Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - November 9

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

I think Ben might be my least favorite male lead of all time, and that's hard to top considering the amount of disappointing men there are in literature. He is constantly fetishizing and sexualizing Fallon, even when it makes her uncomfortable! He makes her feel like shit, but it's ok because he's the male lead? I got the ending spoiled for me and just by knowing that, all of Ben's actions are made to be much worse than what I initially thought.

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rosamaria's review

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

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magmun's review

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

0.25

This was one of the worst books I’ve ever read and it featured the worst characters imaginable. Both main characters are walking red flags, but the male love interest Ben is a psychopathic stalker when you remove the authors rose colored glasses. The romance is uncomfortable and the choice to only show one day every year with the characters makes them feel empty and undeveloped. It would have been nice to see the characters actually change and live their lives instead of just hearing them talk about it. Colleen Hoover needs to learn what consent is and clearly struggles with pacing and story structure. The ending is rushed and the payoff is non-existent as the main conflict between the love interests doesn’t happen until the last 15% of the book making the resolution feel half assed and disappointing. Also, having Ben write the book November 9 within the book makes for insanely self congratulatory statements from Colleen. Characters go on and on about how good of an idea the book is and how great the love story is. It was an insanely cringy self-insert/ circle jerk moment for Colleen that made me roll my eyes and sigh. Maybe she knew how bad the book was and needed to preemptively give herself good fake reviews.

Within hours of meeting each other Ben is telling Fallon it is her fault for being insecure about her scars (which he gave her) and non-consensually undressing her and sexually harassing her. There are multiple scenes that feel like sexual assault as Fallon mentions again and again feeling uncomfortable about Ben’s actions and feeling like she can’t move or stop him. This is supposed to be “sexy” I guess but it feels like a Stockholm syndrome situation where Fallon is so starved of male attention she ignores her comfort and excuses his behavior. The choice of having Ben’s pov throughout the book without him ever mentioning the fire he caused that almost killed Fallon makes him look like a psychopath that is stalking and using this girl he is obsessed with. The ending is especially egregious as Fallon only finds out about Ben causing the fire in the last few chapters. She has her first reasonable reaction and is rightfully horrified but every other character in her life including her mom is on Ben’s side. Fallon forgives Ben and her awful father for some reason in the last couple pages of the book making for a unsatisfactory ending that brushes over all of the problems in their relationship.

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fluture's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Though the plot somewhat predictable, the turns in several tremendous events successfully added enough drama to it which made the story more compelling to be read. Overall, it's a light read and page turning book.

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.5

This is my first Colleen Hoover read ~ I’m doing a reading vlog checking her out. YouTube link: https://youtu.be/sOF_QcjvBwQ

The plot is we follow Fallon and Ben with dual POVs after they meet on the anniversary of a house fire that left Fallon with considerable scarring when Ben pretends to be her boyfriend to stick up for her after her dad is being an a**hole (for lack of a better word). She’s going to move to NYC to get back into acting that night and he’s an aspiring author so come up with the idea to meet every year for five years on the same day with no contact whatsoever. As the blurb hints at, there’s something Ben’s keeping from Fallon in the book he’s writing but that’s all I’ll say.

I have quite a few thoughts so will try out a bullet point review for a change. I’ll start with what I liked:
- The writing and pacing is very bingeable, it’s quite hard to put down at times as it’s just a very easy read - BUT I do feel like there isn’t much thinking or analysis present, personally it felt like reading for the sake of reading with me not really getting all that much out of it.
- The concept was intriguing, meeting up once a year with that being the only contact - great idea but not executed the best.
- The last 30% was the most interesting I found, the piecing together of things, plot twists and the like.
- I guess some of the romance and relationship was cute.

What I disliked:
- The MCs were rather unbelievable and although I did feel for them at points, Fallon was rather overdramatic and Ben had a somewhat controlling ‘saviour’ complex I didn’t really like. They’re also a bit annoying so yhh, I couldn’t really bring myself to be that connected to them or the story.
- Ben in some ways fetishises Fallon’s scars which was just ehh - he makes her feel confident and beautiful in her body which was good but there’s an unnerving quality to it as well.
- Following on, I found quite a lot of Ben’s actions to be controlling too - he’s acting with good intentions kind of and it’s nothing too extreme but I was quite uncomfortable.
- Furthermore, the way Ben internally thinks is rather ‘urgh’-ey like staring at her boobs, wishing she was wearing less and obsessing over her panties - just I couldn’t eww straight men lol (I’m not heterophobic btw just don’t push it in my face).
- Quite a lot of what’s said and thought about is very cringy, I actually LOL’d multiple times not because of humour/wit but embarrassment with many an eye roll moment. Nothing bad but I don’t think it’s what Hoover was going for, it’s a romance/drama not comedy.
- Quick fire round: makes a remark about Fallon being ‘obsessive compulsive’ about hygiene where the link to a real condition could’ve been omitted, argues Ben isn’t gay because of how he’s dressed/looks peddling to this stereotype - it’s nothing major and I (as a gay man) wasn’t personally offended but still I guess such a remark wasn’t necessary especially given the books only 8 years old, and lastly a character using their term ‘spaz’ with no criticism.
- There’s a ‘subplot’ (?? Maybe I dunno) which takes place which I was rather side-eyed-irked by that really was unnecessary - wish we got more of the latter quarter instead.
- A lot of unbelievable/realistic plot points - I get it’s fiction so it’s not a major criticism but it’s my review sooo - were just not to my liking. Especially in how they come up with these crappy excuses not to be together like ehh whatever.
- They both don’t like insta-love in books but that’s literally what they have so yhh…
- I thought there was going to be more of story-within-the-story element and unraveling of the real truth but was unimpressed.
- SPOILER dislike: So Fallon is clearly drunk and he shows up touching her and things in a sexual way, she’s enjoying it sort of but like it’s just no… not for me
- SPOILER dislike: At the end Fallon blames herself for them not speaking the last year and is all like ‘you’ve nothing to be forgiven, it’s me that’s sorry’ when like NO she wasn’t at all, she finds out the guy she’s trusted and been falling in love with for 4 years was responsible for the fire that could’ve cost her her life and it’s totally normal to leave so agh I just hated how she blamed herself.

I probably have more to discuss but this is all for now. The books okay and I guess I enjoyed reading it because it was so easy to read but there were definitely more cons then pros. I will give CoHo another try.

Content Warnings

karsgm's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

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

0.5

Horrible book, so problematic and full of red flags from both characters. This book should have a lower rating because of its content.

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rinyy's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

1.0

I wish I was illiterate

Content Warnings

jokehelldo's review

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-1000000/5 stars. Please, delete this book.

Are you trying to tell me that the book about
*Cough*
Abuse, sexual assault, gaslighting, stalking, scar (that are you falt) fetishizing, dead-brother-wife-who-you-see-as-your-sister fucking, marking people who attend suicide as „attention seekers” and much, much more shit is a „romance book”?
You must be joking

Content Warnings