story about falling in love but isn’t a romance.
I wanted the Creole family identity to be explored more deeply.
Graphic: Trafficking, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Death of parent
rgibbons's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
Moderate: Drug abuse, Death, Trafficking, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Sexual violence
Minor: Homophobia
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Death of parent, Mental illness, Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Sexual content, Trafficking, Vomit, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, and Racism
Minor: Violence, Confinement, and War
andreadelo's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Trafficking, Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual violence
Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
disastercryptid's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death of parent, Trafficking, and Sexual content
kingrosereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book starts off the way you expect it to as this kind of sad summer vibe with Sara and Emilie’s adolescent traumas. Sara’s childhood best friend turned girlfriend is found dead in a river which results in 16 year old Sara running away to LA. Emilie, at 15, witnesses her older sister overdose in their home. The books goes back and force between the two POVs and it also switches from their past and present throughout the book. This flow works at times and other times is very clunky. I found myself liking their stories separately but not really caring about their story together.
The book is advertised as being this romantic drama where these two women are connected by this one small thing, and they have to overcome their past trauma to make their relationship work. However, the women don’t meet until the halfway point. They meet briefly and then don’t meet for another year where it then takes a few months before they run into each other again and start a relationship that’s gone on for a couple of months before they hit a (albeit mild) snag that has them both questioning the relationship and their own self-worths. It’s this point that’s lost on me. Their connection is instant which I get and could be on board with, but then it’s all very instalove and high stakes when it’s only been a couple of months. And their entire relationship is brushed over. Which, if this is just literary fiction, say that, don’t advertise it as this romantic drama when the romance is barely in the book, and the romance that is there, is pretty insignificant. These women are 26 and 28, which is relatively young, but they’re acting like they’re 19 and 21.
I did like Emilie’s struggle with her Creole identity and passing, but it’s just kind of brushed over. Just like Sara’s past is brushed over.
The book eventually meanders through these two stories that takes away from the emotional aspect of the book. I’d honestly prefer if this was just their two respective stories to show maybe their hardships so you can connect to them, but make the stories more linear, only jumping back when it’s relevant. Then end with them meeting and leaving it open ended.
It gets points for the first half and actually getting my cold, dead heart to feel something.
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Drug use, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death of parent, Trafficking, and Pedophilia
bandysbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Rape, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, and Violence