Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas

216 reviews

shadzrose's review

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fast-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Absolutely hated everything about it. Couldn't stop reading because "it can't get any worse, right?" and then it did.

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jessanicolesingh's review

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

4.5

This author is quickly climbing up my favorite’s list!

This particular storyline follows a friends to enemies to lovers trope, with a little side quest of mystery. It’s filled with teen angst and a fair amount of steam, and I’m not quite sure how to categorize it; it’s much moodier than a regular romance but fluffier than a dark romance. I saw both of the main reveals coming, but was still satisfied with how all of the loose ends tied up.

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hannah_lilli's review

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lighthearted sad medium-paced
  • 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

3.75


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everythinginbetween's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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mouwuol's review

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

1.5


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jasfieldx's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Punk 57… what can I say, this book has been on my TBR for at least 2 years and after mixed reviews and putting it off I finally bit the bullet and jumped in.

This book takes you on all sorts of twists and turns that really aren’t expected! There is a lot of suspense and tension built up within this book and a lot of wtaf moments that, tbh I’m not entirely sure were very relevant to the story line and the book may have flowed slightly better without so many paths that the characters went down 

The spice in this book was good, it wasn’t too cringe and didn’t happen on every single page so when if did happen, it was creating a moment between Ryen and Misha that made their relationship feel special and created depth between them. 

3 stars because it’s a good, fast paced book with a good storyline, likeable FMC but the book has some flaws like the MMC romanticises fairly toxic behaviours from the start that don’t really improve until the end of the book, the bullying across the board just isn’t really needed and the ending is just a bit flat but, I’d still recommend this book because I did enjoy reading it and will be reading more from Penelope Douglas soon

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charliebites's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

4.0


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lancy's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The book was good loved the character development but most sense made me tense up a bit or were to uncomfortable scene that made me realize how much I hated men but overall it was a Good book donnot recommend for kids under the age of 13 -15  ...yeath the scenes are too graphic 

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essie__reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-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

2.5

⚠️⚠️⚠️THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS⚠️⚠️⚠️

Minor critique - I hate the way she spelled both "Masen" and  "Ryen." 

Review:
When I started reading this, I couldn't put it down. Buttttt the more I thought about it, the less I liked it. For starters, I really wish these characters were college-aged and not in high school, but more on that later. 🥴 I could suspend reality for some of the plot lines, like the kid sleeping at an abandoned theme park and the constant vandalism at the school. But some of the plot just doesn't make sense. Like him getting a fake identity to come to a school 30 minutes down the road from where he lives...? 🙄 (Would his biological mom really not google his name and recognize him at all?!) The way she started vandalizing the school because her pen pal stopped writing her? Lmao...what? The fact that she was at an event to promote a local band at the beginning of the book and didn't know who the band was or who the band members were is also unrealistic. 🤦‍♀️
Misha's dad allowing his son to sleep outside his on a nightly basis and not freaking out and worrying about him also seemed very unrealistic. If Misha really came from such an affluent family, I highly doubt his go-to reaction at the loss of his sister would be to start acting like a homeless person. That was an unnecessary aspect of the book. It seemed like it was added so the cove hide-and-seek scene could play out. 
My biggest qualm is the sex scenes. They're well written but extremely unrealistic for how inexperienced teenagers would talk and engage in sex. These sex scenes are written as if these are very experienced, older characters, and not horny teens. I also really wish they were older because it's cringey to go from sex scenes to petty high school events/drama and this is borderline a YA novel in my opinion, and I prefer not to read open door sex scenes about teenagers- ew! Also, Ryen, having the hots for "Masen" after knowing he broke into her house, seems unrealistic, too. That's borderline stalker behavior. The way the men talk to and about women is also unrealistic for teenagers and extremely misogynistic. The girls calling each other sluts and the way Ryen doesn't stand up for her friend Layla when she's being slut-shamed at school is not okay either. I know Ryen wasn't a genuine friend to Layla but still, that didn't make me, as a reader, like Ryen any more. I think Ten is the only likable and somewhat realistic character in this whole cast. She didn't hear from her pen pal for 3 months and despite being pen pals for several years and knowing his full name and address, she never once googled him?! Unbelievable 🫠
A student having a key to the high school and that not being investigated after weeks of consistent vandalism taking place? Also there were secutity gaurds at the school the night that Misha and Ryen fucked in the library. Where were those gaurds the night of the prom??? 
Okay not gonna lie I did NOT expect the principal to be Misha's mom, though. Penelope got me on that one lol. But Misha yelling at the principal for abandoning him and Annie and blaming her for Annie's death? That's ridiculous! Also the way this author writes about addiction is not the greatest. It seems like she uses it as a plot device, and the bit about Manny was so minor and felt unnecessary to the storyline. Douglas also doesn't include any content warnings or helpline info for readers who may be experiencing addiction issues, that seems like a basic courtesy that should be included at the beginning of the book when writing about the topic of addiction. 
In a 10 month period he went on a short tour and recorded and released an album? His first album, that quickly? 🙄

Overall, I feel like Douglas couldn't decide how she wanted to write these characters, and due to that, they don't feel well fleshed out to me. I think this book could have been edited more, too. Hopefully, her writing has evolved as she has continued her career because she has a ton of potential. It just felt like too many ideas were thrown in. It wasn't edited well, and the character's identities/personalities were a bit all over the place. I'd definitely read more books by her, but I am not sure I would recommend this one. 

Not her pregnant in the epilogue, too - bleh!


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elderlyemo's review

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

3.5

This one had been on my TBR for a while and when I picked it up at the weekend I didn't expect to read it straight through in one sitting - but I did. 

This was one of the titles by the author that I knew relatively nothing about, but after reading and loving Birthday Girl around this time last year, I thought I'd give it a go and I wasn't disappointed. 

I loved that this was the first Penelope Douglas book that I had read that was two age appropriate people with great chemistry and a history, caught in a web of miscommunication and the flip of the weird kid with the lip ring taunting the cheerleader instead of the other way around was refreshing and made the seventeen year old version of me very excited. 

But I think, that was the problem. As a thirty something person now I just found the characters grating at times. The lyrics were awful, as were the stereotypes however inverted and the twist at the end was lukewarm at best. Misha dragged the charade on too long and sometimes I felt like Ryen wasn't quite as lovable as the book maybe wanted me to think she was. There were also a lot of side characters in this story that I didn't really care for, but there were some interesting themes and subplots as a result. 

The spice in this book was *10/10* and the characters genuinely had such great chemistry there were some moments where I completely forgot I was reading a book and yeah, if I am being honest - I really wanted them to end up together.

Overall, a pretty decent read. Same rating as Birthday Girl, and I'd probably reread it in the future. 



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